18 October 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
About the service
St Raphael's is a care home for up to 21 adults with learning disabilities. At the time of the inspection, 19 people were living at the service. The service is divided into three interconnected buildings, St Raphael's and Fatima House which offer accommodation in single bedrooms and Taylor House which is used as an activity centre.
The service is managed by The Frances Taylor Foundation, a not for profit Catholic organisation, offering accommodation and care for people with learning disabilities and older people in care homes and supported living services across the United Kingdom.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
The service was able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture.
Right Support
The size of the care home was large, but this did not compromise the quality of care or safety for people. There was a sense of community, which people using the service, their relatives and staff described. Shared communal areas were popular and people enjoyed spending time together.
The staff supported people to have the maximum possible choice, control and independence and they had control over their own lives. Staff focused on people’s strengths and promoted what they could do, so people had a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life. People were supported by staff to pursue their interests. The provider gave people care and support in a safe, clean, well equipped, well-furnished and well-maintained environment that met their sensory and physical needs. Staff enabled people to access specialist health and social care support in the community.
Right Care
The service was part of a Catholic order and people had opportunities to celebrate their faith and religion. The provider's ethos included the aim to treat all faiths equally, and they ensured information about people's other faiths and religions was clear, understood by staff and their needs were met.
Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people. They understood people’s cultural needs and provided culturally appropriate care. People received kind and compassionate care. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service worked well with other agencies to do so. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and they knew how to apply it. The service had enough appropriately skilled staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Staff assessed the risks people might face. Where appropriate, staff encouraged and enabled people to take positive risks.
Right culture
People received good quality care, support and treatment because trained staff and specialists could meet their needs and wishes. People were supported by staff who understood best practice in relation to the wide range of strengths, impairments or sensitivities people with a learning disability and/or autistic people may have. This meant people received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Why we inspected
We undertook this inspection to assess that the service is applying the principles of Right support right care right culture.
We carried out an unannounced comprehensive inspection of this service on 29 September 2021. Breaches of legal requirements were found. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve the service.
We undertook this focused inspection to check they had followed their action plan and to confirm they now met legal requirements. This report only covers our findings in relation to the Key Questions Safe, Effective, Caring and Well-led.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from requires improvement to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for St Raphael's on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 10 November 2021). The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
At this inspection we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.