This unannounced inspection took place on 5 May and 8 May 2017.

Oakfield at Yardley Hastings is registered to provide personal care in a supported living setting and accommodation and personal care for up to 10 people with learning disabilities, autistic spectrum disorder and physical disabilities. On the day of inspection, there were 4 people in receipt of personal care and support from the supported living service and 5 people in receipt of accommodation and personal care.

There was a registered manager in post at the time of our inspection. 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.

Arrangements in place to ensure that staff had sufficient skills and knowledge to provide people with appropriate support required strengthening. Not all staff had been trained in mental capacity and some staff had not been provided with refresher training in key areas such as safeguarding. Staff received a thorough induction into the home and did not work with people on their own until they understood the care needs of each person.

People felt safe in the home and relatives said that they had confidence in the ability of staff to keep people safe. Staff understood the need to protect people from harm and abuse and knew what action they should take if they had any concerns. There were sufficient staff to meet the needs of the people and recruitment procedures protected people from receiving unsafe care from staff that were unsuitable to work at the service.

Care records contained individual risk assessments and risk management plans to protect people from identified risks and help to keep them safe but also enabled positive risk taking. They provided information to staff about actions to be taken to minimise any risks whilst allowing people to be as independent as possible.

Care plans were written in a person centred approach and detailed how people wished to be supported and people were involved in making decisions about their care. People were supported to develop life and social skills and gain as much independence as possible, using individually created activity programmes. The support for this was provided by a staff group, who shared a strong person centred ethos.

People were supported to take their medicines as prescribed. Records showed that medicines were obtained, stored, administered and disposed of safely. People were supported to maintain good health and had access to healthcare services when needed. Staff provided people with appropriate support to meet their nutritional needs and people were able to choose the food and drink they wanted.

People were fully involved in decisions about their care and support needs and this had a positive impact on their ability to be as independent as possible. There were formal systems in place to assess people’s capacity for decision making under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Staff provided people with information in the most appropriate way to enable them to make informed decisions and encouraged people to make their own choices.

Staff had good relationships with the people who lived at the service and people told us that staff were caring and respectful. Staff were aware of the importance of managing complaints promptly and in line with the provider’s policy. Staff and people were confident that issues would be addressed and that any concerns they had would be listened to. There was a stable management team and effective systems in place to assess the quality of service provided.