Archived: Cottam Road

Updated 13 September 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This was a comprehensive inspection. This inspection took place on 15 August 2018 and was announced. The membership of the inspection team was three adult social care inspectors. At the time of our inspection there were 26 people using the service. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because we wanted to asked people’s permission to visit them in their supported living accommodation.

Before our inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service. This included correspondence we had received and notifications submitted by the service. A notification must be sent to the Care Quality Commission every time a significant incident has taken place, for example, where a person who uses the service experiences a serious injury.

We gathered information from the Sheffield and Rotherham local authority and Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. This information was reviewed and used to assist with our inspection. Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We used a number of different methods to help us understand the experiences of people who lived at the service. We visited two of the supported living sites and looked at the communal areas, bathrooms, toilets and with their permission where able, some people’s rooms. We spent time observing the daily life in the service including the care and support being delivered in each of the houses. We spoke with seven people, two relatives, the registered manager, a regional manager, three service managers, six support workers and the administrator. We reviewed a range of records including the following: people’s support plans, people’s medication administration records, people’s financial transaction records, staff files and records relating to the management of the service. For example, monthly quality assurance checks records and staff meeting records.

Updated 13 September 2018

At our last inspection in June 2017 we found two breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These were breaches of Regulation 18, Staffing and Regulation 12, Safe care and treatment. The registered provider sent us a report saying what action they were going to take to meet the requirements of the regulations. We carried out this inspection to check whether the service had completed these actions. We found the service had made sufficient improvement.

The Cottam Road service provides care and support to people living in three supported living settings, Cottam Road, Cherry Trees and Brindley Crescent, so people can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support. The registered provider head office is based at the Cottam Road site. At the time of our inspection the service was supporting 26 people.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen. Registering the Right Support CQC policy.

The service had a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons.’ Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

At our last inspection we found there was not enough staff deployed to meet the needs of people using the service at the Cottam Road supporting living site. People had not always being able to pursue their chosen activities because there was not staff member available to support them. At this inspection we found that sufficient improvement had been made. At this inspection, people we spoke with did not raise any concerns about the staffing levels at the service and not being able to pursue activities.

People we spoke with all said they felt 'safe'. Staff had undertaken safeguarding training and were knowledgeable about their roles and responsibilities in keeping people safe from harm.

Detailed risk management plans were in place to guide staff on the action to take to mitigate the identified risks.

At our last inspection we found concerns about the management of medicines. At this inspection we saw that on-going action was being taken to monitor and reduce errors. Additional checks had been implemented to improve the management of medicines. Staff had received training and their competency to administer medicines had been checked.

Some people using the service had been actively involved in recruiting new staff for the service. The registered provider carried out checks to ensure people employed were of good character.

There were systems in place to monitor incidents and accidents. There were arrangements in place for the service to make sure that action was taken and lessons learned when things went wrong, to improve safety across the service.

People and relatives we spoke with were happy with the care and support provided. People made positive comments about the staff.

People were involved in developing their support plans, which were person-centred and kept under review.

At our last inspection we found that staff had not been given appropriate support through a programme of on-going supervision and appraisal. At this inspection we saw a robust system had been put in place to ensure staff received appropriate support.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

We found people were supported to enjoy a balanced diet in line with their preferences. People’s nutritional needs were monitored and actions taken where required.

We saw the service promoted people’s wellbeing by taking account of their needs including activities within the service and in the community.

There were policies in place that ensured people would be listened to and treated fairly if they complained about the service.

The registered provider has a quality assurance system, and records showed that identified problems and opportunities to change things for the better were addressed promptly. As a result the quality of the service was continuously improving.

The registered provider actively sought out the views of people to continuously improve the service.