Archived: Old Farmhouse

Old Farmhouse is registered to provide accommodation with nursing and personal care to a maximum of five people who have a learning disability. There were three people living at the home on the day of our inspection.

The home has a registered manager who was present for some of our inspection. They do not currently have responsibility for the day to day management of the home and a temporary manger was 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 by staff who understood their needs and provided the care and support they needed safely. Staff had been trained to recognise and report signs of harm and abuse and were confident to report concerns if they arose.

People were supported by enough staff and arrangements were in place if more staff were ever needed so that people were supported safely at all times. People’s medicines were managed safely by staff who were trained to administer it and understood the procedures they must follow.

People’s right to make their own decisions about their own care and treatment were supported by staff. Where people were unable to make their own decisions these were made in their best interests by people who knew them.

People were supported by staff who knew them well and had good relationships with them. Staff made sure people were involved in their own care and made sure information was given to them in a way they could understand. Staff were skilled at communicating with people and gave people enough time for them to communicate their wishes and express themselves.

Staff supported people to maintain a healthy balanced diet and supported them to make their own choices about what they wanted to eat and drink. People received healthcare when they needed it and routine healthcare appointments were kept up to date.

Staff encouraged and supported people to be as independent as they could be. People were treated with kindness and staff respected people’s right to privacy and dignity.

People received care and support that was individual to them and met their current and changing needs. Care and support needs were regularly reviewed with people and relatives were kept up to date on what was happening in their family member’s lives. People were supported to do the things that they enjoyed doing with their spare time.

Staff made sure people were able to express their views and opinions on the support they received to make sure they had support that was personal to them. People, relatives and staff were encouraged to give their opinions which would help make any improvements within the home

Staff were keen to make sure the people they supported received a quality service. Staff understood their roles and knew what was expected of them to make sure that people received a service which met their needs and benefitted them.

The provider had not notified us of a change of management arrangements but this had not impacted on the service people and staff received. There were systems were in place to monitor and assess the quality of service provided and improvements were made when needed.

Staff respected people as individuals and demonstrated a clear understanding of the distinct needs of the people whose care we looked at in detail. We saw people's health and wellbeing was closely monitored and evaluated.

We saw people led active lifestyles and engaged in a variety of community and in-house activities. Staff shared examples of how they offered people choices in their daily lives and how they promoted their independence.

There were effective systems in place to investigate and learn from safeguarding concerns. Staff had received training in protecting people and were confident to speak out if they observed poor or abusive practice.

People had flexible support from consistent staff. Staff told us that they considered staffing levels were sufficient to ensure that people's needs were met. Staff received a range of training to give them the skills and knowledge they needed to keep people safe and to meet their individual needs. Staff told us they felt well supported in their work.

We saw that staff were good at knowing how each person made their wishes and choices known. They had positive approaches to supporting people and shared examples of how they promoted people's privacy, dignity and independence.

Staff knew people's preferences, communication methods, likes and dislikes well. They spoke about supporting and treating people as individuals. We saw people's health was regularly reviewed by healthcare professionals. People had a health action plan in place to show how they were being supported to look after their health.

Staff had received training on protecting vulnerable people. They told us they were well supported in their work and were provided with good training opportunities to keep people safe and to meet their individual needs.

We saw examples of audits which monitored quality and safety within the home in addition to complaints. Staff were positive of the changes made under the new management structure and felt the home was moving in the right direction.