Walsingham Support 18-20 Richmond Close is a ‘care home’, registered to provide support for up to eight people. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. At the time of our inspection, eight people with learning disabilities were living there. Walsingham Support 18-20 Richmond Close also provides personal care support to three people who live in the community in their own homes. This unannounced inspection visit took place on 21 February 2018.

The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary life as any citizen.

At our last inspection, we rated the service Good. At this inspection, we found the evidence continued to support the rating of Good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection. At this inspection, we found the service remained Good.

People continued to receive safe care from staff who understood how to protect them from harm. Risks were managed and people received their medicines safely. There were enough staff to support people, and safe recruitment processes were followed. Lessons were learnt and improvements made when incidents occurred.

The support people received was delivered by staff who had the knowledge and skills to provide effective care. Staff supported people to maintain their physical health and wellbeing and to prepare meals of their choice. The home environment was adapted to meet people’s needs. 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 caring, and people were treated with kindness and respect. Staff knew people well and understood how to communicate with them. People’s privacy was respected, and their dignity and independence promoted. Visitors were encouraged and people were able to maintain relationships that were important to them.

The care people received was individual to them and took their preferences and wishes into account. There were various opportunities for people to take part in activities at home and in the community, and this reduced the risk of social isolation. People and their relatives were confident in raising issues or concerns, and the provider responded to these in a timely manner.

The management and staff team were committed to providing good quality care to people, and promoted a culture that was open and empowering. Staff were supported and motivated in their roles. People and their relatives were encouraged to share ideas to develop the service. There were effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service, and these were used to drive improvements. The registered manager understood their responsibilities as a registered person.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We inspected this service on 26 February 2016. This was an unannounced inspection. Our last inspection took place in December 2013 and at that time we found the home was meeting the regulations we looked at.

The service provides support to eight people with a learning disability and two people received personal care support in their own shared home.

There was a registered manager in the service. 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 were protected from the risks of abuse because staff understood where harm may be caused and took action when people were at risk of harm. Staff supported people to understand any risks to prevent avoidable harm. Where people were concerned about their safety they knew who to speak with.

People kept their medicines in the bedroom and were helped to understand what their medicines were for and to take responsibility for their medicines. Staff knew why people needed medicines and when these should be taken.

Staffing was organised flexibly to enable people to be involved with activities and do the things they enjoyed. People had opportunities to be involved with a variety of activities and could choose what to be involved with.

People had access to food and drink that they liked and specialist diets were catered for. People’s health and wellbeing needs were monitored and they were supported to organise and attend health appointments as required.

People made decisions about their care and staff helped them to understand the information they needed to make informed decisions. Staff sought people’s consent before they provided care and they were helped to make decisions which were in their best interests. Where people’s liberty was restricted, this had been done lawfully to safeguard them.

People were treated with kindness, compassion and respect and staff promoted people’s independence. People liked the staff who supported them and had developed good relationships with them. People maintained relationships with their families and friends who were invited to join in activities with them.

Staff listened to people’s views about their care and people were able to influence the development of the service. People knew how to complain about their care and concerns were responded to.

The provider and manager assessed and monitored the quality of care to ensure standards were met and maintained. They understood the requirements of their registration with us informed us of information that we needed to know.

We made an unannounced inspection to Walsingham at 18-20 Richmond Close, Tamworth in November 2013. When we visited eight people were living there. We had conversations with each of them. One person told us: “I just like this place; the staff are brilliant. They understand my particular problems; they help me to calm down and relax.” The other people told us they were happy living at Richmond Close and with the support they received there. We saw that each person appeared comfortable in their home and that they enjoyed caring and affectionate relationships with the support workers.

We saw that people’s consent to care and support was recorded. We found that support plans provided detailed descriptions of each person’s individual needs. Where it was helpful to people, pictures and symbols like the thumbs up sign, were used in people’s plans.

We found that people were given their medicines in a safe way. We saw that staff had received the appropriate training to enable them to care for and support people safely. During our inspection, we spoke with six support workers who all told us they were well-supported by Walsingham, the provider company and by the registered manager and their colleagues. We found that Walsingham had systems in place to monitor the quality of the care provided at Richmond Close.

The people who lived at 18 and 20 Richmond Close had diverse needs arising from a learning disability, autism and/or epilepsy. They were supported with their daily living by support workers. One person told us they were, “Happy”. Another person said they were, “Well-looked after” and described the support workers and managers as, “Kind”.

We saw that people were treated with consideration and respect. We saw that people’s care plans included assessments of their individual needs made by the people and their key workers. Clear support plans described how people wanted their support to be delivered. People told us they felt safe at 18 and 20 Richmond Close. We observed that they were relaxed and comfortable in their home and had positive relationships with the staff.

We saw that there were enough staff to provide the support people needed. Staff had received appropriate training. They told us they enjoyed their work and felt well-supported themselves.

We saw that Walsingham, the provider organisation had systems in place to monitor the quality and the safety of the service provided.