Maple Lodge

Maple Lodge is a residential care home providing accommodation with personal care for up to 5 people. The service provides care to people with a learning disability and autistic people. There were 4 people living at the service at the time of our assessment. 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.

At our last assessment in October and November 2023, we found the provider was in breach of the regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, safeguarding service users from abuse and improper treatment and good governance. At this assessment the provider had made significant improvements in most areas and was no longer in breach of the regulations. We looked at all key questions and all quality statements. The rating at the last assessment was inadequate. This has now changed to good.

People were safely supported and risks to their health and wellbeing were well managed. The provider understood their responsibilities to keep people safe from harm and abuse. Medicines were managed safely and staff followed infection control policies and procedures. There were enough staff to meet people’s needs, and they had been trained and supported to understand their role. The provider took appropriate actions and had systems in place for learning when things went wrong and made changes to improve the service.

People and their relatives were involved in the assessment, planning and delivery of their care. People were supported to make decisions and when they lacked capacity to make particular decisions, any made on their behalf were in their best interests and as least restrictive as possible. People were supported to have their nutrition, and hydration needs met. There were effective approaches to monitor people’s care and treatment and their outcomes.

Staff respected people’s privacy and dignity and encouraged people to remain independent. People were supported by a caring staff group who respected their choices and preferences. Staff felt supported by the registered manager and colleagues and felt able to contribute to decision making. The service was working within the principles of ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ as people’s choices, independence and access to the community were guaranteed.

Staff treated people as individuals, providing a person-centred approach. People had access to health care professionals to ensure their health needs were met when required. People’s future planning and end of life arrangements were documented where discussed to record their wishes.

At the time of the assessment, the service was led by a registered manager who was also supporting 2 of the provider’s other services, 1 of which they had applied to be a registered manager for. Whilst the registered manager demonstrated capability in overseeing these services, this placed considerable demands on the stability of all of the providers services.The registered manager had improved the overall systems to manage and monitor the safety and quality of the service at Maple Lodge. However, improvements needed to be embedded to ensure they were sustainable.

This service has been in Special Measures since 22 December 2023. The provider demonstrated improvements had been made. The service is no longer rated as inadequate overall or in any of the key questions. Therefore, this service is no longer in Special Measures.