Kingsdown House

About the service

Kingsdown House provides accommodation and personal care for up to nine people aged between 18 and 65 years, who have a learning disability and autism. At the time of our inspection, there were nine people living at the service. The service was a large home, bigger than most domestic style properties. This is larger than current best practice guidance. However, the negative impact of the size of the service on people was mitigated by the building design fitting into the residential area and the other large domestic homes of a similar size nearby.

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

Right Support

Although staff knew people well and we saw good interaction between them, there were shortfalls in the running of the service. This meant people could not be assured they would always receive the right support which would help them to reach the best possible outcomes. Medicines were stored and managed safely within the service, however there were some issues with the prescribing of medicines which resulted in one person receiving an out of date medicine on multiple occasions.

Right Care

Staff were caring, knew people well, and were able to describe how they supported people to maintain their independence. We saw this in practice. However, the provider’s processes to learn lessons and continuously improve did not ensure that people would always receive the right care.

Right Culture

People told us they were happy living at Kingsdown House, and we saw from our time inspecting that people appeared happy and content. However, the provider did not promote a culture of person-centred support that focused on clear outcomes and putting people first. There were maintenance and furniture replacement concerns that had not been addressed in a timely manner.

There were insufficient staff, so people did not always get the support they needed, and staff told us they were tired. A process was not in place to monitor incidents and check for trends so improvements could be made to benefit people.

People were not always protected against risks associated with their care and support. The provider did not ensure there was robust auditing to review and improve the quality of care.

People received the right support to follow a healthy diet and to choose their meals and when they ate. Staff supported people to access the health care they needed to maintain and improve their health and well-being.

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

Why we inspected

This is the first inspection for this newly registered service. We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was good, published on 16 November 2018.

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.

We found the following examples of good practice.

People were well supported by staff to have telephone and internet contact with their family and friends. Arrangement was in place for visitors to meet in safe places within and outside the service which minimised the risk of infection spread. Staff had consulted with relatives to agree visiting arrangements in line with government guidance.

Visitors were asked health screening questions and to sanitise their hands-on arrival and wear face mask. Temperature checks and lateral flow tests were carried out and once a negative result was received staff facilitated the visit. Visits were limited to 30 minutes in order to minimise the risk of infection.

Plans were in place to isolate people with COVID-19 to minimise transmission if required. The service had good supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as mask and hand sanitizers that were readily available at stations throughout the service.

No new people has been admitted into the service since the pandemic started in March 2020. However, if new person was to be admitted, the provider had adequate systems in place to mitigate any risk.

Staff had received training on how to keep people safe during the COVID-19 pandemic and staff and were regularly tested for COVID-19. The building was clean and free from clutter and there were enhanced cleaning practices.