Archived: West House - 47 Sandy Lonning

West House 47 Sandy Lonning is a residential care home. It can accommodate up to seven people who are living with a learning disability or autism. People have single bedrooms, some of which have ensuite bathrooms or toilets. The home has suitable shared facilities and good outside space. The home does not provide nursing care.

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.

People’s experience of using this service:

People told us they felt safe and staff had received suitable training about protecting vulnerable adults.

Risk assessments and risk management plans supported people well.

Good arrangements were in place to ensure that new members of staff had been suitably vetted and that they were the right kind of people to work with vulnerable adults. Accidents and incidents were responded to appropriately.

People told us they had support from "great staff". The registered manager kept staffing rosters under review as people's needs changed. We judged that the service employed enough support staff by day and night to meet people's needs.

People told us staff understood their needs. Staff were appropriately inducted, trained and developed to give the best support possible. We met team members who understood people's needs and who had suitable training and experience in their roles.

People were happy with the arrangements for medicines support. Medicines were suitably managed in the service with people having reviews of their medicines on a regular basis.

People in the home saw their GP and health specialists whenever necessary. Staff took the advice of nurses and consultants. The staff team had good working relationships with local GP surgeries.

Good assessments of need were in place, and the staff team reviewed the delivery of care for effectiveness. They worked with health and social care professionals to ensure that assessment and review of support needed was suitable and up to date.

People told us they liked the food provided and we saw suitably prepared meals being served. Nutritional planning was in place and special diets catered for appropriately.

West House - 47 Sandy Lonning is a modern house in a residential area that has been adapted and extended to provide seven single rooms and suitable shared areas. The house was warm, clean and comfortable on the day we visited. Suitable equipment was available. People told us they liked "our house...it's our home".

The staff team were aware of their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People who lived in the home told us that the staff were caring. We also observed kind and patient support being provided. Staff supported people in a respectful way. They made sure that confidentiality, privacy and dignity were maintained.

Risk assessments and care plans provided detailed guidance for staff in the home. People in the service were aware of their care plans and had influenced the content. The management team had ensured the plans reflected the person-centred care that was being delivered.

Staff could access specialists if people needed communication tools like sign language or braille.

People told us staff encouraged them to follow their own activities, interests and hobbies.

The service had a comprehensive quality monitoring system and people were asked their views in a number of different ways. Quality assurance was used to support future planning. People were aware of future plans to change the service to a supported living house.

We had evidence to show that the registered manager and senior officers of the provider were able to deal with concerns or complaints appropriately.

Records were well organised, easy to access and stored securely. Easy read formats were used where appropriate.

More information is in the full report.

Rating at last inspection:

Good 3 November 2016

Why we inspected:

This inspection was part of our scheduled plan of visiting services to check the safety and quality of care people received .

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.

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

We last inspected this service on 24 March 2014 under the regulations that were in force at that time. We found that the provider met all the regulations during that inspection.

Sandy Lonning is a care home for seven people who have a learning disability. West House, a local not for profit organisation, is the provider who runs the home. The home is located in a quiet lane on the outskirts of Maryport. The premises are purpose built and have been maintained and furnished to high standards. Each person has their own bedroom and adapted bathing facilities are available. All but one of the rooms has en-suite bathrooms. Separate bathrooms and shower room are also available for people to use if they wish.

There was a registered manager in post on the day of our inspection visit.

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.

People who used this service were safe. The staff knew how to identify if a person was at risk of abuse and the action to take to protect people from harm. Risks to people’s safety had been assessed and measures put in place to manage any hazards identified.

Staffing levels were good. The records we looked at showed that staffing levels were planned around the needs of people who lived in the home. We saw that staff training was up to date. People were given support on a one to one basis in order to follow activities safely in the local community. We saw that the staffing levels had been arranged to ensure that this support was available. People were recruited safely so that only suitable people were employed at Sandy Lonning. People received care and support from experienced and well trained staff.

We found that medicines were managed well and in line with peoples’ prescriptions. People were encouraged to eat a healthy diet but could also choose their favourite food..Staff supported people to access all external health related appointments. Dental, optical and chiropody services were accessed when required.

People were treated with kindness and respect. They were included in planning and agreed to the support they received. The care staff knew the people they were supporting and the choices they had made about their care. The staff knew how people communicated and gave people support to make and express their choices about their lives. People were encouraged to follow activities of their choice both in the home and out in the wider community.

The registered manager set high standards and the focus of the service was on promoting people’s choices and rights. The registered manager had a good understanding of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, (DoLS), and how to protect the rights of people who needed support to make important decisions about their lives. Staff had completed training and also had an understanding of their responsibilities in this area.

The provider had an internal quality audit system in place to monitor the quality of the care and support provided.

On our previous visit to this home we found one of the care plans was not as detailed as others in setting out how a complex health care need should be met by staff.

During our inspection in March 2014 we spoke to the manager about the changes made and looked at the relevant care plan. We saw that the person's specific health and personal care needs were clearly defined and gave the staff detailed information about meeting the assessed needs.

We checked other care and health action plans and found these had all been reviewed by the manager. Information was now recorded in a more structured way that was easier for the staff to follow

We saw that people's needs were assessed and care and treatment were planned and delivered in line with their individual care plan. Each person had an individual plan and support needs designed to help them do the things they liked. Everyone we spoke with said they were helped to follow their interests and have different hobbies.

People told us, 'Staff help me to do the things I wanted to do. They don't force me to do anything I don't want to do.' Another said 'We all get on fine, I love to have a laugh and a joke with the staff.'

There were effective managerial systems in place to monitor that people living at the home received a good standard of care and support. While we found the care plans and risk assessments worked well in giving people very individual life styles we found that some could have been more up to date to reflect recent developments. We also asked the manager to review how they administered medications to check the system they were using was robust enough to eliminate any possible errors.