Walsingham Support - 45a Hampton Road

Updated 16 March 2022

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 Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This included checking the provider was meeting COVID-19 vaccination requirements. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

This inspection was carried out by two inspectors.

Service and service type

Walsingham Support – 45a Hampton Road is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Walsingham Support – 45a Hampton Road is a care home without nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service does not have a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. However, the manager in post had applied to be registered with us; and their registration interview was imminent. This means that the provider is legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

We gave service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because the manager covers other services and we wanted to make sure they would be available to speak with us.

Inspection activity started on 09 February 2022 and ended on 14 February 2022. We visited the location’s service on 09 February 2022.

What we did before the inspection

The provider was not asked to complete a Provider Information Return (PIR) prior to this inspection. A PIR is information providers send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the information we had received in relation to a recent complaint about the service. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with the manager, the deputy manager and two care staff. We reviewed a range of documents including risk assessments, staffing rotas and other documents relevant to the management of the service. We also reviewed people’s medicines records. 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.

After the inspection

We reviewed additional documentation that the provider submitted to us electronically. This included staff recruitment files, policies and quality assurance audits. We also spoke with three relatives.

Updated 16 March 2022

About the service

Walsingham Support – 45a Hampton Road is a residential care home providing personal care for up to five people. The service provides support to older people, younger people and those with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder. At the time of our inspection there were four people using the service.

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

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.

Based on our review of safe and well-led:

The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

People received their medicines at the right times. We identified the provider needed to amend their medicines administration practice, which the manager took action to remedy in a timely manner. Recruitment was ongoing to ensure that additional staff were brought in to work at the home and that there were enough staff to meet people’s needs. Staff were appropriately recruited. Risk assessments were clear in guiding staff as to how they needed to support people safely. Staff were able to recognise signs of abuse and knew how to report any concerns. Incidents and accidents were appropriately recorded and investigated.

Relatives and staff found the manager to be approachable and supportive. The manager understood their regulatory responsibility and how to comply with the duty of candour. Quality assurance audits were effective in identifying areas for improvement. People, relative and staff views were sought.

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 good (published 16 March 2019)

Why we inspected

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively. This included checking the provider was meeting COVID-19 vaccination requirements.

We received concerns in relation to safeguarding and infection control processes. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Walsingham Support – 45a Hampton Road on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.