Updated 5 March 2025
Date of Assessment: 18 March to 3 April 2025. The service is a residential care home providing support to people with a learning disability and or autistic people, as well as those with physical disabilities or sensory needs. Fern Lodge is registered to support a maximum of 8 people, and 8 people were living at the service at the time of our assessment. We carried out this assessment because the service had not yet been inspected since registration under a new provider.
An assessment has been undertaken of a specialist service that is used by autistic people or people with a learning disability. We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted.
Right support: The model of care and setting maximised people’s choice, control and independence. Information was presented to people in an accessible way. Risks were assessed to help keep people safe whilst maintaining their independence. People were supported to access leisure activities and appointments in the community to support good health outcomes and quality of life.
Right care: Staff treated people with kindness and warmth. Staff were supported by leaders, and had access to training and support which helped them to meet people’s needs. Leaders had plans in place to enhance communication and involvement with people and their relatives, to ensure consistently personalised care.
Right culture: Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensured people using services led confident, inclusive and empowered lives. There was a positive and open culture. Whilst there was strong governance at provider level, some quality assurance systems at location level required improvement. A new manager had recently started at the time of our assessment.