The Lodge

Updated 10 April 2019

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team: One inspection manager.

Service and service type: The Lodge is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection: This inspection was announced. We gave the service 24 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small and we needed to be sure that they would be in.

What we did: We reviewed information we had received about the service since the service was last inspected. We assessed the information we require providers to send us at least once annually to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection we met with all the people who lived in the home. We spoke with one care staff and the registered manager.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people's care records and medicine record and various records relating to the management of the home.

Updated 10 April 2019

About the service: The Lodge is registered to provide accommodation for up to three people who require accommodation and support with their personal care due to living with Autism. The home is located on Wirral, Merseyside. At the time of our inspection three people lived at the home.

People’s experience of using this service: People’s support plans contained clear and easy to understand information about their needs and risks and how to support them effectively. Support plans were person centred and contained information about people’s preferences, daily routines and what was important to them.

The people in the home were limited in being able to express their needs and wishes verbally, staff had detailed guidance on the behaviours, gestures and body language the person would use to communicate their needs or wishes. Some people used Makaton and others used objects of reference to make their needs known.

Medicines were managed safely and people had access to a range of health and social care professionals in support of their needs.

During our visit, we had no concerns about the support people received and the registered manager and small, consistent staff team were committed to providing a good service.

In June 2017, CQC published best practice guidance called ‘Registering the Right Support’. This good practice guidance sets out the values and standards of support expected for services supporting people with a learning disability and or autism. During our visit, we found that the service had not been designed in line with this best practice guidance. The service was situated on the edge of a campus style setting with other services for people who have a learning disability. However, we could see that the service focussed on the values set out in the ‘Registering the Right Support’ guidance which advocates that people’s choice, independence and ability to live as life as ordinary in their own home should be promoted in service delivery.

Rating at last inspection: The service had previously been rated as Good in September 2016.

Why we inspected: The service was inspected in accordance with our ratings programme.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service and will inspect again in accordance with our inspection principles.

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