About the service Maldon House is a care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 10 people with a learning disability or autistic people. At the time of our inspection, 10 people were living at the home.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Quality assurance processes at the home did not always identify issues and where issues were identified, these were not always actioned in a timely way. Aspects of the environment needed improvement. Where we identified issues with the environment, these were immediately actioned by staff. People's relatives told us that whilst staff were very responsive to issues raised, these issues were not always resolved in the long term. This included concerns around cleanliness and people's laundry. We found that some documents required improvement, this included ensuring information was effectively recorded in people's support plans to ensure staff that were not familiar with people would be able to support them when they became upset.
Risks to people were safely monitored and managed and regularly reviewed. People were supported to meet their individual needs in a safe way by staff. There were enough staff to support people. Staff had been recruited safely. Medicines were managed safely, although some aspects of recording needed to be improved. Although the home was clean, aspects of the environment needed attention to ensure that safety was promoted through the layout and hygiene practices of the premises.
People's needs and choices were assessed and staff knew people well. Staff were trained in areas that were related to people's needs and received a full induction before working at the home. Staff supported people to lead healthy lives and where people's goals were to lose weights, staff took steps to encourage and support the person to achieve their goal. The design of the home had been adapted to meet people's individual needs. People's mental capacity and ability to make decisions was assessed by staff. Where people were not able to make their own decisions, staff made decisions in the person's best interest in partnership with the person's family.
Staff were kind and caring and treated people as individuals. Staff respected people's individual needs and choices and appreciated people's unique personalities. Staff spent time speaking to people and engaging their interests. Staff knew how to cheer people up if they became upset. People's privacy and dignity was respected by staff. Staff encouraged people to be independent and do as much for themselves as possible.
People's support was personalised to their needs and people were in control of how they spent their time at the home. People's support plans contained information on how to encourage people to achieve things for themselves. Staff knew each person's individual communication needs and we saw that staff understood people. People were supported with a range of activities throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a complaints log for complaints and action plans were drawn up following complaints received on how to resolve them.
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.
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 meeting the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.
Right support:
• Model of care and setting maximises people’s choice, control and independence. People’s opinions and choices were valued and respected by staff. Staff knew people well and understood how to support people safely. There were no identifying signs outside the home that indicated it was a care setting. Staff wore their own clothes which did not identify them as support workers. People were supported to go out regularly and attend events and activities that they enjoyed. People had their own personalised space and were involved in the decoration of rooms used by everyone.
Right care:
• Care is person-centred and promotes people’s dignity, privacy and human rights. Staff respected people’s dignity and privacy and gave people space when they wanted it. People were supported to make their own choices. People received care and support that met their individual needs. We saw that people enjoyed spending time with staff and smiled and laughed with them. One person’s relative told us, “It's the best place for [person] and they're really happy there. You can tell on [person's] face, they love it. “
Right culture:
• Ethos, values, attitudes and behaviours of leaders and care staff ensure people using services lead confident, inclusive and empowered lives. The culture of the staff team was positive towards people and staff focused on what people could achieve. Staff were positive about the support provided by the management team and their peers. One person’s relative told us, “I can't fault the care that [person] is given at all, it's spot on.”
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we inspected
This service was registered with us on 25 September 2020 and this is the first inspection. The last rating for the service under the previous provider was requires improvement (Published 21 January 2020).
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.