Background to this inspection
Updated
5 December 2018
We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
This inspection took place on 28 October 2018 and was unannounced.
We gave the service four days’ notice of the inspection visit because is the service was small and the registered manager was often out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure they would be in.
The inspection team consisted of one adult social care inspector. Before the inspection we gathered the information we knew about the service including notifications that had been made to us about important events.
We visited the site office and looked at care documents for both people using the service, policies and procedures and risk assessments and complaints records. We spoke with one person using the service and wrote a letter to the other and received a written response, this was their preferred method of communication.
We spoke with the registered manager, nominated individual and one care staff member and looked at two recruitment files. We received feedback from one relative, and two professionals who worked with the service.
Updated
5 December 2018
The inspection took place on 28 October 2018 and was announced. Room 77 Basepoint provides support to people with a learning disability and who may be on the autistic spectrum. At the time of our inspection there were two people using the service.
This service is registered to provide care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live in their own home as independently as possible. In a supported living setting, care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support. We discussed with the provider their registration before and during the inspection to ensure they were correctly registered. The provider was taking steps to ensure the accommodation people lived in and the care provided, were under separate contractual agreements. We asked the registered manager to ensure they were registered correctly with us as we had concerns that the accommodation and care were not sufficiently separate in line with their registration as a supported living service. We asked the registered manager to feedback what action had been taken in this regard.
The service had been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.
The service had a registered manager in post. 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.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
People were kept safe through the assessment and mitigation of risks, they were supported to be safer in the community by staff helping them with personal care and showing them how to interact in specific circumstances.
Medicines were managed safely and staff had medicines training and were competency tested. There were enough staff in the service to meet people’s needs and they had time to sit and talk with people.
Staff were provided with training relevant to people’s needs and felt supported. Healthy choices were encouraged and staff gave people information on health conditions and supported them to access health services.
People and relatives told us staff were caring. People were offered opportunities to choose what they wore, ate and did and were treated with dignity and respect. A relative told us staff were warm and friendly and they could visit the service at any time.
We made a recommendation regarding supporting people to live more independently. People were supported to be independent in the community but there was no evidence that their living skills were being developed as staff did most of the cooking and cleaning.
The service provided person centred care. People were encouraged to engage with the community and lead active fulfilled lives.
There was a complaints policy in place and this was followed.
The registered manager and nominated individual had a hands-on approach and a clear vision to provide good care to people with learning disabilities and help them to engage with their community.
Quality assurance checks were not always robust and the provider needed to review their process for identifying notifiable incidents to us.
We made three recommendations to the service regarding making notifications to us, recording details for supporting people to live more independently and recording quality assurance checks and discussions. Further information is in the detailed findings below.