Archived: Dimensions 82-84 Booth Road

Updated 21 October 2016

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 7 and 20 September 2016 and was unannounced. The inspection was conducted by one inspector and an expert by experience. This is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Before the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service including notifications received. A notification is information about important events relating to the care provided which the service is required to send to us by law. We also checked the 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 planned to make.

During the inspection, we were unable to acquire much feedback about the quality of the service directly from people using the service due to most people having complex communication needs that we could not understand and gain views from. We used other methods to help us understand the experiences of people using the service. We spent time observing care in the communal areas such as the lounge and kitchen areas, and we looked around the premises.

We spoke with three relatives by phone, six care staff, an assistant manager, the visiting quality and compliance auditor, and the registered manager. We looked at three people’s care and medicines records, three staff files and training records, and various records kept for the management of the service including staff duty rotas, accident and incident records, and quality assurance records.

Between the inspection visits we received feedback from an involved healthcare professional. The registered manager also supplied us with copies of further documents such as policies on request.

Updated 21 October 2016

This inspection took place on 7 and 20 September 2016 and was unannounced. The service met all of the regulations we inspected against at our last inspection in September 2013.

Dimensions 82-84 Booth Road is a care home for up to eight adults. There was one vacancy when we inspected. The service specialises in providing support to people who have a learning disability or who are on the autistic spectrum. Autism is a lifelong condition that affects how a person communicates with and relates to other people, and how they experience the world around them.

There was a registered manager in post at the service. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the 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.

People and their representatives provided good overall feedback about the service. We found that the service was working hard to improve people’s quality of life. For example, people received good support to go out lots. There were ongoing efforts to find activities that people liked. Some people had been on holiday, in line with agreed personal goals and the provider’s current business plan.

Staff worked well together and came across as motivated to provide people with good support. People were treated in a respectful and friendly manner. They were encouraged to maintain and develop skills and independence, and were supported with relationships that were important to them.

People were provided with support to maintain good health and nutrition. The advice of appropriate healthcare professionals was sought and followed where needed. People’s individual needs and preferences were kept under review. Action was taken to address individual risks to people using the service, and safeguarding procedures were properly used to help keep people safe.

There was a positive and empowering culture at the service. The registered manager and the provider demonstrated good management and leadership. The quality of the service was audited and action was taken where improvements were needed, including in response to our feedback. This all helped to assure that high quality care was being provided.

However, the service was not consistently safe. Whilst enough staff were working at all times, there were avoidable safety risks to people using the service arising from some staff working long hours across consecutive days. Systems had not ensured that appropriate written references were always obtained for new staff. Whilst people received their medicines as prescribed, a number of people’s as-needed medicines lacked specific guidance around offering it to them.

We made one recommendation in this report based on an area for development identified at this inspection. This was around developing staff skills in respect of recognising and responding to people’s individual communications.