Maldon House

Ratings

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Good

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

Maldon House is a residential care home for adults with learning disabilities and autism, providing accommodation and personal care for up to 10 people. At the time of our inspection, 9 people were living at the home. Date of assessment 31 March to 08 April 2025. This assessment was in response to CQC receiving information of concern and an aged rating. We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. People were supported to go out regularly and participate in activities at the home and do things that they chose and enjoyed. People’s rooms were being personalised and rooms that had been completed reflected their personalities and who they were. People’s characteristics were protected and promoted, and people were supported to have a fulfilling and good quality of life.

There were good systems and audits in place and there was a good oversight over the service, the manager was both capable and knowledgeable about the service and the people living there. Staff knew people's care needs and how best to support them and were observed offering reassurance to people, feedback from staff and relatives evidenced this. Staff feedback was positive about the support they had from the management team and that they enjoyed working at Maldon House. Staff comments included, “[The manager] has done so well and turned it around, a happy place and I enjoy coming to work, I know I will have a good day and love the residents." Staff understood how to keep people safe and how to support them to take positive risks. Staff had specific training, and the correct skill sets to be able to support people with autism and learning disabilities.

At this inspection we found improvements had been made to record keeping and medicine management and the home was currently having support and guidance from the Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes team (MOCH). Improvements had been made to people’s positive behaviour support plans (PBS), these reflected

people’s specific needs. Staff were aware how to individually support each person and people had assigned keyworkers. Ongoing improvements were being implemented to the home such as creating a quiet lounge, a sensory room, outside seating area and a usable safe garden space. Improvements were underway with decision specific mental capacity assessments for people in line with the Mental Capacity Act 2005, this was still ongoing at the time of inspection.

People's experience of this service

Not everybody was able to communicate with us verbally, so we carried out observations of people, interactions with staff and other people living in the home and contacted relatives and community health care professionals for feedback. There were positive interactions with staff and people living in the home, staff knew what was important to people. Staff had a good rapport with people and knew how to communicate effectively with people and how to support them if they were distressed. People were observed engaged and enjoying activities going on throughout the day and trips out. Feedback from relatives included, "They are nice people, and [name] loves it there." Another relative told us, " If anything needs amending then I would say this needs addressing and it is done there and then. They are always happy to meet my expectations." We received some feedback that identified issues related to some people. We discussed these with the management team to understand the situations and gather reassurances that these issues were being addressed and rectified. We received these reassurances.