We carried out an unannounced inspection of the service on 14 September 2017. Burlington Villa is a care home which provides residential care for up to nine people who have a learning disability. On the day of our inspection nine people were using the service and there was a registered manager in place.

At the last inspection, in August 2015, the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found that the service remained Good, however the rating for the Caring question had improved from Good to Outstanding. .

People continued to feel safe and staff ensured that risks to their health and safety were reduced. There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs in a timely manner and systems were in place to support people to take their medicines.

Staff received relevant training and felt well supported. People were asked for their consent and appropriate steps were taken to support people who lacked capacity to make particular decisions. People were supported to eat and drink enough to maintain good health.

The service was exceptionally caring. Positive relationships existed between people who used the service, their relatives and staff. Staff were extremely kind and caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People's diverse needs were recognised and catered for and their rights to privacy and dignity were valued and respected.

People's right to make choices was respected by staff and they had access to advocacy to help them express their views if needed. Staff had an in depth understanding of how people communicated and had insight into the anxieties experienced by people who used the service and used this to shape people’s support and routines. The culture of the service was focused on enabling each person to live a fulfilled life, as independently as possible and this resulted in people being valued and treated as individuals.

People received person-centred and responsive care from staff who had a clear understanding of their current support needs. Care plans were in place which provided detailed information about the care people required. People knew how to make a complaint and there was a complaints procedure in place.

There was an open and transparent culture which enabled people and staff to speak up if they wished to. The management team provided strong leadership and a clear direction to staff. There were robust quality monitoring procedures in place.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We carried out an unannounced inspection of the service on 14 September 2017. Burlington Villa is a care home which provides residential care for up to nine people who have a learning disability. On the day of our inspection nine people were using the service and there was a registered manager in place.

At the last inspection, in August 2015, the service was rated Good. At this inspection we found that the service remained Good, however the rating for the Caring question had improved from Good to Outstanding. .

People continued to feel safe and staff ensured that risks to their health and safety were reduced. There were sufficient staff to meet people’s needs in a timely manner and systems were in place to support people to take their medicines.

Staff received relevant training and felt well supported. People were asked for their consent and appropriate steps were taken to support people who lacked capacity to make particular decisions. People were supported to eat and drink enough to maintain good health.

The service was exceptionally caring. Positive relationships existed between people who used the service, their relatives and staff. Staff were extremely kind and caring and treated people with dignity and respect. People's diverse needs were recognised and catered for and their rights to privacy and dignity were valued and respected.

People's right to make choices was respected by staff and they had access to advocacy to help them express their views if needed. Staff had an in depth understanding of how people communicated and had insight into the anxieties experienced by people who used the service and used this to shape people’s support and routines. The culture of the service was focused on enabling each person to live a fulfilled life, as independently as possible and this resulted in people being valued and treated as individuals.

People received person-centred and responsive care from staff who had a clear understanding of their current support needs. Care plans were in place which provided detailed information about the care people required. People knew how to make a complaint and there was a complaints procedure in place.

There was an open and transparent culture which enabled people and staff to speak up if they wished to. The management team provided strong leadership and a clear direction to staff. There were robust quality monitoring procedures in place.

Further information is in the detailed findings below.

We spoke with two of the nine people living at the service and observed others during the inspection. We also spoke with two staff and the acting manager to help us assess compliance.

There were significant improvements in the care plans in place and these were helpful and up to date. One person told us, "I think what is written is right about me. I get the care and support I need when I need it, I don’t need much, only to go into the community.” People had their health and recreational needs met well.

People lived in a comfortable environment and the premises were safe for them to live in.

People we spoke with said they were happy at the service. They knew they could complain. One person commented, “I have not had to complain but I would speak to (the acting manager), she is really good and I know that she would sort it out.” The staff knew how they should respond to complaints. This meant there were effective systems in place for responding to concerns.

We spoke with one of the nine people living at the service, observed and spoke with someone with more complex communication needs and we spoke with two of the staff working at the service to help us form a view about how care was being delivered to people and the impact this had on them.

Improvements had been made to the systems to make sure people could make their own decisions unless they did not have the capacity to do this for themselves. This meant their rights were considered.

There was mixed evidence about how people's care and welfare needs were met. In most cases this was done well, with warmth, compassion and understanding. However we found the staff did not have the appropriate guidance to help them understand more challenging needs and to help them respond consistently to meet these needs. We thought improvements were needed.

We found there were improvements in the arrangements for making sure people took their medication as their doctor had prescribed. This meant people got their medicines at the right time.

We looked at the staff files of people who had just started working at the home and we saw they had been recruited safely to make sure they were suitable to work with people living at the home.

We found the complaints system was not good enough and did not follow the policies the providers had in place to make sure they could investigate and respond to people with concerns.

We visited this service because we were concerned that we had not visited for some time. We wanted to make sure that people were getting good care and that the service were compliant.

The people we spoke with told us they were very happy living at the service. They told us they liked the staff. We observed the staff working with people during our visit and saw that they were calm and gave people support and reassurance. We also saw evidence to show that they were following people's written care plans.

People told us they helped with daily chores such as cleaning, vacuuming and drying the pots. They liked this because it helped them stay independent. They both told us they liked going out and they said they went out a lot.

The people we spoke with told us they liked the staff and one person told us the staff seemed to know their job well. "I get on well with the staff, they are kind and listen to me." From what we saw, the staff seemed confident, competent and they understood the needs and wishes of the people they looked after.