Queen Alexandra College

Updated 23 May 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 was carried out by one inspector, an assistant inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The expert by experience’s area of expertise was learning disabilities and autism.

Service and service type:

Queen Alexandra College is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means 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:

The inspection was unannounced.

What we did:

We reviewed information we had received about the service. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We sought feedback from the local authority and professionals who work with the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection we spoke with eight people living at the service and nine members of staff, this included the registered manager. After the inspection we spoke with two relatives of people who lived at the service and gained feedback from three others. We reviewed four people’s care and support records and four staff files. We also looked at records relating to the management of the service such as incident and accident records, meeting minutes, training records, policies, audits and complaints.

Updated 23 May 2019

About the service: Queen Alexandra College is a residential home. It provides accommodation and personal care for up to 51 people with a visual impairment, autism and learning disabilities. At the time of the inspection there were 28 people living at the service.

People’s experience of using this service: People felt safe and happy living at Queen Alexandra College. The service met its aims of developing people’s independent skills through person centred programmes. People had choice and control over their lives.

Care plans were person centred. People were supported to enhance their social networks and experience different leisure opportunities.

Individual risks and health support needs were identified, and guidance was in place to support people safely whilst maximising independence.

The environment was clean. The provider acknowledged improvements to the building and technology accessibility were required and had a strategy to develop this.

People enjoyed the food at the service and were encouraged to be involved in cooking and preparing meals.

People were encouraged to be involved in the development of the service through meetings, groups and surveys.

Systems were in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service. These were reviewed to ensure that quality was continually improved.

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

Rating at last inspection: Good (June 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service through the information we receive. We will inspect in line with our inspection programme or sooner if required.