Archived: Langdon Park

About the service

Langdon Park is a care home for up to 7 adults with learning disabilities and autistic people. At the time of the inspection 6 people were living at the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The service was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support: Staff did not focus on people's strengths and did not support people to have fulfilling and meaningful lives. People were not supported to pursue their interests, aspirations, or goals. People lived in an environment which was not clean or safe and did not always meet their needs. The environment was not interactive or stimulating. Medicines were not always managed in a safe way. People were not always able to make choices, and when they expressed choices, these were not always respected. People were able to access the healthcare services they needed and were supported to maintain good health. People were not physically restrained by staff.

Right Care: People did not always receive kind and compassionate care. The staff did not always respond to people's individual needs. People were not always supported to communicate with staff and not provided with enough information or staff who knew how to communicate with them. People did not always receive personalised care which met their needs. There were enough staff and they received training in a range of areas to help equip them with the skills and knowledge they may need. However, they did not always implement best practice from their learning.

Right culture: People were not empowered to make decisions and achieve their aspirations. They did not receive good quality care and support because staff did not understand, or did not want to, deliver a personalised service which reflected best practice for people with learning disabilities and autistic people. The staff turn over was low and staff told us they had good relationships with people. However, the support they provided focussed on basic tasks and not on promoting individuality and independence. There was a risk of a closed culture because staff did not always act in an open and transparent way and did not always accept the view of others, including people who used the service, which challenged the way they wanted to work.

For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good (published 1 September 2018).

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

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 COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to person-centred care, dignity and respect, safe care and treatment, meeting nutritional and hydration needs, premises and equipment 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 request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Special Measures

The overall rating for this service is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it. And it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.

18 Langdon Park is a home for up to seven people who have learning disabilities, some of whom have additional physical disabilities. At the time of our inspection there were seven people living in the home.

There was a registered manager in place in the home. 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.

People who lived at the home were protected from the risk of abuse happening to them. Some people did not communicate conversationally or in other conventional ways. However, those who could told us they felt safe and well looked after, and others were able to demonstrate through their body language and interaction with staff that they felt at ease, safe and well cared for.

We saw that people’s health and nutrition were regularly monitored. There were well established links with GP services and other community health services such as community learning disability teams.

Care records were individual to each person and contained information about people’s life history, their likes and dislikes, and information which would be helpful to hospitals or other health support services.

Staffing levels were managed flexibly to suit people's needs so that people received their care when they needed it. Staff had access to information, support and training that they needed to do their jobs well. The provider’s training programme was designed to meet the needs of people using the service so that staff had the knowledge and skills they required to care for people effectively.

There was an open and inclusive atmosphere in the service. Staff told us they enjoyed working in the home and found the changes to the service positive.

The provider carried out regular audits to monitor the quality of the service and to plan improvements. Action plans were used so the provider could monitor whether necessary changes were made.