Archived: Sandbourne House

Sandbourne House is a care home for adults with a learning disability. The home is registered to provide accommodation and personal care for up to eight people. At the time of the inspection eight people lived at the home.

What life is like for people using this service:

• Sandbourne House met characteristics of Good in all areas;

• The home was registered for up to eight people before the Registering the Right Support guidance was implemented by CQC in 2017. However, the outcomes for people using the service reflected the principles and values of Registering the Right Support in the following ways; people's support was focused on them having as many opportunities and choices as possible.

• Every person we met was happy, relaxed and were doing activities they enjoyed. People and staff told us they were happy living and working in the home. One person said “I feel safe here.

• There was a homely atmosphere and people’s bedrooms had been personalised and decorated as the person preferred.

• People were supported to eat and drink, they had choice in what they ate and could help themselves to drinks throughout the day and cook if they wished.

• People were supported to access health services promptly. Staff knew people well including their communication needs and could identify when a person was feeling unwell, or in pain or upset.

• Care plans were detailed and explained how people liked personal care provided and what activities they enjoyed.

• Staff knew how to recognise and report abuse and were confident any concerns raised would be responded to by their manager.

• Risk assessments were in place to ensure people’s safety. Medicines were managed and administered safely and recruitment practises continued to be followed.

• There continued to be a range of checks in place to ensure the safety of the home.

• more information is in the full report

Rating at last inspection: Good (The date the last report was published was 10 September 2016).

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection based on the rating at the last inspection. The service remains Good.

Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our inspection schedule for those services rated as Good. We will continue to monitor the intelligence we receive about the service. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

There was a registered manager at the home at the time of the inspection. 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.

Overall, people were being well cared for and supported at Sandbourne House.

The registered manager had good systems to make sure that the environment and way people were looked after were safe. Risk assessments had been completed ensuring care was delivered safely with action taken to minimise identified hazards. The premises had also been risk assessed to make that the environment was safe for people.

Staff had been trained in safeguarding adults and were knowledgeable about the types of abuse and how take action if they had concerns.

Accidents and incidents were monitored to look for any trends where action could be taken to reduce chance of their recurrence.

Sufficient staff were employed at the home to meet the needs of people accommodated.

Robust recruitment were followed to make sure that suitable, qualified staff were employed at the home.

Medicines were managed safely.

The staff team were both knowledgeable and suitably trained.

Staff were well supported through supervision sessions with a line manager, and an annual performance review.

Staff and the manager were aware of the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and acted in people’s best interests where people lacked capacity to consent.

The home was compliant with the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards, with appropriate referrals being made to the local authority.

People were provided with a good standard of food and were fully involved in planning menus and what they wanted to eat.

Staff had good morale and knew people’s needs. People were treated compassionately.

People’s care needs had been thoroughly assessed and care plans put in place to inform staff of how to support people. The plans were person centred, covered all areas of people’s needs and were up to date and accurate.

People enjoyed a range of activities that they had chosen.

There were complaint systems in place and people made aware of how to complain.

Should people need to go into hospital, systems were in place to make sure that important information would be passed on so that people could experience continuity of care.

The home was well led. There was a very positive, open culture in the home.

There were systems in place to audit and monitor the quality of service provided to people.