Boxgrove House

Updated 4 January 2019

Background

The inspection:

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team:

This inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Service and service type:

Boxgrove House is a care home (without nursing). People in the home receive accommodation and personal care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. There was a registered manager. 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.

Notice of inspection:

The inspection was unannounced.

What we did:

Before the inspection we reviewed the information we held about the service and the service provider. The registered provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We looked at the notifications we had received for this service. Notifications are information about important events the service is required to send us by law.

We spoke to 2 people who use the service and where people were unable to speak with us we observed interactions between them and staff. We looked at four care plans, daily notes and other documentation, such as medication records, relating to people who use the service. In addition, we looked at the records related to the running of the service. These included a sample of health and safety audits, quality assurance, staff and training records. We spoke with seven staff members including, senior care worker, care workers, cook, activities coordinator, the registered manager and the regional manager. We requested information from external health and social care professionals and received 2 responses.

Updated 4 January 2019

What life is like for people using this service:

People remained safe at the service and risks around their well-being were assessed, recorded and regularly reviewed. People were supported by sufficient staff that knew them well. Recruitment procedures to appoint new staff were thorough. People were supported to take their medicines safely.

The registered manager conducted quality assurance audits to monitor the running of the service. However, we found that these were not always effective as they didn’t always identify gaps in medication records. We recommend that the provider seeks guidance around the proper and safe management of medicines.

People received their care and support from a staff team, that had a full understanding of people's care needs and the skills and knowledge to meet them. Staff were given an induction when they started and had access to a range of training to provide them with the level of skills and knowledge to deliver care efficiently.

The service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

People who use the service used a range of communication methods. These included non-verbal to limited verbal communication. Individual methods were supplemented by the use of pictures and objects of reference to indicate their needs and wishes, which were clearly understood by staff.

Staff treated people with respect and kindness at all times and were passionate about providing a quality service that was person centred. People were encouraged to live a fulfilled life with activities of their choosing and were supported to keep in contact with their families.

People's dignity and privacy was respected. People told us staff were reliable, friendly, and caring. Staff developed positive and caring relationships with the people they supported and used creative ways to enable people to remain independent.

The registered manager and the management team strived at creating an inclusive environment to strongly encourage staff, people and their relatives to be involved in the service.

More information is in Detailed Findings below.

Rating at last inspection:

Good (report published 3 June 2016).

About the service:

Boxgrove House is a care home, which is registered to provide care (without nursing) for up to 11 people living with autistic spectrum conditions and learning disabilities. The home is a detached building which is situated on the outskirts of Reading, easily accessible to local amenities and with links to public transport. Each person using the service had their own bedrooms and access to communal areas.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection.

Follow up:

We will follow up on issues that we identified by asking the provider to send us evidence of how and when the issues are sorted. We will monitor all intelligence received about the service to inform the assessment of the risk profile of the service and to ensure the next inspection is scheduled accordingly.