Hayward Care Centre

The service was now managing people’s medicines safely. Staff had medicines training and checks on their competence. Records demonstrated people had their medicines as prescribed. There were enough staff available to meet people’s needs, however, for 1 person there were not enough staff to provide them with person-centred care. Staff had been recruited safely and were provided with a range of training and regular supervision.

The service was clean and well maintained. Regular health and safety checks were completed and fire safety was checked by external contracting staff. Any equipment in the service was also checked for safety. Risks to people’s safety were identified and staff had the guidance needed to provide safe support. Care plans contained a range of information about people’s needs and were regularly reviewed by staff. Care records demonstrated people had the care and support needed to mitigate risks such as pressure damage, falls and malnutrition.

People were able to record their wishes for end-of-life care. Whilst there was no end-of-life care taking place during our assessment, staff had been provided with training on this type of care. The service had good links with relevant healthcare professionals to help them manage areas such as pain, when people reached end stages of their lives.

The provider now had effective governance systems to identify and improve shortfalls at the service. Management, staff and the provider were completing various checks and audits to identify where improvements were needed. However, governance systems had not identified shortfalls in care delivery for 1 person. An assessment has been undertaken of a service that is used by autistic people or people with a learning disability but is not registered as a specialist service. We have assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. Leaders were not knowledgeable about this guidance which meant there were some shortfalls in 1 person’s care and support. We found a breach of the legal regulation in relation to person-centred care.

Since the last assessment there was a new registered manager. Despite their lack of knowledge regarding managing services for people with learning disabilities, they had made improvements in other areas of the service. Feedback about their approach from people, relatives and staff was positive. Staff said the whole management team at the service were approachable, inclusive and responsive. There was a service improvement plan which recorded all actions to be completed. This was monitored by the registered manager and the provider to make sure work was carried out in a timely way.