Radis Community Care (Woodland Court)

Woodland Court offers accommodation for older people requiring care and support to live independently. Individual flats or apartments provide independent living, while communal spaces are available with the opportunity to be part of a community. The registered provider is registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to provide personal care for people living at Woodland Court. 36 people living at Woodland Court were receiving personal care services at the time of this inspection.

The service had a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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 told us they felt safe. Staff had received safeguarding training in order to keep people safe and staff demonstrated a good understanding of what to do if they were concerned anyone was at risk of abuse. There were robust recruitment practices in place, which meant staff had been recruited safely. Risks to people had been assessed and reduced where possible.

Accidents and incidents were appropriately documented and records we inspected, and our discussions with staff, showed staff were aware of actions to take in an emergency. People had pendants they could press to request assistance and people told us staff responded quickly to such requests.

Staff were trained to manage and administer medicines to people and their competency was regularly assessed. People told us they had confidence in staff to assist them safely with medicines. Most of the records in relation to medicines we inspected were fully completed, however, some medication administration records were not fully completed and the registered manager took immediate action to address this.

People received effective care and support to meet their needs. People told us they felt staff had the necessary skills and training to provide effective care and support. Staff told us they felt supported and we saw staff had received an appropriate induction into their roles as well as ongoing training, support and supervision.

Care and support was provided in line with the principles of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. We saw from the care files we reviewed, consent had been sought and obtained from people, prior to their care and support being provided. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

People we spoke with told us staff were caring. Staff were enthusiastic and were motivated to provide good quality care. Staff explained to us how they respected people’s privacy and dignity and the people we spoke with confirmed this happened. People were encouraged to maintain their independence.

Care and support plans were detailed and personalised, taking into account people’s choices and preferences and people’s needs were reviewed regularly. People were involved in their care planning and told us they could make their own choices. People told us the service was responsive and flexible to their needs.

Regular audits and quality assurance checks took place, in order to drive improvement within the service and feedback was given to staff in order to improve practice. Staff told us they felt supported. Complaints were managed effectively and responded to appropriately.

Is the service safe?

The staff and people who used the service felt the tenants who lived at Woodland Court were safe. We inspected the staffing rota set by the manager and observed that there were sufficient numbers of skilled and experienced staff to ensure that people's needs were being met. We had some minor concerns related to the support of staff in that mandatory training update were overdue and had yet to be scheduled to ensure a smooth flow throughout the year.

Is the service responsive?

The flats we were invited into were had an open plan kitchen and lounge with either one or two bedrooms or a large shower wet room and toilet. The flats were furnished and personalised with the tenants' own furniture and kitchen equipment. Some people preferred to stay in their own room and prepare their own food, whilst others preferred to join the other people who lived in the Woodland Court and made use of the subsidised Bistro on a daily basis.

There was a distinct friendship group that had formed amongst the tenants who regularly choose to socialise in the lounge and or landscape garden. We observed that people were able to tailor the visits to coincide with changes in their chosen daily activities and extra visits were arranged to ensure people were kept well hydrated on warm days.

Is the service caring?

The people who lived at Woodland Court were encouraged to be independent and self-caring. They and their spouses were supported by staff to make decisions about the activities they undertook during the week. We observed the interactions between staff and tenants to be unhurried, friendly, cheerful and sensitive. All the people we spoke to told us the staff were very good, kind polite and respectful. One person we spoke with had severe physical and communication difficulties went to great personal lengths to ensure they communicated with us. They told us that they were very well looked after and that their named carer was excellent.

Is the service effective?

All the people who lived at Woodland Court Extra Care Housing had their own self-contained flat which they occupied either alone or with their spouse/partner. We saw that people all had signed tenancy agreements with the council. The manager told us that 30 people within the facility were in a receipt of care packages. During our visit we spoke to a number for people who used the facility and had a sometime in the last year received limited periods of care and five people who were receiving a range of care services. We saw that people had also signed for care staff to have access to the flat keys via the coded key safe which were outside all the flats. Wellbeing checks were undertaken on all tenants and health care professionals and social work personnel were on site regularly.

Is the service well led?

The registered manager was experienced in housing support and newly appointed in post. They were highly regarded and respected by staff, tenants and by other health care professionals.