Salthouse Road

Ratings

• Overall

  Good

• Safe

  Good

• Effective

  Good

• Caring

  Good

• Responsive

  Good

• Well-led

  Good

Our view of the service

Salthouse Road is a care home. The service provides specialist support to people with a learning disability and / or autistic people. Site visits were on 13 and 19 February 2024. At the last inspection, the service had been awarded an overall rating of good. However, at this assessment we found areas of concern. Until we have assessed more quality statements in all key questions the rating for this service remains the same. There were enough staff to safely support people and staff received training and felt well supported. Care plans were detailed and provided person-centred information. People had access to health professionals and there was input from people’s relatives and representatives. The principles of The Mental Capacity Act (2005) (MCA) were understood by staff. However, there were 3 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, governance and not notifying CQC of all relevant incidents. Processes were ineffective in highlighting and addressing some of the issues found during our assessment. This included staff not consistently following guidance contained within risk assessments and elements of medicines recording not in line with best practice. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people which providers must have regard to. The service demonstrated meeting some of the principles of this guidance, however this was not consistent, and a closed culture had developed. The provider had started to address this shortly prior to our assessment commencing. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

People's experience of this service

People demonstrated they felt safe; our observations supported that people had built good working relationships with some staff members and appeared comfortable with them. People’s relatives and representatives told us staff were kind and promoted people’s dignity. They felt any issues would be addressed. For example, a person noted, “Staff are just very good, and understand [person’s name], what their triggers are, how to soothe them, have good relationships and have just got that bond with them”. The relevant people were included in decisions about people’s care and informed of any important information. For example, a relative told us. “I’m still involved, absolutely, in fact on a daily basis.” It was noted there had been quite a lot of new staff and a new manager at the service. Whilst the experience had been generally positive, further time was needed to establish confidence and a rapport.