Fir Trees House

The inspection was prompted due to concerns we had received relating to the quality of facilities and care provided. Although we identified and observed some of these concerns during the first day of our assessment, we found some improvements had been made by the time we returned to the service on the second day of our assessment.

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. We identified the provider was not always meeting the standards of care set out in this guidance.

The provider was previously in breach of legal regulations in relation to person centred care. Improvements were not found at this assessment, and the provider remained in breach of this regulation. The provider was in breach of the legal regulation relating to governance systems.

The premises was in need of refurbishment which was underway during the assessment. We saw evidence that a stair lift had been included in the refurbishment to allow people with limited mobility to occupy the upper-level bedrooms.

There were not enough staff at night to meet people’s needs safely in the event of an emergency. Staff were task focussed and not proactive in encouraging people to live a fulfilled life. Although staff were aware of their responsibility to safeguard people from harm, they were not able to confirm which external agencies they could report safeguarding concerns to. People were not supported in line with best practice guidance or standards, which could lead to poor health outcomes.

However, medicines were managed safely and staff felt positive about the management team.