10 Hedgerow Lane

Updated 12 April 2017

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 is 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 announced inspection was carried out by an inspector and took place on 2 March 2017. The provider of the domiciliary care service was given 24hrs notice because the regulated activity of ‘personal care’ was provided to a person living in the community in their own home. We needed to be sure that someone would be in the service location office when we inspected.

Before our inspection, we reviewed information we held about the provider such as, for example, statutory notifications that they had sent us. A statutory notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law. We also took into account other information the provider had sent us about their service.

During this inspection we visited the provider’s office located in the supported living premises in Northampton. We looked at three records in relation to staff recruitment and training, as well as records related to the quality monitoring of the service and the day-to-day management of the service. We spoke with the person using the service, the registered manager, assistant manager, and two support workers. We looked at the care and support records for the person using the service.

Updated 12 April 2017

Regional Home from Home provides a 24hr service in supported living accommodation to enable younger adults with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder needs to continue living fulfilling lives in the community. When we inspected the service provided support to one person living in supported accommodation in Northampton, although the large property has capacity to accommodate more people requiring support.

A registered manager was in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 benefitted from the availability of 24hr support from a staff team that was caring, friendly, and responsive. Their right to make day-to-day choices about how they preferred their support to be provided was respected and this was reflected in their agreed care plan. Staff were able to demonstrate that they understood what was required of them to provide people with the safe support they needed to remain living independently in the local community.

There was enough staff employed to meet people's assessed needs. A team of staff had been recruited in sufficient numbers in anticipation of being able to meet the needs of other people assessed as suitable for supporting living accommodation. People were protected from the risks associated with the recruitment of staff unsuited to the role by the provider’s recruitment procedures. Risk assessments were in place to reduce and manage the risks to people's health and welfare.

People benefitted from a service that was appropriately managed so that they received their service in a timely and reliable way. They always had the support they needed throughout the day and night, seven days a week by staff that were on duty at the supported living accommodation address.

People's rights to privacy in their own home and to make choices about how they received their care and support were respected by staff. Decisions affecting their care and support were taken in their best interest. People had the guidance and support they needed to raise concerns or make a complaint. There were policies and procedures in place to ensure that any complaints were appropriately investigated and that timely action was taken to make improvements to the service when necessary.