West Banbury Cottages provides accommodation and personal care for up to 15 young adults with learning disabilities who enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle. The service consists of eight cottages with an onsite swimming pool and shared activities room. At the time of our inspection there were 11 people living at West Banbury Cottages.

At the last inspection, the service was rated Good.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

Why the service is rated good:

The service continued to provide safe care to people. One person commented: “Staff keep me safe.” Measures to manage risk were as least restrictive as possible to protect people’s freedom. People’s rights were protected because the service followed the appropriate legal processes. Medicines were safely managed on people’s behalf.

Care files were personalised to reflect people’s personal preferences. Their views and suggestions were taken into account to improve the service. People were supported to maintain a balanced diet, which they enjoyed. Health and social care professionals were regularly involved in people’s care to ensure they received the care and treatment which was right for them.

There were effective staff recruitment and selection processes in place. People received effective care and support from staff who were well trained and competent.

The service was very caring and people had built strong relationships with each other and staff. People engaged in a wide variety of activities and spent time in the local community going to specific places of interest.

Staff spoke positively about communication and how the registered manager worked well with them and encouraged their professional development.

A number of methods were used to assess the quality and safety of the service people received and make continuous improvements.

West Banbury Cottages provides accommodation and personal care for up to 15 young adults with learning disabilities who enjoy an active outdoor lifestyle. The service consists of six cottages with an onsite swimming pool and shared activities room.

This inspection took place on 5 November 2014 and was announced at short notice. The service was first registered with the commission in 2013 and had not been previously inspected. At the time of our inspection there were seven people living at the service.

At the time of our inspection the service did not have a registered manager. 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.

The provider’s nominated individual who had responsibility for supervising the management of this service was performing the role of acting manager and the process of recruiting a new manager was well underway. Staff told us the nominated individual had provided effective leadership to the service and relatives explained that although they had been informed of the changes to the management of the service they had not noticed any impact on the quality of care the service provided.

People told us they were “happy” and indicated they enjoyed living at West Banbury Cottages. We saw people and staff relaxing together and enjoying a variety of activities throughout our inspection. Relatives were pleased with the quality of care provided and one relative said “It’s a nice place, more than I ever thought I would get for (the person)”. Professionals told us they believed the service provided good quality care and explained that people’s relatives had also reported that the care provided was good.

The staff team was well motivated and had been provided with appropriate training and support. We observed staff actively engaging with and encouraging people to join in with activities. Staff told us they enjoyed their work and found it particularly rewarding when they were able to support people to access new experiences. Staff recruitment processes were robust and appropriate pre-employment checks had been completed to ensure people’s safety.

Staff told us “staffing levels are good” and we found staffing levels routinely exceeded those required to meet people’s care needs. People were safe and able to engage in a wide variety of activities both within the service and the local community.

People’s care plans were detailed and contained sufficient information to enable staff to meet people’s care needs. People who used the service and their relatives had been involved in the development of care plans to help ensure they reflected people’s wishes and interests. Relatives told us, “We have been very involved in the care planning” and “we have a sit down with them every three or six months and talk with them about the care records”. Risk assessments provided staff with clear guidance on how to support people appropriately and minimise identified risks.

There were a wide variety of activities available to people at West Banbury Cottages. These included swimming, farm visits, discos and visits to local tourist attractions. When planning activities staff accounted for and respected people likes and preferences.

The staff had worked effectively in partnership with other local care providers and health professionals in order to meet people’s care needs. People’s move to the service had been well managed and staff had developed supportive and caring relationships with people.

The nominated individual was proud of the service and explained that the provider had developed the service specifically to cater for the needs of young adults who enjoyed the outdoors.

Quality assurance processes were effective. Incident and accidents had been appropriately investigated and procedures had been updated as a result of the findings of these investigations.

There were appropriated systems in place for the management and investigation of complaints. The service’s policy documents had been produced in easy to read formats that included the use of pictures and symbols to enable people to access this information.