Glover House

Updated 5 July 2019

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the registered persons were 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.

We visited the service on 10 June 2019.

Inspection team:

The inspection was completed by one inspector.

Service and service type:

Glover House is a care home that provides accommodation and personal care for eight younger adults and people who need support due to have learning adaptive needs/autism. It can also accommodate people who have physical and/sensory adaptive needs.

There was 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. The registered manager had been in post at the time of our previous inspection in May 2018 but had not been registered by us until after the inspection.

Notice of inspection:

This inspection was announced. This was because the people who lived in the service had complex needs for support and benefited from knowing in advance that we would be calling to their home.

What we did:

We used information the registered persons sent us in their Provider Information Return. This is information we require registered persons to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

We reviewed other information we held about the service. This included notifications of incidents that the registered persons had sent us since our last inspection. These are events that happened in the service that the registered persons are required to tell us about.

We Invited feedback from the commissioning bodies who contributed to purchasing some of the care provided by the service. We did this so that they could tell us their views about how well the service was meeting people's needs and wishes. This information helps support our inspections.

We spoke with all the people living in the service using sign-assisted language when necessary.

We spoke with four support staff, the registered manager and the head of care.

We reviewed documents and records that described how support had been provided.

We examined documents and records relating to how the service was run. These included health and safety, the management of medicines, learning lessons when things had gone wrong, obtaining consent and staff training. They also included the support plans for all the people living in the service and the personnel files for two support staff.

We reviewed the systems and processes used by the registered persons to assess, monitor and evaluate the service.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who cannot talk with us.

Updated 5 July 2019

About the service:

Glover House is a residential care home for eight younger adults and people who need support due to having learning adaptive needs/autism. It can also accommodate people who have physical and/sensory adaptive needs.

At the time of this inspection there were three people living in the service. All of these people had complex needs for support and one person used an individual form of sign-assisted language to express themselves.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who live in the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes. The principles reflect the need for people with learning adaptive needs/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence.

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

People's experience of using the service:

People and their relatives were positive about the service. A person said, “I’m good here and I’m happy here.” A relative said, "I think the staff at Glover House are excellent and so I never have to worry about my family member.”

People were safeguarded from the risk of abuse.

People received safe care, treatment and support in line with national guidance from support staff who had the knowledge and skills they needed.

There were enough support staff on duty and safe recruitment practices were in place.

People were supported to use medicines safely.

Lessons had been learnt when things had gone wrong.

People had been helped to receive medical attention when necessary.

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.

Some parts of the accommodation had not been well maintained.

Support staff were courteous and polite.

Confidential information was kept private.

People received person-centred care and they were supported to pursue their hobbies and interests.

There were robust arrangements to manage complaints.

There were arrangements to treat people with compassion at the end of their lives and to enable them to have a pain-free death.

People had been consulted about the development of the service and quality checks had been completed.

Good team work was promoted and regulatory requirements had been met.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating. At the inspection in May 2018 we found a breach of regulations. This was because one person had not been supported to use one of their medicines in a safe way. At this inspection in June 2019 we found that people were being supported to take medicines safely. This meant that the breach of regulations had been addressed.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about the service until we return to visit in line with our re-inspection programme. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.