Archived: Stable House Colchester

Stable House, Colchester is registered to provide personal care for people with a learning disability. On the day of our inspection there were six people using this service, all living within the same housing complex, in separate flats within the one location based in Ipswich.

It was evident during our inspection that the service was not being managed on a day to day basis from the registered location Stable House in Colchester but was being run from Norwich Road in Ipswich where the manager and staff were based. This was also the location which was the point of contact for people who used the service. Following our inspection we asked the provider to explain why the Norwich Road should not be registered as a separate location to Stable House Colchester.

There was a registered manager. 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.

Relationships between staff and people were relaxed and supportive of their needs wishes and preferences. People who used the service were actively involved in making decisions about their daily care and support. Staff sought the consent of people in the planning and delivery of their care. Staff promoted and supported people’s independence and enabled them to have access to the local community.

Where risks to people had been identified there were plans in place to manager them effectively. Staff understood the risks to people’s health, welfare and safety and followed guidance to support people appropriately.

The suitability of staff to form caring, supportive relationships with people was assessed as part of the provider’s recruitment process. People who used the service had been involved in the recruitment and selection of staff. People could be assured action had been taken to check that newly appointed staff had the necessary skills and had been assessed as safe to provide their care and support. However, on occasions people did not always receive their one to one care support as assessed to meet their needs due to shortages of staff available.

People received care that was respectful of their needs for dignity and their privacy was respected.

People were protected from social isolation because they were supported and their relatives told us that people were supported to follow their own hobbies, interests and received support with opportunities to access further education at college, day services and community activities.

People had a support plan which reflected their personal choices and preferences regarding how they wished to live their daily lives. Support plans were contained comprehensive information but were bulky with out of date documents and were not always recorded in a personalised format that the people who used the service could understand.

There was little evidence of any formal systems where the views of people were regularly sought . Tenant meeting and care reviews were sporadic. This meant that further work was needed to ensure there were systems to support people to air their views and used in planning for continuous improvement of the service.

The provider did not operate effectively an accessible system for identifying receiving, handling and responding to complaints.

We were reassured that action was being taken to respond to issues of disunity amongst staff and action planned to improve the culture of the service. This included planning in place to work towards resolution of the cultural issues that had been evident for some time.

During this inspection we identified a number of breaches 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 this report.

People were involved in making decisions about their care and treatment where they were able to do so. During the course of our inspection we saw that staff took time to listen to people and took their views into account. This showed us that staff treated people in a caring manner and were responsive to their needs.

They also told us that staff were always polite and respectful when supporting them and always involved them in all aspects of their day-to-day care and support.

There were systems in place to support staff and provide them with the training they needed to ensure they had the skills and knowledge to provide safe and effective care.

Stable House was well run by a competent manager and there were effective processes to monitor the quality of the service. They consulted with people and took their views into account to make improvements.

People told us that they felt safe being supported by the service and were confident that if they had any concerns they would be listened to and any issues addressed.

People also told us that staff understood their care needs well, and always knew when they were requiring additional support due to anxiety.

People told us that they were aware of their care plans and were encouraged to play an active part in the development of their care plans.