The inspection took place on 5 and 6 April 2017 and was announced.

CCC Dover Drive is a residential care service that provides short stay services to people with learning disabilities and physical disabilities. People have a set number of allocated nights per year, which they can book throughout the year. The accommodation is within two connecting bungalows. Number 18 has two beds and number 20 has 4 beds. There is an internal door between the two bungalows that can be locked if necessary. The home is a single storey building with suitable access for all the people who use it. It is situated less than a mile from Ellesmere Port town centre. At the time of the visit there were five people using the service.

At the last inspection on 1 December 2014, the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

People told us that they were happy with the service provided and that they enjoyed their short stay breaks. They said the staff were kind, caring and helpful. People told us that the food was good. Relatives confirmed that people were safe with the staff and within the service.

People and relatives told us that they had no concerns or complaints about the service. They were aware of and had access to the registered provider’s complaints policy and would speak to staff if they had any concerns.

Care plans were well documented and held good information about the individual person. Risk assessments were in place as needed and were individually tailored to each person’s needs. All documentation was up to date. Medication was administered safely.

People were supported by staff who were knowledgeable about them and who had undertaken sufficient training to meet people’s needs. Staff recruitment was robust and prospective staff undertook appropriate checks prior to starting work at the service. Staff had good supervision and were encouraged to attend meetings.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff were aware of the safeguarding policies and procedures and had received training in safeguarding adults.

The environment was well maintained with good décor and was clean.

The registered manager used a range of methods to assess, monitor and improve the service. These included regular audits of the service and staff and service user meetings to seek the views of people about the quality of care being provided.

People’s views were sought with pre and post phone calls being undertaken by the senior team. Also post visit questionnaires were completed to ensure that the stay had been good for people who used the service and any suggestions could be used in the development of the service. A wide range of compliments had been received regarding the service.

We visited this service on 1 December 2014 and we gave short notice to the service that we were visiting. This was to ensure that people were staying at the service. This was the first inspection of this service, which was registered with the Commission on 11 August 2014.

CCC Dover Drive is registered to provide accommodation for persons who require personal care. They provide a respite service for people in the local area. This means that people do not live permanently there, but visit for a specified period of time. CCC Dover Drive provides personal care for up to seven adults with a physical or learning disability. The accommodation is provided in two bungalows with a connecting door between them. At the time of our visit there were four people staying at the service.

The service has a registered manager in place. 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.

We discussed the Mental Capacity Act 2005 with the visiting manager. They showed that they were knowledgeable about how to ensure that the rights of people who were not able to make or to communicate their own decisions were protected. They were aware of the correct processes to apply for a DoLS if this was found to be in a person’s best interests.

People told us that they were happy staying at CCC Dover Drive and they felt that the staff understood their care needs. People commented “The staff are lovely”, “I like the food”, “Its home from home” and “It’s a lovely place.” Relatives commented “I get phone calls before the stay to check if any changes have occurred. Also after the stay to make sure all is well on the return home” and “They get treated just like at home. The staff are so good.”

We found that people, where possible were involved in decisions about their care and support. Staff made appropriate referrals to other professionals and community services, such as the GP, where it had been identified that there were changes in someone’s health needs. We saw that the staff team understood people’s care and support needs, and the staff we observed were kind and thoughtful towards them and treated them with respect.

We found the service was clean, hygienic and well maintained in all areas seen.

The care records contained detailed information about the support people required and were written in a way that recognised people’s needs. This meant that the person was put at the centre of what was being described. We saw that all records were completed and up to date.

We found the provider had systems in place to ensure that people were protected from the risk of potential harm or abuse. We saw there were policies and procedures in place to guide staff in relation to safeguarding adults. Therefore staff had documents available to them to help them understand the risk of potential harm or abuse of people who were staying at CCC Dover Drive.

We found that good recruitment practices were in place which included the completion of pre-employment checks prior to a new member of staff working at the service. Therefore people who were staying at CCC Dover Drive could be confident that they were protected from staff that were known to be unsuitable.

[RT1]I know that it becomes clearer in the second para that this is respite service but this sentence, on its own here, would not be very clear for most people.