Ashford Lodge Also known as 1-19173028272

Ashford Lodge is a residential care home accommodating up to 8 autistic people and people with a learning disability. At the time of our inspection there were 7 people using the service. Six people lived in an adapted building and a person lived in an annex in the grounds.

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

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.

Right Support:

Staff provided effective support to identify people's aspirations and goals and assist people to plan how these would be met. Staff focused on people's strengths and promoted what they could do. There was a consistent approach to supporting people to learn new skills. Staff enabled people to access health and social care support in the community.

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.

Right Care:

Staff provided care to people which was person-centred and promoted people's dignity, privacy and human rights. People's individual choices were recognised and respected. Staff promoted equality and diversity in their support for people.

People could communicate with staff as staff understood their individual communication. People were empowered to take part in activities of their choice. People were supported to keep in touch with people who were important to them.

People were protected from the risks of harm, abuse and discrimination because staff knew what action to take if they identified concerns. There were enough staff to provide the support people needed.

Staff understood the risks to people's health, safety and welfare. Risk assessments provided guidance for staff about individual risks.

Right Culture:

The service enabled people and those important to them to work with staff to develop the service.

Feedback was requested from people, relatives or health care professionals. Staff ensured the quality and safety of the service had been assessed to ensure people were safe.

Safe recruitment practices were followed. Staff knew and understood people well. The provider and staff worked hard to develop strong leadership.

Quality monitoring systems had been developed and embedded. Morale within the staff team was good and staff felt valued.

Checks and audits were being regularly completed. Shortfalls were identified and action taken to address these.

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

Rating at last inspection and

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 1 March 2022).

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.

Why we inspected

This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection.

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 that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Ashford Lodge on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

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

Ashford Lodge is a residential care home providing personal care to six autistic people and people with a learning disability at the time of the inspection. Ashford Lodge accommodates up to eight people in one adapted building and one person in an annex in the grounds.

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

People’s relatives told us they felt their loved ones were safe at Ashford Lodge and they were “delighted” with the care their relatives received. They described the staff as “patient”, “fantastic”, “amazing” and “committed” to providing a good quality service. They were confident in the registered manager who had begun working at the service in November 2021 and told us they had made improvements at the service. Relatives described the registered manager as “very responsible”, “sensible” “responsive” and “transparent”.

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 The Care Quality Commission (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. The service is located on a busy road in a rural location which made it difficult for people to be part of their local community. However, action had not been taken to maximise people’s opportunities to be part of the community.

Staff offered people choices in ways they understood, but people had not been supported to set goals and develop their independence as much as possible. Timetables of activities had not been put in place to support people to understand what would happen at different times during the day and this caused some people to become anxious at times. The registered manager understood person-centred care and was supporting the staff to concentrate on people rather than tasks. This was not fully embedded at the service and further improvements were needed to ensure people were not ignored while domestic tasks were completed. People were treated with dignity and given privacy. The registered manager worked alongside staff to provide cover for short notice staff absence as well as to develop a person centred culture. They were aware of the shortfalls at the service and had plans in place to make improvements. However, the provider had failed to address shortfalls identified at our last inspection. Records in relation to people’s care were not always accurate, however staff knew people well and provided their care in the way people preferred. The provider had failed to ensure we were always informed of important events that happened at the service so we could check the right action had been taken.

We made recommendations to support the provider to make improvements at the service. These were in relation to improving accessible communication tools and meaningful social, leisure and domestic activities.

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.

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 the service under the previous provider was requires improvement, published on 10 October 2020.

Why we inspected

We completed this inspection in line with our inspection programme. 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 that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified breaches in relation to how the service designed people’s care to maximise their independence and autonomy, the accuracy of people’s care records, the continued improvement of the service and notifying us of important events at this inspection. Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

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.