Yealand Drive (Adult Care Home)

Yealand Drive (Adult Care Home) is a care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 5 adults who have a learning disability. The home is in a residential area of Ulverston in south Cumbria. People have their own bedrooms which are on the ground and first floors of the home. There are suitable shared facilities including toilets and bathrooms, a large sitting room, dining room and kitchen. At the time of our inspection there were 5 people living in the home.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Right Support:

People had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life because staff focused on their strengths and promoted what they could do. People were supported to gain skills and independence. Where appropriate, people were supported to move to live with greater independence in the community.

People were supported by staff to pursue their interests in the home and in the community. People told us they enjoyed a variety of activities in the local community. One person told us they had enjoyed a visit to the cinema to watch a film of their choice. People also told us about concerts they had enjoyed. Activities were tailored around people’s choices and preferences.

Staff supported people to identify and achieve their aspirations and goals. People were active members of their community and staff valued people’s achievements.

People had a choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms. People told us they had been included in choosing the décor for communal areas of the home. People lived in a safe, clean, and well-furnished environment that met their sensory and physical needs.

Staff supported people to access routine and specialist health care services to ensure their health and wellbeing. People were supported with their medicines in a way that promoted their independence and achieved the best possible health outcomes.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making.

Right Care:

People received kind and compassionate care from staff who knew them well. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to people’s individual needs.

People were safe and protected from abuse. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and to keep them safe. People liked the staff who supported them. People enjoyed laughing and joking with the staff on duty.

People could communicate with staff and understand information given to them because staff supported them consistently and understood their individual communication needs. People who had individual ways of communicating, using body language, sounds and gestures could interact comfortably with staff because staff had the necessary skills to understand them.

People’s care and support plans reflected their range of needs and abilities. They gave clear guidance for staff on how to support individuals. This promoted people’s wellbeing and enjoyment of life.

Right culture:

People led inclusive and empowered lives because of the ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of the management and staff. Staff ensured risks of a closed culture were minimised so that people received support based on transparency, respect and inclusivity.

People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to the wide range of strengths, impairments or sensitivities people with a learning disability and/or autistic people may have. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs.

Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did. They knew people well and were responsive, supporting them to live a quality life of their choosing.

People and those important to them were involved in planning their care. Staff knew how to give people choices about their lives and support and respected the decisions they made.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 13 January 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

The rating for the service had not been reviewed since our last rated inspection in November 2017. We undertook a focused inspection to seek assurance people continued to receive safe, high-quality care. We undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only. For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

The overall rating for the service has remained good based on the findings of this inspection.

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.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

We found the following examples of good practice.

Staff had given people information, in a way they could understand, about government restrictions and keeping safe from infection during the pandemic.

Staff had been creative in developing different activities for people when they were unable to follow their usual activities during the periods of restrictions. This had included joining a virtual choir and holding COVID-secure celebrations of life events.

Staff were trained in infection prevention and control and using Personal Protective Equipment, (PPE), safely. We observed staff used PPE effectively.

The provider had ensured sufficient quantities of PPE were available throughout the pandemic. The staff team monitored PPE stocks and reordered additional items in a timely way to ensure sufficient PPE was available in the home.

The registered manager had ensured the impact of the pandemic did not affect the quality of the service provided. People continued to receive high-quality, person-centred care which focused on positive outcomes for people.

The registered manager had followed government guidance about visiting. They supported people to keep in touch with their friends and families, including by visits, telephone calls and letters.

The registered manager and staff team worked in people’s best interests. They ensured the safety of the service while taking account of people’s individual needs.

The registered manager had followed best practice in supporting people who have a learning disability and ensuring safe admission procedures when people moved into the home.

The registered manager followed guidance around COVID-19 testing for staff and people who lived in the home. They had robust systems in place to ensure no one was deployed to work in the home unless they were fully vaccinated from COVID-19 or exempt.

The staff team kept the home clean and hygienic. Frequently touched surfaces were cleaned regularly throughout the day to reduce the risk of infection.

There was an experienced staff team working in the home. The staff had been responsive to challenges caused by the pandemic to maintain a safe service for people.

Yealand Drive (Adult Care Home) provides personal care and accommodation for up to five adults who have a learning disability. The home is in a residential area of Ulverston in south Cumbria. People have their own bedrooms which are on the ground and first floor of the home. There are suitable shared facilities including toilets and bathrooms, a large sitting room, dining room and kitchen.

There was a registered manager employed 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 were safe living in the home. Hazards to people’s safety had been identify and managed. People were given information about how to maintain their safety.

Robust systems were used when new staff were employed to ensure they were suitable to work in the home. The staff received training to ensure they had the skills to provide people’s support in a safe way. The staff knew how to identify and report abuse.

Medicines were handled safely and people were supported to access appropriate health care services. People received the support they required to maintain good health.

The focus of the service was on promoting people’s rights. 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.

People were provided with meals and drinks that they enjoyed. The staff were knowledgeable about the support people required to enjoy their meals and drinks safely and this was provided.

People liked the staff employed in the home. The staff treated people in a kind and respectful well. The staff promptly identified if people were unwell or anxious and provided assistance as individuals required.

Care was assessed, planned and delivered to meet people’s needs. People who lived in the home, and others who knew them well, were included in planning their support.

People knew the registered manager and were confident approaching her. The registered manager worked with the staff in the home and had good oversight of the service. The registered manager and staff carried out checks on the premises and quality of the service to ensure people received a high quality, safe service that met their needs.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

Most of the people who lived at Yealand Drive (Adult Care Home), (Yealand Drive), were not able to easily express their views about the service or the care they received. We observed people in the communal areas of the home to assess how they were supported by staff. We saw that people were very comfortable and confident around the staff working in the home. We saw that the staff on duty treated people with respect. Throughout our inspection we observed the staff giving people choices about their lives. We saw that the staff were knowledgeable about how individuals communicated their wishes. They gave people choices in a way they could understand and respected the decisions people made.

People who were able to speak with us told us that they were happy living in this home. They said they liked the staff and felt safe at Yealand Drive. They told us that they enjoyed the meals provided and followed a range of activities in the home and the local community.

We saw that good procedures were used to handle and administer people's medication. This made sure people received the medicines they needed in a safe way.

We looked at some of the records the service held. We saw that the staff were provided with appropriate support, supervision and training to give them the skills and knowledge to provide a good quality of service.

All of the staff we spoke with told us that they were provided with 'good training'. They said they felt well supported by the registered provider and the registered manager of the home. One person told us, 'I love working here, I think it's a really lovely home'.

People who lived in the home were not able to easily express their views about the service or the care they received. We observed people in the communal areas of the home to assess how they were supported by staff. We saw that the people who lived in this home were comfortable and confident around the staff who were supporting them.

We saw that the staff on duty treated people with respect and took appropriate actions to protect their privacy and dignity. People were encouraged to carry out tasks for themselves which promoted their independence.

We looked at some of the records held by the service and saw that these gave staff the information they required to provide people with safe and appropriate care which met their needs.