Starboard House

Starboard House is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 10 people. The service provides support to people with a learning disability and autistic people. At the time of our inspection there were 6 people using the service.

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

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence, and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance the Care Quality Commission (CQC) follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

Based on our inspection of key areas safe and well-led, we found:

Right Support:

The service gave people care and support in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment that met their sensory and physical needs. 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.

Right Care:

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it.

Right Culture:

People received good quality care, support and treatment because trained staff and specialists could meet their needs and wishes. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive, supporting their aspirations to live a quality life of their choosing.

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 8 March 2018).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

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.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Starboard House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.

Rating at last inspection.

At the last inspection, the service was rated good.

At this inspection we found the service remained good.

Why the service is rated good.

People were kept safe from the risk of actual or suspected abuse as appropriate training and reporting systems were in place. People were also safe as there were robust arrangements in place for the safe recording, storage and administration of medications, as well as risk assessments and practices to safeguard their health and wellbeing.

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 support this practice.

Staff had undertaken the appropriate training to be able to support people according to their needs, choices and preferences. Care plans and risk assessments were regularly updated and contained personalised information to support people’s needs. Staff worked in partnership with health and social care professionals to promote people’s health and wellbeing.

Staff had developed respectful, caring relationships with the people they supported. People were involved in making decisions about their care.

People received care and support which reflected their preferences, capabilities and needs. There was a complaints policy in place and people were encouraged to express their views about the service. All staff had been trained in end of life care. Arrangements for how to care for people at the end of their lives had been made with people and assessments were included in people’s care plans.

The registered manager displayed a person centred, caring ethos which was shared by all staff. There were efficient systems in place for monitoring quality within the home. Feedback gathered from surveys was used as part of the service improvement plan to meet people’s requests and drive improvements. The home had a warm and friendly feel and it was clear that people enjoyed living there.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We spoke with two staff and the manager. One member of staff said, "I enjoy supporting my key person with their choices and have seen them make a lot of progress with their independent living skills." Another member of staff said, "the support plans are always up together and explain exactly how we should support each person."

We spoke with a member of staff and observed them while they administered medicines. We found medicines were suitably stored in individual cabinets. Recording systems were maintained appropriately and medicines were administered safely.

Appropriate checks were carried out on new staff. Recruitment processes were managed effectively and people were involved in meeting new staff before they commenced working in the service.

We found the provider carried out regular audits of the quality of the service. People were asked for their opinions of the service they received through questionnaires and regular meetings.

Not all the people we met were happy to speak to us; however we were able to gather the views from one person. We met with three people who lived at the home during the visit all of whom looked happy. One person told us that the staff were very nice, that they were able to get up and go to bed when they wanted, go to the shops on their own and they chaired the home meetings. They said they very happy living in Starboard House.

We spent time observing how staff interacted and supported people. We saw staff treating people in a sensitive, respectful and professional manner.

We looked around the building which was clean and free from unpleasant odours. The bedrooms had all been decorated in the colour schemes chosen by the people who used them. The rooms were highly personalised with choices of bedding with photographs, books, TV’s and pictures. In the hallway photographs of the staff working that day were on display so that people would know who was on duty