The Care Quality Commission
  • Care Home
  • Care home

Oakhurst Lodge

Overall: Good read more about inspection ratings

137 Lyndhurst Road, Ashurst, Southampton, Hampshire, SO40 7AW (020) 3802 9358

Provided and run by:
Cygnet Care Services Limited

Important: The provider of this service changed. See old profile

All Inspections

During an assessment under our new approach

We carried out this assessment 4 June 2024 to 4 July 2024. We assessed this service to see if improvements had been made following our last inspection. At our last inspection in May 2023, we found breaches of the regulations in relation to person-centred care, need for consent, safe care and treatment, safeguarding, good governance, and staffing. At this assessment we found improvements had been made and the provider was now meeting regulations. The provider had developed a new management team who people, most relatives and staff were positive about. A range of quality assurance systems were in place, and these were used effectively to ensure people received safe and high-quality care. The rating has changed from requires improvement (published 15 August 2023) to good. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

17 May 2023

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

About the service

Oakhurst Lodge is a care home, without nursing, that provides care and support for up to 8 adults with autism and learning disabilities and other multiple needs. The home is on the outskirts of the New Forest in a community setting between Southampton and Lyndhurst.

At the time of the inspection there were 7 people using the service.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability the choices, dignity, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Right support, right care, right culture is the statutory guidance which supports CQC to make assessments and judgements about services providing support to people with a learning disability and/or autistic people.

The service was not able to demonstrate how they were meeting some of the underpinning principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

Right Support

More needed to be done to ensure people were consistently supported to have a fulfilling and meaningful everyday life that included achieving aspirations and goals and having regular access to meaningful activities. Whilst the service had planned for when people experienced periods of distress, the plans lacked completeness and in some cases contained inaccuracies. This increased the risk of inconsistent approaches being used which could increase people’s distress. Staff were not consistently supporting people to make decisions following best practice. Staff enabled people to access health care services in their local community and care was provided in a clean and generally well maintained environment.

Right Care

Managers had not always ensured risks faced by people had been assessed and planned for. The risks posed to people due to the complex needs of their peers had not been adequately assessed and planned for. Concerns were raised that leaders had not always responded appropriately to concerns about abuse. More needed to be done to ensure staff understood people’s individual ways of communicating. There were usually sufficient staff deployed to meet people’s needs within the home, but hours aimed at supporting community activities were not being fully utilised.

Right culture

There were a range of governance processes in place, but these were not being fully effective, as the inspection found a number of areas where the safety and quality of care being provided had fallen below the required standards. The culture within the service was kind and caring and staff in all roles were passionate about their work. Staff were recruited safely.

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

Rating at last inspection

This last rating for this service was good 27 February 2018.

Why we inspected

We undertook this inspection to assess whether the service was applying the principles of Right support right care right culture.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns about record keeping, the management of incidents and potential restrictive practices being used. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

We have found evidence the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective 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.

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 good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

Enforcement

We have identified breaches in relation to safe care and treatment, consent, person centred care, safeguarding people from abuse and good governance.

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 request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.

23 January 2018

During a routine inspection

Oakhurst Lodge is a care home. People in care homes receive accommodation and their care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided and both were looked at during this inspection. Oakhurst Lodge provides care for up to eight young adults with autism and severe learning difficulties often accompanied by complex needs, behaviours which might challenge others and self-injurious behaviours. At the time of our inspection there were seven people of both sexes living at the home. The service is located in a residential area close to local amenities. There is a large secure garden and parking on site.

This was the first comprehensive inspection of this service under the provider CAS Care Services Limited. We have rated the service as Good overall. This was because, although we found some areas where the service could improve upon, people overall experienced good care and support.

The service has a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Some improvements were needed to ensure that medicines were managed safely and in line with the provider’s policies and procedures. The home was clean and suitable cleaning schedules were in place, however staff were not consistently completing records which demonstrated that they were complying with food hygiene records.

Most parents felt that communication was an area where improvements could be made. Whilst people took part in a range of leisure activities, some relatives felt there was scope to expand on this.

There were sufficient numbers of staff to meet people's needs. Risk assessments were carried out to enable people to receive care with minimum risk to themselves or others.

The provider had appropriate policies and procedures for reporting abuse. This ensured staff had clear guidance about what they must do if they suspected abuse was taking place.

Accidents and incidents were investigated to make sure that any causes were identified and action was taken to minimise any risk of reoccurrence. Lessons learnt were communicated effectively with the staff team and throughout the organisation through a lessons learnt group.

People’s dietary needs were met and they were supported to make meal choices.

There were systems in place to support effective joint working with other professionals and agencies and to ensure that people’s healthcare needs were met.

In general the environment was suited to people’s needs. Further improvements were planned to make the environment more homely. People were being consulted on this.

Staff had built strong relationships with people and knew how best to support them. They knew what was important to people and what they should be mindful of when providing their support. Staff interacted with people in a kind and caring manner.

Staff supported people in a way that maintained their independence and they spoke with, and about, people in a respectful manner. People were supported to maintain relationships with people that mattered to them.

Staff had taken innovative steps to provide information to people in a way in which they could understand allowing them to be as involved as possible in decisions about how their care was provided. People were involved in the running of the service through weekly house meetings.

The registered manager used complaints or concerns to understand how they could improve or where they were doing well.

The registered manager demonstrated a good knowledge of each person living at the home. The registered manager had a clear vision for the service which was underpinned by key values which included dignity, respect and inclusion.

There were systems in place to assess and monitor the quality and safety of the service and these were an integral part of the way in which the registered manager and provider identified shortfalls, learning and innovation to drive improvements in the service.