Archived: Barleycombe

Updated 1 July 2015

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 inspection took place on 31 March 2015 and was unannounced. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

We reviewed previous inspection reports and the Provider Information Record (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 looked at notifications received by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). A notification is information about important events which the service is required to send us by law. We also looked at information we held about the service and safeguarding concerns reported to CQC. This is where one or more person’s health, wellbeing or human rights may not have been properly protected and they may have suffered harm, abuse or neglect.

We spoke with three people who were able to express their views, but not everyone was able to communicate with us verbally. Therefore we spent time observing the care provided by staff to help us understand the experiences of people unable to tell us directly.

We looked at records in relation to three people’s care. We spoke with three staff including senior staff, support workers and the registered manager. We looked at records relating to staff recruitment, training records and systems for monitoring the quality of the service.

Updated 1 July 2015

We inspected this service on 31 March 2015. The inspection was unannounced. Barleycombe is a care home which provides accommodation and support for up to 13 adults with a learning disability.

At our previous inspection on 08 August 2013 the provider was meeting all of the regulations that we assessed.

There was a registered manager in post. ‘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.

Systems were in place to manage risks to people using the service, including safeguarding matters, behaviours that were challenging to others and medication, which protected them from harm. Risk assessments were detailed and gave staff clear direction as to what action to take to minimise risk in a consistent and positive way and which protected people’s dignity and rights. This showed that the provider had a positive attitude towards managing risk and keeping people safe.

The registered manager had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). These safeguards protect the rights of adults who use the service by ensuring that if there are restrictions on their freedom and liberty these are assessed by professionals who consider whether the restriction is appropriate and needed. The registered manager had made appropriate DoLS applications to the local authority to ensure that restrictions on people’s ability to leave the service were lawful.

There was consistently enough staff on duty to keep people safe. A thorough recruitment and selection process was in place, which ensured staff recruited had the right skills and experience, and were suitable to work with people who used the service.

People experienced a good quality of life because staff received training that gave them the skills and knowledge to meet their assessed needs. Staff talked passionately about the people they supported and knew their care needs well.

People were involved in determining the kind of support they needed. Staff offered people choices, for example, how they spent their day and what they wanted to eat, and these choices were respected. People were observed carrying on with their usual routines, going to work, shopping and accessing places of interest in the community.

People were provided with sufficient to eat and drink to stay healthy and maintain a balanced diet. Each person had a health action plan which detailed how they were being supported to manage and maintain their health. People had access to health care professionals, when they needed them. Different methods, including easy read health action plans had been used to support people with communication difficulties, so that they were able to understand information about their care.

There was a strong emphasis on promoting good practice in the service. The registered manager worked alongside staff so that they were able to assess and monitor the culture of the service. The registered manager was very knowledgeable and inspired confidence in the staff team, and led by example.

The provider had a range of systems in place to assess the quality of the service. These included questionnaires completed by people who used the service, their families, and other health care professionals. Quality monitoring visits were being carried out by an area manager employed by the provide including those for incidents, accidents, safeguarding concerns and complaints. These visits identified information was used to drive improvement of the service.