Young Adult Provision home team retains “good” CQC rating

The knowledge, care and compassion of our staff members within one of our Young Adult Provision homes has been hailed in a new report.

A Care Quality Commission (CQC) assessment report after a visit in January has rated 5-6 Prior’s Court Cottages – otherwise known as Bradbury Cottages – as “good” retaining the rating last achieved in 2018.

Bradbury Cottages was one of the first provisions in the local area to be inspected as part of a new CQC assessment approach. There remain five areas of an inspection – Safe, Caring, Responsive, Effective and Well-led but assessments are done against some of the five with previous evidence from the last inspection used to rate others. 

Bradbury Cottages was assessed against Safe, Caring and Responsive. All three were marked as “good” with some of the sub-categories of these areas receiving ratings four out of four (equivalent to “outstanding”) and no sub-category falling below three out of four ("good"). These three “goods” went alongside the “good” ratings for Effective and Well-led from the 2018 inspection to get the overall rating.

Highlights of the report include:

• "People and their families were involved in and contributed towards the development of the systems that ensured lessons were learned and to continually improve good practices. Families were confident the provider responded appropriately to concerns and they would be able to contact the provider anytime they needed to."
• "Staff consistently reported the management team had created a blame free culture where staff were encouraged and supported to raise concerns which were acted upon. Staff spoke with pride about the open and transparent culture within the service."
• "People were at the heart of the service delivery. People and their relatives were fully involved in their care planning. The provider proactively engaged with people, families and professionals to manage risk so people’s autonomy and independence were maximised."
• "Staff and leaders' feedback demonstrated a holistic approach to meeting the needs of people safely whilst supporting people to do things they wanted to do."
• "The provider prioritised identifying risks and implementing risk assessments that empowered people and staff to take positive risks. Staff told us how they supported people to make their own choices, so they had as much control and independence as possible."
• A staff member told us the care plans and risk assessments were the best they had ever seen and contained all of the necessary information for staff to provide a personalised approach.
• "We saw people were supported by staff that showed a genuine interest in their wellbeing, improving their quality of life and creating a warm, inclusive atmosphere. We observed staff caring for people with kindness and a friendly demeanour that positively impacted on people’s spirits and mood. We observed people consistently receiving a kind and compassionate approach from staff using positive and respectful language."
• "There was a tangible, person-centred culture within the home and we consistently observed staff demonstrating genuine empathy for people and passion for providing high quality care. We observed people establishing a very positive rapport with the registered manager and their key staff, with whom they had developed a special bond. We saw only positive and caring interactions; people were observed smiling, enthusiastically engaging with staff and they appeared relaxed, content and meaningfully engaged."
• "One parent said: “This ‘going the extra mile’ culture goes right through the organisation.”"
• "People benefited from the exceptionally caring culture that was demonstrated by the entire team. Peoples’ relatives told us the care people had was exemplary. One person’s relative said, “The caring ethos and recognising every resident as an individual are outstanding features of the provision in our view.”"
• "Staff demonstrated a commitment to celebrating people’s individual strengths and abilities to support people to achieve their dreams and ambitions."
• "We had examples where staff supported people with pursuing their life-long dreams of visiting another country by introducing a series of activities to slowly build their confidence to be able to do so."
• "A family member told us, “Compared to other provisions that I have visited over the last two years, the staff at Bradbury shine out in their ability to support the needs and manage the behaviours of a complex group of young people.”
• "Staff told us the manager provided clear and direct leadership, which set the standards throughout the service. Staff praised the registered manager who consistently led by example and was a great role model. They told us the registered manager was ‘brilliant’, highly visible, approachable and the management team as being “really supportive and approachable."

Emma MacKay, Prior’s Court Young Person’s Wellbeing Lead and Registered Manager for Bradbury Cottages, said:

“This a fantastic report to read with some truly wonderful comments. What really stood out for me was the praise for the care and compassion shown by staff members and their knowledge of the young adults in the home. While training can be provided for knowledge of regulations, systems and our autism approach, care, compassion and a willingness to gain knowledge are traits that cannot be trained. So it reflects so well on the mindset of Bradbury Cottages staff members that this was highlighted. Huge congratulations to the staffing teams in Bradbury Cottages for their incredible work, day in day out.”

Our other three Young Adult Provision homes registered with the CQC are all rated as “good” (one is “good with outstanding features”, while our residential home for young people aged 5 to 19 is ranked as "good" by Ofsted.