This inspection was carried out on 19 and 28 October 2016. It was unannounced. During our last inspection, in August 2015, we found that the service was meeting the legal requirements in the areas we looked at.

The Orchards provides a 24 hour care environment for people with mental health needs and learning disabilities. The service enables people to develop essential daily and community living skills. For some people this forms part of a pathway towards accessing supported living services. At the time of our inspection there were five people living at the home.

The home did not have a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection, although a new manager had been appointed and their application to become registered was being processed. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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. A team leader had been appointed to the home to support the manager with the day to day running of it. They were also supported by the provider’s regional manager.

Staff were aware of the safeguarding process. Personalised risk assessments were in place to reduce the risk of harm to people, as were risk assessments connected to the running of the home, and these were reviewed regularly. Accidents and incidents were recorded and the causes of these analysed so that preventative action could be taken to reduce the number of occurrences. Where people had been involved in incidents because of behaviour that could have a negative effect on others, the triggers for such behaviour had been identified and action taken to reduce the occurrence of such behaviour. People received their medicines as they had been prescribed and there were robust procedure for the safe management of medicines.

There were enough skilled and qualified staff to provide for people’s needs. Robust recruitment and selection processes were in place and the provider had taken steps to ensure that staff were suitable to work with people who lived at the home. Staff received training to ensure that they had the necessary skills to care for and support the people who lived at the home, and were supported by way of supervisions and appraisals. Staff were encouraged to undertake training to gain professional qualifications.

People’s needs had been assessed before they moved into the home and they, their relatives and other healthcare professionals had been involved in determining their support needs and the way in which their support was to be delivered. Their consent was gained before any care was provided and the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and associated Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards were met.

People decided what food and drink they had and a variety of nutritious food and drinks were available to them. People were encouraged to assist in buying and cooking the food. Snacks and fruit were available to people throughout the day.

Staff were kind, caring and protected people’s dignity. They treated people with respect and supported them in a way that allowed them to be as independent as possible.

Information was available to people about how they could make a complaint should they need to, although none had been made recently. Information was also available in formats that people understood about the services provided at the home. People were assisted to access healthcare services to maintain their health and well-being. Staff worked with healthcare professionals and people’s relatives to ensure that the support provided to people best met their needs.

Staff were encouraged to attend meetings with the registered manager at which they could discuss aspects of the service and care delivery. People were asked for feedback about the service to enable improv

During our inspection we spoke with two of the four people using the service. People were generally happy with the care and support provided at The Orchards. One person told us that staff were, “Good,” and that they were encouraged by staff to eat healthily.

We saw that people were involved as far as possible about making decisions about their daily life. People’s diversity was recognised and their privacy respected.

We found that people's care and treatment was planned and reviewed with their involvement. Risks to people's health, welfare and safety were identified and well managed. Our inspection showed us that the service was safe, responsive and caring.

We saw that people's nutritional needs were assessed and monitored to ensure their on-going wellbeing.

We found that people were cared for by staff that were sufficiently trained and supported.

We found that there were systems in place to assess and improve the quality of service provision.