We inspected Victoria House on 6 November 2017 and it was an announced inspection. The home provides accommodation and support for six people with learning difficulties. This was their first inspection under a new registration.

The home had a registered manager in place. 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 were kept safe by staff who understood their responsibilities to protect them. People understood how to raise a concern or make a complaint and had regular meetings which supported them to do so. They were also supported to make choices about their care and what they wanted to achieve. They had care plans in place to support this and they were involved in developing these.

We saw that there were enough staff working at the home and that those staff had been recruited following procedures to check that they were safe to work with people. They received training and support to ensure that they could support people well. We saw that staff had positive relationships with people and that they adapted their communication styles to assist people to make choices about their lives. People were supported to make their own decisions and if they were not able to do so then decisions were made in their best interest with people who mattered to them.

Risks to people’s health and wellbeing were assessed and actions were put in place to reduce them so that people could lead as independent lives as possible. Medicines were given to people safely and their records were maintained and managed. People were supported to maintain their health. Individual preferences were included in menus and people were given choice about their food and drink.

The registered manager was approachable and listened to people. There were systems in place to monitor and improve the quality of the service. This included responding to complaints and feedback and implementing actions from them.