Clover Court

Updated 21 September 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

Inspection team

This inspection was conducted by an inspector and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

This service provides care and support to people living in flats within one ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was a registered manager in post.

Notice of inspection

We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection. This was because people are often out, and we wanted to be sure there would be people at home to speak with us. Inspection activity started on 09 August 2022 and ended on 23 August 2022. We visited the service on 09 August 2022.

What we did before inspection

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We used the information the provider sent us in the last provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with nine people and two relatives during the inspection. We spoke with seven care staff, the area manager, deputy head of service and registered manager.

We viewed three people’s care records, medication records, two staff personal files and records relating to the management of the service.

Updated 21 September 2022

Clover Court provides care and support to people living in 20 'supported living' flats, so that they can live as independently as possible. People's care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people's personal care and support.

Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do, we also consider any wider social care provided. The service was supporting 19 people at the time of the inspection.

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

There were systems in place to keep people safe. Risks were identified and managed to reduce the risk to people’s wellbeing.

The service was affected by staffing issues being experienced across the care sector. Shortfalls were covered by agency staff and staff working additional hours however staff morale was low. We have made a recommendation about staffing and team building.

There were systems in place to support people with their medicines and people told us that staff followed the recommended guidance in relation to infection control practice.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

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. We considered this guidance as there were people using the service who have a learning disability and or who are autistic.

People were actively involved in their care and received personalised support which met their needs and preferences.

The service had a quality assurance system to monitor the quality and safety of the service. Where it was identified that improvements could be made a plan was put into place.

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 outstanding (published 9 April 2019). 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 outstanding to good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.