Spencer House

Updated 5 June 2019

The inspection:

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

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted on one inspector due to the small size of the service.

Service and service type: This is a supported living service where people living with a learning disability can be supported with personal care and support to live independently in their own accommodation. Staff referred to people as tenants. With a registered manager and other support staff on site, people were supported to remain as independent as possible.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection:

We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and the manager is often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed the PIR, [Provider information return] a document containing information about the service which providers are required to send to the commission. We also reviewed any information we held about the service, such as notifications.

Not everyone was able to speak to us on the day of inspection as some people could not communicate with us verbally. During the inspection we spoke with two people using the service, the registered manager, deputy manager, housing officer and two care staff. We also spoke with an external health and social care professional.

We reviewed one staff file as there had only been one new member of staff since the previous inspection. We looked at a sample of policies used by the service, and a quality audit completed by the service to measure the quality of care given. We reviewed three care plans.

Updated 5 June 2019

About the service: The inspection took place on the 13 May 2019 and was announced. Spencer House provides a supported living service. There are 15 independent flats for people with a learning disability. There were 14 people receiving the service on the day of our inspection, however only four people received the regulated activity of personal care.

People’s experience of using this service:

People received a service from staff who knew them well and were supported to take positive risks to maintain their independence.

Staff were trained to identify vulnerable adult safeguarding concerns and felt managers listened and acted on these.

The provider carried out appropriate checks on potential new employees to ensure they were the right staff to work with people. People took part in this recruitment process.

People were supported to lead healthy lives and attend regular health appointments. Staff had a good understanding of mental capacity and how this applied to supporting people in their everyday lives.

People needing assistance to shop for and prepare food were supported to do so.

Staff were caring in their approach to people’s needs. External health and social care professionals had also commented on the service providing good care and support.

Care plans did identify people’s individual risks and needs but these were reviewed infrequently and we found that they were not always up to date, or gave sufficient information about how staff should support people. However, staff did know people’s well and could describe people’s needs clearly.

We have made a recommendation about care reviews to ensure that peoples care remained person centred.

The service did not support anyone with end of life care needs, but staff had not always approached the subject of peoples end of life needs.

We have recommended that the service review end of life training for staff.

The provider had a system in place to audit the service, but this was an overview and did not contain information of how they had determined outcomes. They had not identified the concerns we found with care plans.

We have made a recommendation around governance processes.

People and staff felt well supported by managers and people were safe. People living at the service were supported to lead a good quality of life.

Why we inspected: This was a scheduled inspection and the first inspection for the service under a new provider.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor Spencer House and return to inspection within the rating guidelines.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk