Archived: HF Trust - Old Quarries

Updated 13 June 2017

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, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Prior to the inspection, we looked at information about the service including notifications and any other information received from other agencies. Notifications are information about specific important events the service is legally required to report to us. We reviewed the Provider Information Record (PIR). The PIR was information given to us by the provider. This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, tells us what the service does well and the improvements they plan to make.

This inspection was unannounced and was completed on 15 and 17 March 2017. The inspection was completed by two adult social care inspectors. The previous comprehensive inspection was completed in June 2016 and there were breaches of regulation at that time.

After the last full inspection the service was placed in ‘Special Measures’. The purpose of this was to ensure the provider made the required improvements and then sustained those improvements. During this inspection we checked that the requirement notices were met and the improvements we found during the focused inspection in October 2016 had been sustained.

During the inspection we looked at six people’s care records and those relating to the running of the home. This included staffing rotas, policies and procedures, quality checks that had been completed and training records.

We spoke with the registered manager of the service and six members of care staff. We spoke with seven people living at Old Quarries. Not every person was able to express their views verbally or were willing to engage with us. We therefore spent time observing care and the interactions between people and staff. This helped us understand the experience of people who could not tell us about their life at Old Quarries or the support they received.

We spoke with two health and social care professionals and after the inspection we received feedback from seven relatives of people who were living at the home.

Updated 13 June 2017

This inspection was unannounced and carried out on 15 and 17 March 2017. The last comprehensive inspection was carried out on 2 and 8 June 2016 where some concerns were identified. We carried out a focused inspection in November 2016 where we found some improvements.

HF Trust Old Quarries is a residential care home. It provides individualised support for people with a learning disability. The service is made up of a number of houses and bungalows on the same site where individuals are supported to live as independently as they are able. The service is registered to accommodate up to 33 people, there were 21 people living there at the time of our inspection.

Old Quarries is due to close although there is no official closing date. Some people were anxious about the transition and the service understood these anxieties and were doing what they could to support people. There had been a re-structure of staff recently at the service and some staff had been made redundant or were moving to other job roles. This was having an impact on people, relatives and staff who clearly felt frustrated by the changes.

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 responsibilities for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The service was safe. There were sufficient staffing levels to ensure safe care and treatment. Risk assessments were implemented and reflected the current level of risk to people.

People were receiving effective care and support. Staff received training which was relevant to their role. Staff received regular supervisions and appraisals. The service was adhering to the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and where required the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS).

The service was caring. We observed staff supporting people in a caring and patient way. People were supported sensitively with an emphasis on promoting their rights to privacy, dignity, choice and independence.

The service was responsive. Support plans were person centred and provided sufficient detail to provide safe, high quality care to people. There was a robust complaints procedure in place and where complaints had been made, there was evidence they had been dealt with appropriately.

The service was well-led. Quality assurance checks and audits were occurring regularly and identified actions to improve the service. Regular meetings for staff and people who used the service were being completed.

This service has been in Special Measures. Services that are in Special Measures are kept under review and inspected again within six months. We expect services to make significant improvements within this timeframe. During this inspection the service demonstrated to us that improvements have been made and is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is now out of Special Measures.