Archived: Bourne House

Bourne View provides care and support for up to four people with either a learning disability and or autistic spectrum disorders. At the time of our inspection there were four people living at the service. The service was provided from a domestic style four bedroom house over two floors. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

At the last inspection the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

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.

Systems were in place to ensure people remained safe whilst promoting their independence. Risks to people had been adequately identified and measures put in place with guidance for staff to mitigate the risk of harm.

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.

People were involved in the planning of meals and menus. They received appropriate nutrition and hydration support to maintain their health and wellbeing.

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

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

There was a system in place to receive and manage complaints with guidance written in a format which met people’s needs. People were supported and encouraged to express their views and opinions about how the service was provided and how they lived their daily lives.

People were provided with personalised care and support to engage in meaningful activities which met their needs for autonomy and independence. There were regular opportunities for social inclusion with 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 physical, emotional and mental 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 and protected their rights. This included annual reviews of the person’s care needs with their involvement and their representatives.

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

Further information is in the detailed findings below

Bourne House provides residential and personal care support for up to four people living with autism. There were four people living at the service on the day of our inspection.

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 to administer medicines. Where people required assistance to take their medicines there were arrangements in place to provide this support safely.

There were sufficient numbers of care workers 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.

Staff were kind, caring and 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 and monthly regional manager audits were sporadic and none evidenced as carried out since April 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.

We saw that people had individual ways of communicating and were able to make members of staff aware of their needs and preferences.

We found that there were enough trained, skilled and experienced staff to meet people's needs. Staff received the training they needed to provide care and support safely and were able to demonstrate that they understood the specific needs of the people using the service. We saw that staff treated people with respect.

Bourne House was well managed and the registered manager had systems and processes in place which ensured people received a good service that took into account their needs and preferences.

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.