Walton House

On this page

• Overview
• Assessing needs
• Delivering evidence-based care and treatment
• How staff, teams and services work together
• Supporting people to live healthier lives
• Monitoring and improving outcomes
• Consent to care and treatment

Effective – this means we looked for evidence that people’s care, treatment and support achieved good outcomes and promoted a good quality of life, based on best available evidence. At our last assessment we rated this key question good. At this assessment the rating has remained good. This meant people’s outcomes were consistently good, and people’s feedback confirmed this.

This service scored 71 (out of 100) for this area. Find out what we look at when we assess this area and How we calculate these scores.

The provider made sure people’s care and treatment was effective by assessing and reviewing their health, care, wellbeing and communication needs with them.

People and their relatives confirmed they were involved in the assessment and reviewing of their needs. One relative told us, “They [staff] involve me and welcome my input.” Care records contained assessments of people’s needs and showed people and their relatives were involved in this process and the regular review of people’s needs. All care plans we reviewed contained up to date information about people and their individual needs.

The provider planned and delivered people’s care and treatment with them, including what was important and mattered to them. They did this in line with legislation and current evidence-based good practice and standards.

The registered manager was aware of and implemented the right support, right care, and right culture guidance. Staff completed accredited training in Learning Disabilities and Autism. The care people and their relatives described to us and the care we observed demonstrated that care was based around the right support, right care and right culture guidance. People were supported to access the community, make their own decisions about their care and seek support from professionals as required.

Although people’s risks and needs were assessed, standardised, evidence-based tools were not used as part of this process. For example, people’s risk of skin deterioration or falling were assessed when required. However, evidence-based tools were not used to calculate these risks. Using evidence-based tools ensures a consistent approach to assessment is used, promoting effective care.

The provider worked well across teams and services to support people. They made sure people only needed to tell their story once by sharing their assessment of needs when people moved between different services.

Staff told us they shared important information about people’s care during handovers and team meetings. Records we viewed confirmed these systems were effective. Referrals to health and social care professionals were made as required and communication and hospital passports ensured professionals had access to information about people to enable them to provide effective support. Care records showed that advice from health and social care professionals was promptly incorporated into people’s care plans to ensure their advice was followed.

The provider supported people to manage their health and wellbeing to maximise their independence, choice and control. Staff supported people to live healthier lives and where possible, reduce their future needs for care and support.

People told us and care records showed that they were supported to maintain a healthy life. One person told us staff had supported them to lose weight by supporting them to access the gym and eat healthy meals. They said, “[Registered manager] is proud of me. I went the gym.” Staff told us how they supported people to maintain good health. The information in people’s care records matched the information staff told us. This included specific needs around Diabetes and Epilepsy.

People’s health was regularly monitored through weekly reviews. These reviews included the reviewing of people’s dietary needs and weight and seizures and skin changes if people were at risk of these conditions. Six monthly reviews also considered people’s health needs and included an overview of any appointments or routine checks that had been completed or were due. These reviews demonstrated people had accessed a variety of health care professionals such as; dentists, opticians, GP’s and learning disability specialists.

The provider routinely monitored people’s care and treatment to continuously improve it. They ensured that outcomes were positive and consistent, and that they met both clinical expectations and the expectations of people themselves.

Care records showed that people set goals on a regular basis and staff worked with them to achieve these goals. For example, 1 person’s care records showed staff had worked with them on a goal to independently turn their new TV on and off and a new goal had been recently set to support the person to independently use other features on their TV enabling them to become less reliant on the staff with this task.

A system was in place to review activity outcomes for people. The benefits of each activity were recorded and an analysis of each person’s engagement in activities was completed to ensure positive outcomes were achieved.

Although staff understood the Mental Capacity Act 2005, the requirements of the Act were not consistently met.

Mental Capacity assessments were completed as required to identify if people had the ability to make specific decisions for themselves. Where the registered manager had identified that people did not have capacity to make specific decisions, care plans were devised and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards authorisation requests were made. However, formal best interest decisions were not always recorded as part of this process. Therefore, the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 were not always met to show how best interest decisions were made and who was involved in these decisions.

Staff demonstrated they understood the importance of consent and mental capacity in relation to people’s day to day care and support and training records showed training in the Act had been completed.