Orchard House

Updated 18 June 2025

Date of assessment: 02 to 11 July 2025. Orchard House is a residential care service providing accommodation and personal care support to people living with a learning or physical disability. At the time of this assessment there were 10 people receiving care and support in the service. The service provided accommodation in 2 separate buildings supporting 4 and 6 people respectively.

The service was last assessed in February 2018 and rated “Good”. We conducted this assessment due to the age of the previous rating.

We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.

We identified that risks to people living at the service had not always been managed safely. Where people had conditions such as constipation, epilepsy or reduced mobility staff were not always knowledgeable about these risks or trained to be able to respond in a safe and timely manner. Staff were not consistently aware of their responsibilities to safeguard people from the risk of harm or abuse. We could not be assured that all restrictions put in place had been made in people’s best interests, or that people’s representatives had been appropriately involved in these decisions and their care. Governance systems in place had failed to identify areas where the service was not operating safely and exposing people to a risk of harm. Infection control risks for people were not always well managed over an extended period.

However, we noted that staff worked closely with people to enable them to achieve what mattered to them, and made appropriate adjustments to ensure people were able to participate in daily life.

The service was in breach of legal regulation in relation to safe care and treatment, assessing the risk of, and preventing, detecting and controlling the spread of, infections, dignity and respect, person centred care, good governance and staffing.

Updated 18 June 2025

People and their representatives spoke positively about the care they were receiving, and that staff were kind and caring. We heard positive stories about the impact the service had made to people’s lives including one person relative who stated “They service sought behavioural specialist advice for my relative, put guidance in and this has significantly reduced their distress. They used to exhibit behaviour that was dangerous to themself, however they do so much less now which I think the service have made a big difference to”. However, some relatives told us they were not actively involved or consulted in their relatives’ care. Another relative stated “The service used to regularly contact me about (relative name)’s care and involve me in decision making, however this no longer happens. I don’t get informed about any incidents that happen”. Whilst people’s experience was generally positive, we identified that care was not always being delivered in a safe manner in line with best practice and that systems in place were not effectively identifying these areas.