Archived: Coldwell Villa

Coldwell Villa provides care and support for up to five people with either a learning disability and or autistic spectrum disorders. At the time of our inspection only one person was using the service.

At the last inspection the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

There was a registered manager. 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.

The registered manager also had oversight of another six residential care homes and supported living services run by the provider. They told us of plans in progress to close Coldwell Villa. We saw that in the planning of this transition the priority was to ensure people moving on to alternative placements were involved in this process as much as they were able to with additional advocacy support.

Systems were in place to ensure the person remained safe whilst promoting their independence. Risks to the person had been adequately planned for and measures were in place to reduce these risks.

Staff had the knowledge, skills and training to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Staff understood their responsibilities in relation to reporting accidents and incidents. Staff were provided with training in how to recognise abuse and report issues of concern appropriately.

The person using the service received appropriate support to maintain healthy nutrition and hydration.

The service was meeting the requirements of the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLs). The person using the service was supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible.

The person was treated with kindness and respect by staff who knew them well. They were enabled to remain as independent as possible.

There was a system in place to receive and manage complaints. People were made aware of how to express their views, opinions and how to complain.

The person using the service was provided with personalised care and was supported to engage in meaningful activity. There were regular opportunities for social inclusion with supported access to the community and annual holidays.

Regular ongoing health checks were in place with access to specialists for advice and support to support people’s health and wellbeing.

There were systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service. This included systems to ensure that people continued to receive care that met their needs, protected their rights and ensured their wellbeing. This included annual reviews of the person’s care requirements.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.” Registering the Right Support CQC policy

Coldwell Villa is registered to provide a residential care service with support for up to five people with autism. On the day of our inspection there were two people living at the service.

There was a registered manager. 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.

The safety of people who used the service was taken seriously. The registered manager and staff were aware of their responsibility to protect people’s health and wellbeing. There were processes in place to ensure people’s safety, including risk assessments with guidance for staff with actions to take to safeguard people from the risk of harm. These identified how the risks to people’s safety were minimised and ensured people’s human rights to choice and freedom were safeguarded.

Medicines were stored in a safe place. Staff had been trained. Where people required assistance to take their medicines there were arrangements in place to provide this support safely.

In the main there were sufficient numbers of care staff available to provide care and support according to people’s assessed needs. Care staff were trained and supported to meet people’s individual needs. There was a consistent team of skilled staff who had developed good relationships with the people they cared for. People and relatives valued the relationship they had with the management team and told us they found them approachable and supportive.

There were systems in place to ensure that people’s rights to respect, privacy and dignity were promoted and respected.

People and or their representatives, where appropriate, were involved in making decisions about their care and support. People’s care plans had been tailored to the individual and contained information about how they communicated and their ability to make decisions. The service was flexible and responded positively to people’s requests about their care and how it should be provided.

The service was committed to providing personalised care and ensured that people using the service were consulted about how they lived their everyday lives. People were supported to access holidays and activities according to their personal choice and preferences.

The culture of the service was open, inclusive, empowering and enabled people to live as full a life as possible according to their choices, wishes and preferences. The management team provided effective leadership to the service and enabled people to air their views through care reviews, meetings and their involvement in the recruitment of new staff. However, there were no formal quality and safety audits carried out by the manager. Monthly regional manager audits were sporadic and had not been carried since August 2015. This meant that there were no regular quality and safety audits carried out by the provider which would identify any shortfalls in delivery of the quality or safety of the service, and neither actions planned with timescales to evidence planning for continuous improvement of the service.

People also told us that they had access to a very good range of social activities both within the home and out in the wider community.

People that we spoke with told us that staff always treated them with respect and involved them in all aspects of their care and support.

People enjoyed living in a comfortable environment.

We found that staff had the skills and knowledge that enabled them to keep people safe.

We looked at the care records of two people who used the service. They detailed the individual needs of the person and contained risk assessments to minimise any risks present during day to day activities.

We saw that staff received appropriate training some of which was specific to the needs of people using the service. Measures were in place to assess the standard of care provided.