Background to this inspection
Updated
6 April 2024
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. CQC do not provide a rating for the TDDI that is provided from this location.
Inspection team
The inspection team consisted of 1 CQC children’s services inspector and 1 CQC medicines inspector.
Service and service type
Children’s Home
Higher Tunshill Farm is a children’s home where the children receive accommodation and care which is regulated by Ofsted. CQC regulate the treatment of disease, disorder or injury (TDDI) provided at Higher Tunshill Farm.
Registered Manager
This provider is required to have a registered manager to oversee the delivery of regulated activities at this location. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Registered managers and providers are legally responsible for how the service is run, for the quality and safety of the care provided and compliance with regulations.
At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. There was an acting registered manager who had submitted an application to CQC.
Notice of inspection
The inspection was unannounced.
What we did before the inspection
The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.
During the inspection
During the inspection we spoke with children who lived at Woodhall House and their relatives. We also spoke to staff members, including managers as well as members of the senior leadership team, prescribing doctor, mental health nurse, commissioners and members of the external multi-disciplinary team. We observed a carer who was administering medicines. We reviewed a range of information both during and following the inspection. This included important information such as children’s care records, risk assessments, policies and procedures and minutes of meetings.
The provider has a nominated individual. The nominated individual is responsible for supervising the management of the service on behalf of the provider.
Updated
6 April 2024
About the service
Higher Tunshill Farm is a children’s home providing treatment of disease disorder or injury to up to three children. The service provides support to children and young people aged between 10 and 18 years with their emotional and mental health. At the time of our inspection there were 2 children using the service.
Ofsted are the lead regulator for Higher Tunshill Farm as it is a children’s home. The service is also registered with the Care Quality Commission for the regulated activity of treatment of disease, disorder or injury (TDDI).
People’s experience of the 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 assessment and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Children 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.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
CQC do not rate services that are defined as being a children’s home and which are also registered with Ofsted.
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns CQC received about medicines. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
We completed a targeted inspection to examine those risks and looked at parts of the key questions; Safe and Well Led.
We found medicines were stored safely within the home. Medicines were administered in a way that respected young people’s preferences. However, improvements are required regarding the oversight of medicines optimisation and medicines incident reporting,
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this report.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Higher Tunshill Farm on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement [and Recommendations]
We have identified breaches in relation to:
HSCA 2008 (RA) Regulations 2014. Regulation 17 (2)(a) Good governance.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
We have made recommendations that the provider should;
• improve the oversight of medicines processes
Follow Up
We will meet with the provider following this report being published to discuss how they will make changes to the services provided. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.