Low Laithes

Updated 13 June 2024

Low Laithes is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 35 young people with learning disabilities or autistic spectrum disorder. At the time of the assessment there were 33 people living at the service. Accommodation comprises of individual self-contained apartments spread across 7 services. Each apartment comprises of a kitchen/dining area, lounge and a bedroom with ensuite facilities. People living in ground floor accommodation also have their own garden area. The home also has various communal areas and gardens on site as well as a separate office with meeting and training rooms. The home is surrounded by countryside near to the village of Wombwell. The home is larger than best practice guidelines. However, this is offset by the provider dividing the home into separate apartments and having a strong focus on outcomes for people meeting the principles of ‘Right support, right care, right culture.’ 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 and providers must have regard to it. Since our last inspection there have been changes to the senior team with a new manager and deputy manager recently appointed. We rated this service under our previous methodology on 29 April 2021 where it was inspected and rated good overall. Assessment activity started on 26 June 2024 and ended on 15 July 2024. We visited the service on 26 June 2024 and 2 July 2024. Our overall rating for this assessment remains good.

Updated 13 June 2024

During our visits we saw people supported by staff that were caring and attentive. When asked if they liked living at Low Laithes, one person said, “I like living here,” and another smiled and gave us the thumbs up sign. Families spoken to were mainly positive. One commented, “We are delighted with the placement at Low Laithes. Superb place. [Person] is settled at Low Laithes and supported by a team of 6-8 people who know [person] incredibly well. Another relative said, “Things are going in the right direction about working holistically together and increasing person-centredness with service and trying to support people’s difficulties in a better way.” Care records were detailed and showed a person-centred approach. People and their relatives were involved in decisions about their care and care plans reflected their individual needs and wishes. People and relatives told us there were enough staff to ensure people were appropriately supported. However, we received mixed feedback from some relatives regarding staff consistency and agency usage. One relative commented, “In the last year consistency of familiar staff for [Name]. Some left due to illnesses and other factors and not been as consistent and familiar as we’d like. Last two months settling and improving." Family and friends were free to visit, and people visited family and friends. People were able to make choices about their day to day lives and undertook activities at the service and in the community which supported their independence, health, and wellbeing.