St Pauls

Updated 16 February 2022

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of COVID-19, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) practice is safe and that services are compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 3 February 2022 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection.

Updated 16 February 2022

About the service:

St Pauls is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care. It accommodates up to 2 people over the age of 18 years old with a learning disability or autistic spectrum disorder.

People’s experience of using this service:

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. People who used the service were supported to live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. People were given control, choice, and independence, they received planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that was appropriate and inclusive for them.

People and their relatives told us staff were lovely and made them feel safe. Staff understood safeguarding and whistleblowing procedures. We found adequate staff were employed to meet people’s needs. The recruitment process was robust to ensure only staff suitable to work with vulnerable adults were employed. The registered manager promoted a focus on openness and transparency. This ensured staff learned when things went wrong. Accidents and incidents were monitored to enable positive risk taking. People were protected by the prevention and control of infection. Medication systems were in place and followed by staff to ensure people received their medicines as prescribed. Documentation to improve systems was implemented at the time of our inspection.

Staff were knowledgeable about people needs, people told us the care provided was person-centred and individualised. Staff said training was good and kept their knowledge up to date. Staff were supervised and supported. 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. People who required support with meals were supported to be able to receive a balanced diet. People had access to health care professionals, staff worked closely with professionals to ensure people's needs were met. Professionals we spoke with told us the care provided was excellent.

People told us the staff were kind and caring. Where possible people were involved in their care planning to ensure their decisions and choices were reflected. People received care that was responsive to their needs. Staff understood people’s needs, including social, cultural, values and beliefs.

There was a robust quality monitoring system in place to ensure continued improvements.

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 16 September 2019).

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

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 until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.