Roman House

Updated 26 October 2021

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type

Roman House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We reviewed information we held about the service, including events the provider must tell us about. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This is information providers are required to send us with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

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 could not talk with us.

During the inspection

We spoke with four people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with seven members of staff including the registered manager, a team leader and care workers. 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 could not talk with us.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and medication records. We looked at two staff files in relation to recruitment and staff supervision. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including policies and procedures were reviewed.

After the inspection

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data and quality assurance records.

Updated 26 October 2021

About the service

Roman House is a care home supporting up to eight people with a learning diability or autism spectrum disorder who may also have a physical disability. At the time of the inspection there were seven people living at the service.

The home is made up of two four-bedroom bungalows which were purpose built. Each bungalow had four en suite bedrooms and a shared kitchen and living room and were fully wheelchair accessible.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People were safe from abuse and other risks of avoidable harm. The service was clean and managed medicines safely. Staff and people told us they could report if something went wrong and felt any incidents or allegations would be taken seriously.

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.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right Support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was able to demonstrate how they were the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture. People were supported in the way they wanted, respecting their human rights and enabling them to live a life like anyone else. People were empowered to take control of their own health and wellbeing and were supported to be as independent as they wished.

Staff were caring and treated people with kindness and compassion. People told us the staff were nice and they liked living in their home. People had hobbies which interested them and could access local amenities. People had been supported through the pandemic to adapt their routines and maintain contact with their loved ones.

Some staff felt the service was not consistently well-led and that the registered manager was not always approachable or available due to other responsibilities outside the service. Where some tasks were done by a different team or were delegated, there was not always good oversight by the registered manager that tasks had been completed to required standards.

Staff and people told us they felt able to raise concerns and complaints were well managed. People could say what they wanted from the service and from staff and were consistently asked for their views. Staff and the registered manager were keen to keep improving the service.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 4 September 2019) and there were multiple breaches of regulation. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating to follow up on breaches of regulation and ensure the provider had made the required improvements.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service to until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.