This inspection took place on 17 August 2016 and was unannounced.

The Poplars is owned and managed by Autism East Midlands. The service is situated in Whitwell, Derbyshire, and provides care and support for up to five people over the age of 18 years with learning disabilities and autism. At the time of this inspection there were five people living at the service.

At our last inspection in May 2015 the service was not meeting two regulations. These were in relation to protecting people from risks to their safety and assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision. Following the inspection the provider sent us their action plan to tell us about the improvements they were going to make. At this inspection we found improvements had been made.

There was a new manager in post at The Poplars. The manager had been newly appointed and had begun the process of applying to become the 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.

The service was safe, clean and well maintained. Medicines were stored, administered and managed safely. Staff received appropriate training and assessment took place, to ensure their practice was safe when administering people’s medicines.

There were effective systems in place to safeguard people and keep them safe. Staff recruitment procedures were in place and followed. Pre-employment checks were undertaken to ensure staff were able to work within the care sector. People using the service and the staff supporting them knew who to report any concerns to if they felt it was necessary.

People were supported to access health professionals when they needed to. People were encouraged to remain as independent as possible and were supported to by staff to prepare meals and drinks of their choice.

People were supported and involved in decisions made in their best interests. The staff had received training in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). When required, applications had been made to the local authority for assessment and authorisation.

People were supported by staff who were kind, caring and compassionate. Staff treated people with dignity and respect. People were supported to remain as independent as possible. People’s relatives were supported to maintain contact with their family member. People were supported to have access to a variety of communication aids to support them in their daily life. Staff showed consideration for peoples’ individual needs and provided care and support in a manner that respected individual wishes and preferences.

The provider had auditing systems and checks in place to ensure the service was safe and of good quality. There was a positive, open and inclusive culture at the service. Staff felt supported by the management team at the service. Staff received supervision and support from the management team. There were enough staff with the right skills and experience to meet people’s needs. Staff received training which enabled them to provided people with safe care and support.

The Poplars is owned by Autism East Midlands. The service is situated in Whitwell, Derbyshire, and provides care and support for up to five people over the age of 18 years with learning disabilities and autism. At the time of this inspection there were five people accommodated.

This inspection took place on 20 and 21May 2015. The first day was unannounced.

At our last inspection in May 2014 the service was not meeting the regulations we inspected with regard to record keeping, so we followed up this issue and found this had been attended to.

A registered manager was not 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 and associated Regulations about how the service is run. The current manager had made an application to be the registered manager and was awaiting an interview to become the registered manager.

Since our previous inspection in February 2014, we had received information from the local authority safeguarding team which had substantiated issues of abuse concerning people living in the service. This had included inappropriate staff behaviour and medication errors. We looked at these issues on this inspection and found people were treated in a friendly and respectful way and their prescribed medication had been supplied to them.

People and their relatives said they felt safe in the service.

Testing of fire systems was largely in place though there was no confirmation that requirements of the fire service had been met.

Detailed risk assessments had not always been undertaken to inform staff of how to manage and minimise risks to people's health from happening.

Staff had received training on how to protect people who used the service from abuse or harm. They demonstrated they were aware of their role and responsibilities in keeping people as safe as possible.

The Commission had not been informed of situations of abuse to people which meant that monitoring action to prevent these situations could not be considered.

Staffing levels needed to be reviewed to ensure they always met people's needs.

We found people received their prescribed medication in a safe way by staff trained in medication administration.

The provider supported staff by an induction and some ongoing support, training and development. However, comprehensive training had not been provided to all staff, although we saw evidence this had been planned for the near future.

The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is legislation that protects people who may lack capacity to consent to their care and treatment. People’s capacity to consent to specific decisions had been assessed.

People received a choice of what to eat and drink and they liked the food provided.

People who used the service and relatives told us they found staff to be caring and friendly. Our observations found staff to be friendly and attentive to people’s individual needs.

Staff had read people's care plans so they were aware of how to provide care to people that met their needs.

People were encouraged to be as independent as possible. People had their rights respected in terms of privacy and dignity.

Activities were provided though provision was limited and needed to be expanded to include people's preferences.

Complaints had been followed up though the complaints procedure did not provide full information as to how to make a complaint.

The provider had internal quality and monitoring procedures in place, though there was not always evidence that identified actions had been implemented.

The manager enabled staff to share their views about how the service was provided by way of staff meetings and supervision. Staff said management provided good support to them.

We visited The Poplars and we spoke with two staff, three managers and two people living there, as well as two relatives. People we spoke with told us they were happy living there and they felt safe. A relative told us "if we were multi millionaires we could not possibly get better care."

We found that before people received any care they were asked for their consent and the provider acted in accordance with their wishes. Where people did not have the capacity to consent, the provider acted in accordance with legal requirements.

We found that care, support and treatment was planned and delivered in a way that was intended to ensure people’s safety and welfare.

There were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff to meet people’s needs.

We found that there were systems in place to handle complaints. People told us they would feel confident about raising concerns. There was information available to people about how to make a complaint and it was in a format accessible to them.

During our visit we saw personal records including medical records for everyone living at The Poplars. We also saw records relevant to the management of the service. However, some of these records were not accurate, fit for purpose and might not be located promptly when needed. This meant that people might not be protected from the risks of unsafe or inappropriate care and treatment.

We visited the home and saw people return from shopping and attending a community centre. We saw people being helped to prepare meals and exercise choice in what they had. We saw people's rooms which had been personalised with their own furniture and or belongings. Not everyone was able to speak to us but the people we did speak to told us they were very happy in the home. One person had moved to the home over a year ago and told us they were much happier at the Poplars. The same person's relative told us that the person was much happier since the move.

We spoke to three relatives in total who were mostly happy with the care provided. One relative said the had concerns about staffing levels because there seemed to have been a lot of sickness. The same person said they were concerned about the capacity of staff to deal fully with people's needs in those circumstances. Relatives were invited to care reviews but one told us they did not always feel able to raise issues.