Cherry Blossom

Cherry Blossom is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation to six people with a learning disability. At the time of the inspection three people lived at the home.

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

People and their relatives were not consistently involved in the review and development of care plans.

Relatives and people told us they felt safe with the staff who supported them.

Staff had regular safeguarding training and knew about the different types of abuse. Staff understood their responsibilities in relation to protecting people from the risk of harm. Where risks to people had been identified, risk assessments were in place.

People received their medicines when they needed them. Staff were very knowledgeable about people's changing needs.

People were supported by staff who were well trained and competent in their role. People were assessed before they used the service to ensure their needs and preferences could be met.

Staff understood the importance of ensuring people's rights were understood and respected.

People and their relatives told us they felt well cared for by staff who treated them with respect and dignity and encouraged them to maintain relationships and keep their independence for as long as possible.

Where people lacked capacity, 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.

People's communication needs were assessed and understood by staff. People were provided with information in a format which met their needs.

Staff liaised with other health care professionals to ensure people's safety and meet their health needs.

Staff spoke positively about working for the provider. They felt well supported and they could talk to management at any time, feeling confident any concerns would be acted on promptly. They felt valued and happy in their role.

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 working towards consistently meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right support:

People were supported to be independent and have choice and control. Improvements are required to ensure peoples voices such as reviews being conducted.

Right care:

Care was delivered in a way which meant people's human rights were respected.

Right culture:

Cherry Blossom were working with management and staff at all levels to continually improve the culture of the service. Staff were aware of the organisations visions and values which were centred around supporting people to live meaningful lives.

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 service was inspected but not rated (published 18 November 2020) 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 published report.

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.

Follow up

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

Cherry Blossom is a residential care home providing personal care and accommodation to six people with a learning disability. At the time of the inspection three people lived at the home.

The service has been designed taking into account best practice guidance and the principles and values underpinning Registering the Right Support (RRS) in respect of the environment. The building design fitted into the residential area as it was domestic in style in keeping with other homes in the street. There were deliberately no identifying signs, intercom, cameras, industrial bins or anything else outside to indicate it was a care home. Staff were also discouraged from wearing anything that suggested they were care staff when coming and going with people.

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

People were not always safeguarded by the systems in place relating to the use of physical intervention and lessons were not always learned about how to better support people during periods where they have behaviours that challenge.

Staff were not always recruited safely as not all required checks had been undertaken prior to commencing work at the home.

At the time of inspection known fire risks were not always managed to mitigate the risk of harm to service users and staff. Following the inspection action was taken to address these known risks.

People received their medicines when needed and staff where trained to administer people’s medicines safely.

Peoples support plans where not always updated to ensure they reflected people’s individual needs and had not considered the impact of COVID19 restrictions on people using the service.

A lack of oversight meant potential risks to people’s safety had not been responded to appropriately. Systems to monitor the quality and safety of the service were not effective and had not identified the areas for improvement found at this inspection.

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

This service was registered with us on 09 April 2019 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about safeguarding, use of restraint, and in relation to the care being provided. Additional concerns were shared with us by the Clinical Commissioning team. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Cherry Blossom on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Enforcement

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to discharge our regulatory enforcement functions required to keep people safe and to hold providers to account where it is necessary for us to do so.

We have identified breaches in relation to person centred care, safeguarding, recruitment practices and governance.

Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.

Follow up

We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

Special Measures

The service rating in two domains is ‘Inadequate’ and the service is therefore in ‘special measures’. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall rating, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it. And it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.