Westhope Lodge

Updated 22 April 2024

Date of assessment 30 April to 5 June 2024 Westhope lodge provides residential care and support to up to 9 people within a residential setting in Horsham. The service provides support to people living with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and or Autistic people. There were 8 people living there at the time of our assessment. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and 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 supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. The assessment was prompted in part following another assessment at one of the providers other local services, where we found significant shortfalls in the quality of care. Westhope lodge was one of several services registered as Westhope Ltd under the national brand of Accomplish, part of the Keys group. We looked at 24 quality statements within the key questions of Safe, Effective, Caring, Responsive and Well led. We found 2 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, and governance. Risks to people were not adequately identified or managed. Staff did not always support people with medicines safely. People were not always supported in line with Right support, Right care, Right culture guidelines in providing care and support which is person-centred, planned, proactive and coordinated. Governance measures were not always effective in identifying service shortfalls and failed to assess, monitor and mitigate risks relating to people’s health, safety and welfare.

Updated 22 April 2024

People told us that they could talk to staff and felt safe living in the service. While the people we spoke to expressed that they were generally happy with their care, our assessment found elements of care which did not meet the expected standards. Not everyone living at Westhope lodge used speech to communicate so we used a symbol-based communication tool we have been trained to use. We checked that this was a suitable communication method and that people were happy to use it with us. We did this by reading their support and communication plans and speaking to staff or relatives and the person themselves. In this report, we used this communication tool with 1 person to tell us their experience.”  People told us they would like to do more for themselves, such as cooking and going out more. We spent time observing the support and communication between people and staff in shared areas of the house. We observed staff not always supporting people in a person-centred manner. People were not always supported or encouraged to be engaged in activities. The provider had not always ensured staff had received effective training to support people’s individual needs and had not always monitored staff skills or competence. For example, staff using language that did not support people’s dignity.