Jonathan House is a care home that provides accommodation and personal care for up to eight people with a learning disability. At the time of the inspection there were eight people living at the home.

At the last inspection, the service was rated Good.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good overall although the configuration of the building and storage of cleaning equipment was not always safe.

Why the service is rated good:

Staff were kind and caring. Staff respected people’s privacy and gave people choice and control about their care and support. Staffing levels were safe to meet people’s needs.

Medicines were stored and administered safely.

The staff team were trained and were able to demonstrate their knowledge about how to safeguard people from abuse.

Care plans were personalised and contained support plans and risk assessments to give staff guidelines to follow.

People’s health needs were met and people attended annual health checks and appointments as required.

People were enabled to achieve skills that would improve their quality of life and some people undertook work.

Feedback was sought from people. Systems were in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service.

Positive feedback was received about the manager and staff felt Jonathan House was a nice place to work.

This inspection took place on 10 October 2014 and was unannounced. The previous inspection of the home was on 3 July 2013. There were no breaches of the legal requirements at that time.

Jonathan House is a care home without nursing for up to eight people with a learning disability. There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

People at the home felt safe and said they could talk to staff if they had any concerns. Staff had a good awareness of safety. They took action which reduced the risk of people being harmed and which protected their rights.

People’s independence was being promoted and support was focussed on their individual needs. One person, for example, managed their own care but had support with; "cleaning, cooking and going to the doctor." Staff understood people’s needs and provided support which helped people to be active in the community.

Staff showed a caring approach towards people. They helped people to maintain relationships with their friends and families. People had the opportunity to express their views and to take part in activities that were important to them.

People spoke very positively about the support they received. They talked about new things they wanted to do. They had agreed goals which were focussed on their individual interests and on developing new skills.

People benefited from a well run service that was responsive to their needs. There were systems in place for monitoring the service and for identifying where improvements could be made.

We spoke with four people. They told us about their experience of living at the home and how they were helped by the staff. "the staff help me to cook and take me out to lunch" and "I went to Lets Rock Bristol and the comedy club with my support worker". We were told "I like living here, it’s wonderful here" and "All staff are nice and I can choose what I want to do" and "people are nice to me"

The people we spoke with told us that they could make choices about the way they lived and what they wanted to do and that the staff helped them to maintain their independence. People told us that they have mobile phones to enable them to contact the staff members if needed when they go out on their own.

People told us that they were involved in the local community, attended their local neighbourhood watch scheme and were volunteers in local community groups.

People we spoke with told us how they were able to choose the colour scheme during the re-decoration process and that they participate in the running of the home. One person told us "I have helped to interview the staff"

There were six people at the home on the day of our visit and we talked with all of them about the support and care they received.

We talked with two support workers about their role and what they did to support people who used the service.

People had positive opinions to share with us about what life was like for them at the home. Examples of comments people made included, “The staff all support all of us”. “The home is very nice”. “It's a very good home”.

People said they felt safe living at Jonathon House and they knew how to raise concerns if they had them. People told us they were confident staff would take their concerns seriously.

People were effectively supported by enough suitable staff to live a fulfilling life in the home and community.

People were well supported to make their views known about the service. When people made complaints they were properly acted upon by the provider.

We carried out an unannounced scheduled inspection of Jonathan House on 23 February 2012.

We spoke with two people. They told us about their experience of living at the home and said they were helped by staff with shopping and had support in buying their clothes.

We were told “No complaints, no problems” and “Happy living at Jonathan House”

“It was my choice to move to Jonathan House”, "Good food", “Get on with the people (living at the home)”and “we all make choices about holidays”

They confirmed that they made personal choices about the way they wanted to live and that staff helped them to maintain their independence.

People told us they were involved in the local community and had participated in local activities. They said they took part in forums in the community and discussed local issues such as road crossings. They had been involved in organising a annual summer festival day and that the home had made cream teas.

People confirmed their involvement in reviewing the redecoration programme for the communal areas of the home.