Archived: Bridge House

This inspection took place on 11 and 15 December 2014 and was announced. We gave the provider 48 hours’ notice of the inspection because the service is small. We needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in. The previous inspection took place on 13 December 2013 under the Commissions old way of inspecting services. The provider had met the standards that were inspected.

The service has a registered manager. 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.

Bridge House is the headquarters for 1st Enable limited. 1st Enable support five people in a cluster flat setting in Chester city centre. A new cluster provision of flats has recently opened on the outskirts of Chester. At the time of our inspection one person was living there. 1st Enable also support five other clients who live in individual accommodation of their own in the Chester and Ellesmere Port area.

People were supported by staff that had the required skills to promote their safety and welfare. People had been provided with information in an understandable format so they knew what was meant by ‘keeping safe’.

People who used the service were involved in the recruitment of staff to ensure they were happy with the people who were going to support them. There was a system in place to match new members of staff with people who used the service in order to ensure that staff were matched effectively in line with the person’s needs. Staffing numbers were sufficient to meet the needs of the people who used the service.

Medicines were managed safely and people told us that staff supported them with their medication and always received it on time.

People’s nutritional needs had been assessed and staff were knowledgeable of people’s nutritional needs. People told us they had plenty of choices with regards to what they wanted to eat. Relatives told us that their relatives’ health had improved as a result of the care provided by staff.

People told us that staff were caring. We saw good interactions between people who used the service and the staff team. People were involved in the planning of their care and had an opportunity to say what was important to them. They also had the opportunity to discuss their future wishes and aspirations.

We found that people had an opportunity to take part in the activities they enjoyed inside their home and out in the community. Relatives told us they had no complaints about the service. They told us they knew how to make a complaint and felt the manager was approachable.

Systems were in place for checking on the quality of service provided and processes were in place to deal with any areas identified for improvement. The management team had vast experience in supporting people with learning disabilities and autism and spoke passionately about the vision for the future of this service.