This inspection took place on 11 December 2015 and was unannounced. Arbour Way provides residential care and support for up to five people with a learning disability. The service is located in a residential area. At the time of our inspection there were four people at the home.
A registered manager was in post. A registered manager is person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.
Arbor Way provided good care and support for the people that lived there. People were encouraged to lead fulfilling lives in line with their own preferences and choices. The emphasis was on supporting people to be as independent as possible. People were involved in making decisions about their care and how the service was run.
Care and support plans contained clear and up to date information about how people wanted their needs met. There were good opportunities for people to discuss any concerns or ideas that they had about their care.
People were supported in having their health needs met. Health services such as psychologists, dentists, GPs and opticians were used as required. We saw that medicines were administered by staff who had received training to ensure that this was done in a safe way.
Staff were knowledgeable about the needs of each person and how they preferred to live their lives. Staff received the training they required and were supported through regular ‘supervision’ meetings with the registered manager. There were safe recruitment practices in place for new staff and there were a sufficient number of staff on duty to meet people’s needs.
There were good systems in place to keep people safe. Staff were confident about their responsibilities in relation to safeguarding and also knew who they could contact if they had any concerns about the service.
Risks in peoples’ day to day lives had been identified and measures put in place to keep people safe. There was a positive approach to risk taking so that people could be as independent as possible. The focus was on how each person benefited from the activity undertaken.
The staff team were aware of the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). These are safeguards put in place to protect people where their freedom of movement is restricted. All the people who lived at the home had a DoLS authorisation due to the level of supervision provided. Staff had been trained in the MCA and had a good awareness of issues related to capacity and consent.
Staff told us that the service was well managed and that there was good support provided by the management team. The registered manager promoted a culture of respect, involvement and independence. There were systems in place to make sure that the quality of care was maintained and areas that required improvement were identified and necessary action taken.