This unannounced inspection took place on 11 February 2015. The service met all of the regulations we inspected against at our last inspection on 11 July 2013.
62 Roxborough Park is a service for eight people with autism and challenging behaviour. All people who used the service displayed some forms of behaviour which challenges the service. The service is spacious and provides accommodation on the ground and first floor. 62 Roxborough Park is located closely to Harrow town centre, which provides good transport links and shopping facilities.
The service had a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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.
We found that 62 Roxborough Park provided a highly personalised, person-centred, autism specific service. People were in control of their support and participated in decision-making for the service and organisation as a whole. People were encouraged and enabled to learn new skills and become more independent. Support that staff provided to people was clearly outcome-focussed and systems were in place to document this.
The service has been accredited since June 2011 by the National Autistic Society (NAS). This is an autism-specific quality assurance programme for hundreds of residential and educational facilities throughout the UK and across the world. This is a very difficult accreditation to achieve and maintain, for example currently in London there are only nine accredited autism specific residential services.
People consented to their support and staff and the managers of the service worked to ensure people’s parents and relatives were aware of the legal limits of their role in decision-making. Feedback about the service was encouraged and there were a range of mechanisms to support this.
Staff were aware of the requirements of their role and were vetted appropriately before starting work. Staff supported people safely and knew what to do to protect people from the risk of abuse.
Recruitment procedures ensured staff had the appropriate values when they were employed and gained skills and qualifications shortly after they started work. On-going training was provided and staff were encouraged to pass on their expertise to their colleagues through workshops and team meetings in various aspects of service delivery.
People received their medicines in a safe manner and staff recorded and completed Medicine Administration Record (MAR) charts correctly. However controlled drugs were not stored safely and appropriately.
People had access to healthcare services and received on-going healthcare support for example through their GP. Referrals were made to other professionals if the need arose. People met with their psychiatrist and their behaviour was reviewed by their psychiatrist and the community learning disability team.
Risk assessments and care plans for people using the service were effective, individual and autism specific in capturing the required information. People’s individual care needs were recorded in a timely manner which demonstrated that their needs had been met. There was a strong focus on supporting people in becoming more independent by working together with the family, the person and the day service to achieve the best possible outcome.
No complaints had been received within the last year, but people had the opportunity to comment on the service at regular meetings. Health and social care professionals working with people living at the service gave very positive feedback about the support provided by the service.
Quality assurance systems were in place to assess and monitor the service people received. The service worked well in partnership with other organisations such as the NAS to ensure current practice was followed and a high quality service was provided to people. The service strived to make continuous improvements through regular consultation, research and reflective practice. This ensured that the service continued to provide an outstanding service to people with autism and behaviour that challenges.
We found that [the registered person had not protected people against the risk associated with the safe storage of medicines]. This was a breach of regulation 13 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2010, which corresponds to regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.