15 November 2023
During a routine inspection
About the service
Melton Short Breaks Service is a residential care home providing personal care to autistic people and people with a learning disability, physical disability, sensory Impairment and to younger Adults. Melton Short Breaks service is registered to accommodate up to 6 people at any one time in an adapted building. At the time of our inspection 5 people were staying at the service but they supported 42 people who accessed the service for short breaks at various times throughout the year.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Right Support: Medicines were not always managed safely and there had been a number of medicine errors. People’s records sometimes contained conflicting information about their care needs. Not all staff had up to date training.
People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not always support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice.
Right Care: The service was caring. Feedback from relatives was positive. They felt their loved ones were well cared for and enjoyed staying at Melton Short Breaks Service.
Right Culture: There was a lack of leadership within the service. This had allowed a culture of some poor practices to develop and continue. Staff felt they could not challenge leaders, even when they knew best practice was not being followed. Staff reported issues were not dealt with correctly.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 5 October 2018).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.
We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective, responsive and well-led sections of this full report.
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
Enforcement
We have identified breaches in relation to the management of medicines, keeping people safe from abuse, staff training, mental capacity assessments and managerial oversight at this inspection.
Full information about CQC’s regulatory response to the more serious concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.
Follow up
We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.