Bewick House

Updated 6 May 2020

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. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

One inspector, carried out the inspection.

Service and service type

Bewick House is a residential care home. People in ‘care homes’ receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a registered manager. This means when registered 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

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. The provider completed a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

During the inspection

We spent time with people living at the service. We spoke with three people who used the service, deputy manager the registered manager an advocate and two visiting social workers.

We reviewed a range of records. These included two people’s care records and three medicines records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to corroborate evidence found. We looked at training, audits, reports from external professionals and policies.

Updated 6 May 2020

About the service

Bewick House is a residential care home providing personal care to six people with learning disabilities and at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to six people.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

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

We received extremely positive feedback from people, they told us they were very happy living at Bewick House. People were really happy with the person-centred support they received to enable them to enable them to have fulfilled lives, have improved well-being and increased independence. Visiting professionals spoke very highly of the staff team and the home.

The service had been fully developed and without doubt designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. People using the service received exceedingly well planned and co-ordinated person-centred support, appropriate and inclusive for them.

Peoples health, well-being were drastically improved as a direct impact from the level of personalised support they received from the staff team who continually supported people to develop, try new things, learn new skills to help achieve personal goals. People were empowered to have their say and to exercise their rights. Access to an advocacy service was available and taken up when needed. People were supported and empowered to take on additional self-advocacy projects.

Support was provided in a way which put the people and their preferences first. Excellent continual joined up working with healthcare professionals was in place and working together exceeded expectations and peoples personalised goals in wellbeing, education, independence and employment experience.

People were supported emotionally and confidentially to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and leadership in the service ensured this practice was the norm. People were supported to build and maintain important personal relationships that mattered to them; with peers, friends and relatives. People were empowered to support others to speak out and improve services.

Management and staff went the extra mile. Staff received superb additional support to retrain to the appropriate level of personalised training to meet people’s exceptional needs.

The home was adapted to meet people’s needs and raise their aspirations by providing a homely and also an educational environment. The home was very clean, modern and homely and maintained to a very high standard with personalised features throughout.

Audits and monitoring systems were used effectively to manage the service and to make improvements when required.

The registered manager and staff supported people to make valuable connections to help tackle social isolation and to support each other. People were able to access a superb range of activities in the home and outside which promoted, education, improved wellbeing and community independence.

There were excellent systems in place for communicating with people, their relatives and staff to ensure they were fully involved and included one to one key worker meetings, handovers, team meetings, phone calls and emails.

Medicines were managed well, safely administered and recorded accurately. Individualised risk assessments were in place. Staff were confident they would raise concerns to safeguard people. Robust recruitment and selection procedures ensured suitable staff were employed.

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 (11 July 2017 ).

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.