Lakeside Court ECS

The provider was in breach of the legal regulation relating to staffing, notification of other incidents and good governance. The overall rating for the service is requires improvement. 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. Despite shortfalls identified, we found the provider was meeting the principles of Right support, right care, right culture.

People told us they felt safe using the service and felt able to raise any concerns. Most people spoke positively about support provided by staff; however, concerns were raised regarding the impact of a staffing shortage. The provider did not always ensure there were enough qualified, skilled and experienced staff available. Most staff supervisions, appraisals and competency assessments had not been kept up to date. We found some staff had not completed or refreshed areas of training. The system used to record and monitor people’s care visits was not sufficiently robust. We identified shortfalls in the management of people’s medicines and risk assessments. Staff demonstrated understanding of people’s needs and most told us they felt supported. Staff treated people with kindness and compassion and upheld their dignity during care. People’s care records included information on personal history, preferences, activities, and routines. However, staff were not always regularly reviewing people’s care plans. The service maintained positive working relationships with other health and social care professionals and valued diversity in their workforce. Governance systems were not always effective in monitoring and improving the quality of the service, for example in relation to staffing, medicines, risk assessments and submission of CQC notifications. Recent audits completed by the provider had identified shortfalls, and the service was developing an action plan to address these. The management team responded positively to the shortfalls identified; we asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found during this assessment.