The Oaks Care Home

The Oaks Care Home is a residential service providing personal care for up to 9 people with a learning disability. At the time of the inspection there were 9 people living at 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 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.

Right Support

People’s care records needed to be improved to ensure they helped staff offer the support people needed because these did not clearly, concisely and accurately outline presenting issues. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible. Generally, staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision-making. The care records at times did not demonstrate this was always happening. Infection prevention and control practices reflected current guidance. The audit documents used for monitoring room cleanliness needed to be used more effectively. The provider was in the process of addressing these issues as well as refurbishing the service. Staff communicated with people in ways that met their needs. Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life. Staff supported people to achieve their aspirations and goals. People were supported safely with medicines.

Right Care

People received kind and compassionate care. Staff understood and responded to people’s individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Following our discussions, the provider was seeking additional training for staff around working with people who become distressed; the service worked well with other agencies to do so. People’s care, treatment and support plans generally reflected their range of needs, and this promoted their wellbeing and enjoyment of life. The provider was working to ensure these were concise and reflected key aspects of people’s needs.

Right culture

The existing range of tools the provider used to oversee the service were not effective. The provider understood they needed to create a robust governance system, which would evidence all required checks had been completed. They had become aware the existing policies were out-dated and were in the process of renewing and updating these. They also took action to improve their records related to the recruitment of staff. People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to the wide range of strengths, impairments, or sensitivities people with a learning disability and/or autistic people may have. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs, and rights at the heart of everything they did. Staff were aware of and were working to best practice guidance for supporting people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

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

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 14 December 2022, and this is the first inspection.

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.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We have identified breaches in relation to record keeping and the governance systems. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.