10 May 2023
During a routine inspection
Blackburn (Florence House) is a residential care home providing personal care to 11 people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to 13 people.
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 independence was promoted, and staff encouraged people to participate in their care decisions. People's care plans were person centred and reviewed regularly. Risks associated with people's care were assessed to identify how their care could be provided safely and were reflective of the individual’s needs. Staff supported people to take part in meaningful activities and supported people to go on holidays and outings. The service had sufficient staffing to meet peoples’ needs and the same agency workers were used to maintain consistency. The service was clean and rooms were personalised to individual needs. We observed wardrobes needed securing to keep people safe and this was done following the inspection. The environment was being maintained in line with health and safety expectations and some updates to the décor was being planned by registered manager.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
Right care
People received supportive care. Staff respected people's privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to people’s individual needs. People had access to health care professionals when they needed them. Medicines were not always recorded accurately; records contained gaps and medication records were not being checked to ensure the information was accurate. Following our inspection, the provider shared additional evidence to demonstrate medication recording practice had been improved and addressed.
Right culture
People received good quality care, support and treatment because staff were trained in areas related to their needs and staff received regular supervision from support leaders. Recent audits for medication were not effective, we made a recommendation about this. Systems were in place to monitor and learn from trends and themes in the service. Staff provided positive feedback on the management team, although some staff felt communication around changes in the service could be improved. Families were happy with the support being provided and described the positive outcomes people had achieved. Positive feedback on partnership working was provided by professionals.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 14 September 2018).
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about medicines, activities, infection control, staff engagement and management. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from these concerns.
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.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Blackburn (Florence House) on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Enforcement and Recommendations
We have made a recommendation in relation to systems and oversight of the service at this inspection.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.