The inspection took place on 3 October 2014 this was unannounced. At our last inspection in December 2013 we found that all the regulations we looked at were met.
The home provides accommodation and care in a spacious house which had been adapted to meet the specific needs of five people with learning disabilities and also living with one or more sensory impairments. People were unable to communicate with us verbally but expressed their feelings through non-verbal communication.
There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a 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.
Relatives,health care staff and social care professionals who supported people at the home told us that they thought the home was safe. Our observations showed that staff were aware of, and acted to minimise, any identified risks to people without restricting their independence. We saw there were systems and processes in place to protect people from the risk of harm and staff took individual responsibility for the safety and well-being of people in their care.
Staff told us they had received appropriate training and were knowledgeable about the needs of people who lived in the home. Our observations showed they anticipated people’s needs as they knew them well. Staff had received training about the needs of deaf blind people and used the knowledge to communicate and support people to make choices in their day-to-day their life. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs and support them to follow interests and pursuits they enjoyed.
People had their health care needs met and their medicine administered appropriately. Action was taken to familiarise people with routine medical interventions such as taking of blood before this was needed. This demonstrated the manager was proactive in helping people to access health care assessments so that their health was maintained
People had a choice of food and drink that reflected their individual needs. Staff supported appropriately where health professionals had made recommendations about a person’s food and drink needs. In addition the manager had recently looked to involve a person in hosting a dinner party. This included inviting and greeting their guests and shopping and preparing the food they liked. This allowed the person to experience a social occasion involving food.
The provider had invested in employing specialist staff to assess some of the needs of people such as with eating and drinking or the way people showed their feelings. The specialist staff had produced guides for care staff so that they had the information they needed to meet the complex needs of people living in the home.
Relatives we spoke with told us that the care people received was excellent .They said staff were caring, interested and were committed to ensure that people had a good quality of life in the home. We saw that people were treated with dignity and respect and that people were able to have private time safely as any potential risks had been identified and minimised. Staff used differing forms of communication with people such as objects or hand under hand signs to tell them what was going to happen next in their day. We also saw that staff observed people for non-verbal communication so that they could meet their needs.
Management systems were well established to monitor and learn from incidents and concerns. The manager and provider undertook checks and had systems in place to maintain the quality of the service the home was providing. The manager had innovative ideas about how the home could continue to improve and had put some of these into action. The provider supported the ideas of staff and managers where these were of benefit to people of the home. Where these had proven to be successful they were shared with all of the provider’s homes. This meant both the manager and the provider were striving for continued improvement in this home.