The Goodwins

Updated 1 February 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked 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.

Inspection team:

The inspection team consisted of one inspector.

Service and service type:

The Goodwins is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The home had a manager registered with the CQC. This means that 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 home since the last inspection in March 2016. This included details about incidents the provider must notify us about, such as allegations of abuse. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the home, what the home does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

People living at The Goodwins were not able to fully share with us their experiences of living at the home. Therefore, we spent time observing staff with people in communal areas during the inspection. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We inspected the environment, including the kitchen, bathroom and people’s bedrooms. We spoke with one person, five support workers and the registered manager. We also spoke with a visiting health professional. Following this inspection, we spoke with two relatives and received feedback from four health and social care professionals or commissioners involved with the home.

We reviewed a range of records. This included five people's care records and medicines records. We looked at three staff recruitment files, staff induction, supervision and training records. We reviewed records relating to the management of the home including rotas, records of incidents and complaints, audits, surveys and quality assurance reports and a variety of policies and procedures developed and implemented by the provider.

Updated 1 February 2019

What life is like for people using this service:

¿ The home has shown continuous improvement following our previous inspection in March 2016 and has met the characteristics of a good service in safe and effective and an outstanding service in all other areas and overall. For a home which supports people with multiple and complex needs and with behaviours that challenge, there have been remarkably positive and consistent outcomes for people. The registered manager told us, “I have always run a home around whether I would be happy with my brother or sister living there, I would here.”

¿ People have shown less behaviour that challenges as a result of the consistent positive support approach taken and therefore have needed less ‘as required’ medication and no use of restrictive interventions. Not only is this for people which have lived at The Goodwins for several years but people who have only lived there for a few months.

¿ The provider promoted a good quality of life for people. People were happy living at the home, were able to express themselves and engage with staff, participate in activities they enjoyed within the home and in their community and develop their skills and independence.

¿ People were supported to regain and maintain relationships with those important to them and to develop new relationships. The home used ‘intensive interaction’ to engage with people in a way which was meaningful to the individual.

¿ The registered manager had inspired and supported the staff team to improve people’s lives, had achieved good outcomes for people, ensured people were kept safe and received high quality, person centred care and support in line with all their individual needs.

More information is in Detailed Findings below.

Rating at last inspection:

Good overall and in all domains except caring, which was rated as outstanding (report published 20 April 2016).

About the service:

The Goodwins is a residential care home that was providing personal care for eight people living with severe learning disabilities, autism spectrum disorder and behaviour that challenges. The home 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. These values were seen in practice at the home. For example, the building was like any other on the road with no signs to show it was a care home. Staff did not wear uniforms and people lived their lives in the ways they wanted.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. We found improvements had been made since our last inspection and the service has met the characteristics of Good in safe and effective and Outstanding in all other areas. The overall rating is Outstanding.

Follow up:

Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our reinspection schedule for those services rated Outstanding.