This inspection took place on 18 and 19 October 2016. The first day of the inspection was unannounced. Inglewood House provides accommodation for up to 12 people with a learning disability who may have an additional health diagnosis.

The service had a registered manager in post. 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.

People living in Inglewood House were safe. Staff working in the service had received safeguarding training and understood the provider’s procedures for protecting people from abuse. People’s risks of avoidable harm were reduced as a result of risk assessments. The provider’s recruitment procedures were robust and there were sufficient numbers of staff to support people safely. People received their medicines safely and staff protected people by employing effective infection control measures.

People received effective care delivered by trained and supervised staff. Staff received training to meet people’s specific needs and met regularly with the manager to discuss their delivery of care and support. People consented to their care and their rights under legislation were upheld. People ate well and those who required support to eat had assessments and care plans to ensure they swallowed food and drink safely. People were supported to access health and social care professionals in a timely manner.

People were supported by kind and caring staff. People were treated with dignity and respect and their privacy was protected. People who were approaching the end of their lives were cared for in a compassionate and person centred way.

People’s needs were assessed and care plans were written to guide staff how to meet them. People had person centred plans which detailed their individual preferences. People chose the activities they participated in understood how to make a complaint if they had any concerns.

The manager demonstrated an open management style and staff felt supported. The quality of care being delivered to people was robustly audited. There were systems in place to monitor, review, and make improvements to the service. The service worked in partnership with health and social care professionals.

Observation during the inspection showed staff supporting people to make their own choices about what they had for lunch and what activities they took part in. Staff communicated well with each person and had a good rapport. One person told us "the staff here are lovely - we have a laugh and it is fun". Staff knew exactly how each person communicated which meant people's wishes were understood and respected.

We observed that staff asked people about how and when they wanted their care and support. This indicated that people were involved in planning their care on a daily basis.

People chose how to occupy themselves in the service. We observed that people were spending time in the communal areas watching television, playing with the dog and interacting with each other. During our inspection we observed several people getting ready to go to college and other people preparing drinks and food in the kitchen.

One person told us "I like living here. I like the whole place - the staff are nice and they talk to me. I wouldn't change anything".

Staff we spoke with told us "I love my role and am very happy. It is nice because it doesn't feel like a job". Another member of staff said "I am very passionate about what I do. It is important that I ensure I deliver the best service possible".

We inspected Inglewood House as part of our schedule of planned inspections. The inspection was unannounced which meant people and staff did not know we were going to inspect.

We inspected the home to see if people that used the service were provided with opportunities to make decisions about their support, care and daily lives. Some people were able to describe how they were involved in making decisions, others needed support from staff. As some people were not able to tell us about their experiences, we used an observation tool called the Short observation framework for inspection (SOFI). The SOFI tool allowed us to spend time watching what was going on in a service and helped us to record how people spent their time and whether they had positive experiences. This included looking at the support that was given to them by the staff.

We saw that people that used the service had care records, plans and assessments of their care needs in place. All the records we looked at had been reviewed. This meant that records were up to date and reflected people's current needs.

Staff we spoke with knew how to report suspected abuse and how to protect people. They confirmed that they had received the training they needed to provide people with the support they required.

Complaints procedures where in place, people we spoke with told us that they had no concerns about the care and support they received.