Archived: Vicarage Road

Vicarage Road is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to six older people or younger adults with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder, a sensory impairment, dementia or a physical disability. At the time of our inspection, six people were living at the home.

The home is divided into three separate floors with shared kitchen, lounge, gardens and dining room areas on the ground floor, and bedrooms and a shared bathroom on the first and second floors.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were happy living at Vicarage Road and gave positive feedback about the care and support they received. People were encouraged to express their views and to be as independent as possible. People were treated with kindness and respect.

There were enough staff to keep people safe. Staff understood their safeguarding responsibilities and knew what action to take if they had any concerns about a person’s safety. Risks to people’s health had been identified, assessed and managed safely.

People received their medicines as prescribed and medicines were managed safely. The home was clean, tidy and staff promoted good infection control practices.

Staff felt supported and received appropriate training to carry out their roles.

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 had access to a range of healthcare professionals to ensure their health and wellbeing was being managed well. People were supported to eat and drink enough to maintain a healthy and balance diet.

Systems and processes were in place to monitor and improve the quality of care provided.

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.

Right support:

• Model of care and setting maximises people’s choice, control and

independence

Right care:

• Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human

rights

Right culture:

• Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives

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 19 March 2020).

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection as part of a random selection of services rated Good and Outstanding to test the reliability of our new monitoring approach.

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.

Vicarage Road is a residential care home, providing personal care and accommodation for up to six people. There were six people living at the home at the time of the inspection. The home was divided into two separate floors with shared kitchen, lounge, gardens and dining room areas.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

The service was very effective, designed and developed in a way that supported people to achieve skills and live their lives as they wished. 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. The provider continuously improved the home and their services, to ensure people were able to continue to live in their home as their needs changed.

Staff were offered support and development opportunities which improved the outcome of people who lived at Vicarage Road. People’s diversity was recognised and respected, and people were treated as individuals.

People and their relatives were placed at the heart of the service and were involved in choosing their care and support, from pre-admission to living in the home. Partnership working enabled people to maintain their wellbeing.

Innovative checking procedures, led by staff, people and stakeholders ensured people received safe, effective care that met their changing needs.

The staff team worked hard to promote people’s dignity and prevent people from becoming socially isolated within the home. People received kind, responsive person-centred care from staff who were well trained, motivated and supported by a registered manager who led the staff team to provide the best care they could.

People felt safe and secure at Vicarage Road. Staff understood how to keep people safe and embraced team working to reduce potential risks to people.

Rating at last inspection

The last comprehensive inspection report for Vicarage Road (published August 2017) we gave a rating of Good overall, with a rating of Outstanding in Well Led. At this inspection we found the service continued to be Good and have rated the service as Good in all areas.

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

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

Vicarage Road provides accommodation and personal care, for up to six adults. They specialise in care for adults who may have learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder, dementia, physical disabilities or sensory impairments. Six people were living at the home at the time of our inspection. At the last inspection, the service was rated Good overall. At this inspection we found the quality of service had improved even further and was now Outstanding in the well-led key question.

There was a registered manager in post. 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 providers’ values were person-centred and made sure people were at the heart of the service. Staff shared this view and had a common vision to provide an environment where people were enabled to live their lives as they chose, pursue their interests and maintain their independence. Staff demonstrated they cared through their attitude and engagement with people. People were valued and staff understood the need to respect their individual wishes and values. Staff knew people well and they respected people’s privacy and dignity and encouraged people to maintain their independence.

People were encouraged to plan ahead, set personal goals and maintain their interests. They were supported to take part in social activities which were meaningful to them, in a group or on a one-to-one basis and these improved the quality of people’s lives.

The provider was innovative and demonstrated sustained improvement to the quality of care they delivered. They worked in partnership with other organisations to make sure they followed current best practice and provided a high quality service. They had developed systems which ensured excellent standards of care were maintained for people.

The registered manager and deputy manager were dedicated to providing quality care to people. They valued staff and promoted their development. There was an open culture at the home where staff felt well supported, able to raise any concerns and put forward suggestions for improvements. The provider encouraged people to provide feedback on how things were managed and to share their experiences of the service in creative ways which suited their needs.

Risks to people’s individual health and wellbeing were identified and care was planned to minimise the risks, while promoting people’s independence. People and their families were included in planning how they were cared for and supported. The registered manager regularly checked that the premises and equipment were safe for people to use.

Staff understood their responsibilities to protect people from the risk of abuse. The registered manager checked staff’s suitability for their role before they started working at the home and made sure there were enough staff to support people safely. Medicines were administered and managed safely.

People were cared for and supported by staff who had the skills and training to meet their needs. The registered manager and staff understood their responsibilities in relation to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards. People were supported to eat and drink enough to maintain a healthy diet that met their preferences and were referred to healthcare services when their health needs changed.

We saw that people who lived at the home were relaxed. Staff demonstrated they understood people's personal needs and the individual ways they communicated their needs.

On the day of our visit, people who lived at the home engaged in different activities throughout the day. Five people spent the day at the provider's resource centre. People told us they were going to do music and sewing. One person spent the day at a local farm. They told us they were going to, 'Help out.' We observed staff speaking with people when they arrived home, about what they had done during the day. We saw that people were happy to share their experiences with the staff.

During our visit we observed that the staff were polite and asked people's permission before they helped them. We found that people had agreed to the care and treatment they received.

We saw that the home was clean and well maintained. Staff we spoke with explained how they minimised the risk of infection.

We found that the provider had an effective recruitment process and appropriate checks were made on staff before they began work.

We found that the provider dealt with complaints and comments in accordance with their policy.

One person we spoke with who lived at the home told us, "I like my home. I love it.'

People we spoke with told us that the care that was discussed with them matched the care that was being provided to them. We saw their family members were regularly kept up to date about the changes to their relative's care. We saw staff listened to the people's input about their care needs and their wishes.

We saw that the care plans were person centred and reflected the people's individual needs. We saw the member of staff supported the person as detailed within their care plan. We saw care plans were easy to read and had pictures to help people understand their care plan.

People we spoke with told us that staff were friendly and supported their needs well. We saw staff knew what people's care needs were and how they needed to be supported.

We spoke with the staff member about what they thought abuse was and they showed they had a good awareness of the importance of keeping people safe. They understood their responsibilities for reporting any concerns regarding potential abuse.