About the service: River Lodge is registered to provide accommodation for up to eight people who require accommodation and support with their personal care due to living with learning difficulties. The home is located near to Burton On Trent. At the time of our inspection eight 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. For those people who were unable 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. From talking to staff it was clear they knew people well. They were able to tell us about people’s changing needs and how the support provided had been adapted to respond to these changes.

The atmosphere at the home was positive and inclusive. We saw that people were well looked after, safe and happy at the home.

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

People who lived at the home were given opportunities to express their views and where possible any suggestions for improvement were acted upon. Feedback on the service was positive and from our observations it was clear that people liked the staff and the place in which they lived. All of the staff spoken with had a positive attitude about the service and the care that they provided. During our visit, we had no concerns about the support people received and the manager and staff team appeared 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 was not designed in line with this best practice guidance. The service was situated on a campus style setting with two 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: This was the first inspection for this service since it registered with CQC. The service had been registered with a different provider and had previously been rated as Good in November 2015.

Why we inspected: This was a planned inspection and the first for this service under the current provider.

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