About the service Willow Court is a 'care home'. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The service can support up to 11 people who have a learning disability or autism in one adapted building. On the day of the inspection 10 people were living at the service
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.
The service was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. Staff did not always treat people with dignity and respect or speak to them in a way that promoted this.
People were not always communicated with in their preferred way.
Risks to people were not always fully assessed. Guidance and direction to staff on how to minimise risk was not always clear and detailed.
Infection control guidance had not always implemented or followed correctly.
Oversight of the service was not always effective and had not identified the issues we found at this inspection.
People received their medicines safely and as prescribed.
Staff had ad good understanding of safeguarding and knew how to recognise and report abuse. Staff told us they received training and supervision
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection (and update)
The last rating for this service was good (published 30 October 2018).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about safeguarding. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led.
We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key question. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to coronavirus and other infection outbreaks effectively.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Willow Court on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.
We have identified breaches in relation to dignity and respect and good governance at this inspection.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.