Wellcroft House

Wellcroft House is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to six people. This includes younger adults with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder, physical disability or sensory impairment. At the time of the inspection six people were living at the home.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the principles and values that underpin Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. This ensures that people who use the service can live as full a life as possible and achieve the best possible outcomes.

The principles reflect the need for people with learning disabilities and/or autism to live meaningful lives that include control, choice, and independence. People using the service receive planned and co-ordinated person-centred support that is appropriate and inclusive for them.

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

Staff were aware of how to keep people safe and relatives raised no concerns about how staff supported their family members. Staff knew how to escalate issues and concerns and were aware of potential risks when providing support. People received their medicines appropriately, as required. Staff used correct equipment, such as gloves and aprons when assisting people. Accidents and incidents were managed appropriately. Staff were recruited in a safe way.

Staff received an effective induction and ongoing training. Relatives felt staff knew people well enough to enable them to support individual needs and requirements. People received food and drinks as required and attended any medical appointments.

Mental capacity assessments were not always carried out or updated prior to applications being put forward for Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). However, staff understood mental capacity and how to act in the person’s best interests. Action was taken by the manager to ensure mental capacity assessments were in place where required.

People were supported to have choice and control over their lives and staff understood that they should support them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff ensured that people’s privacy and dignity was maintained.

Staff were seen to be kind and caring towards people and relatives felt they were compassionate and available to people. People were given choices and were able to make their own decisions as far as possible. Staff supported people to be independent where this was possible and ensured that people’s privacy and dignity was maintained.

Relatives had been involved in the development of care plans and were invited to regular reviews of care. Care plans provided staff with information about people’s needs and preferences and how they would like these to be met. A complaints procedure was in place and relatives knew how to raise concerns and felt these would be addressed. People were supported to remain active and participate in social activities, in line with their interests.

Feedback was gathered from people and used to inform the service. People were becoming familiar with the new manager and relatives told us they felt the manager was approachable.

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

Rating at last inspection

This was the first inspection for the service under the new provider.

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection, however we had also received information of concern in relation to the conduct of some staff members and the previous registered managers understanding and reporting of safeguarding concerns. Immediate action to address these issues had been taken by the provider.

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.