Longton Court

We 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.

This was a responsive assessment to review 2 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment and good governance, identified in our previous assessment in April 2023.

At our last assessment we rated this service as requires improvement. At this assessment the rating has changed to good.

The service had now improved how they now managed infection prevention and control, medicines management and their governance systems.

The provider had a good learning culture and people could raise concerns. Managers investigated incidents thoroughly. Staff understood and managed risks well. The environment and facilities met people’s needs and was kept clean. There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. Managers made sure staff received training and regular supervision to maintain high-quality care. Staff managed medicines well and involved people in reviewing any changes.

Care was based on latest evidence and good practice. Staff understood people well and were responsive to their needs.

Staff responded to people in a timely way and understood their roles and responsibilities. The service worked with people to support them when they experienced periods of distress so that their freedoms were restricted only if there was no alternative. Effective systems were now in place to assess and monitor the quality and safety of the service.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. The previous registered manager had recently transferred their manager’s registration to a different home owned by the same provider. However, they were working at this service at the time of our site visits. We were told the provider’s quality and assurance manager would be overseeing the management of the service until a new manager was appointed.