1 February 2022
During a routine inspection
About the service
Newlands is a residential care home providing personal care to nineteen at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to nineteen people with a learning disability. People live in one converted bungalow.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Right Support
Staff did not provide effective support to identify people’s aspirations and goals and assist people to plan how these would be met. Staff did not always focus on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do. There was not a consistent approach to supporting people to learn new skills or maintain their skills for as long as possible, where this was appropriate.
The service provided people with care and support in a clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment that met their sensory and physical needs. However, some safety aspects had not been identified and mitigated prior to the inspection. The risk to people from hot, uncovered radiators had not been addressed.
People had choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community. Staff supported people to make decisions following best practice in decision making.
The size of the service was larger than current best practice guidance. However, the building design fitted in to the residential area and did not stand out from the other residential homes.
Right Care
People could communicate with staff as staff understood their individual communication. However, there was no evidence staff had fully explored how to make information accessible to people as much as it could be.
Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people’s cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care. People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs.
Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe.
People could take part in activities and keep in touch with people who were important to them.
Right culture
The service had not fully enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service. Feedback had been received from relatives which was positive. However, there was a lack of systems in place to support people to feedback about the service.
Staff had not always ensured the quality and safety of the service had been fully assessed to ensure people were safe. Safe recruitment practices were not always followed.
Staff knew and understood people well. People received good quality care, support and treatment because trained staff and specialists could meet their needs and wishes.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support right care right culture.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. 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.