Archived: Avon Lodge and Avon Lodge Annex

Updated 13 February 2024

Avon Lodge and Avon Lodge Annex is a care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 12 people who may be living with mental health needs, a learning disability or autistic people. The service is also registered to provide domiciliary care to people living in their own homes or 'supported living' settings, so they can live as independently as possible. At the time of our inspection, there were 3 people receiving residential care. The service was not providing a domiciliary care service and, whilst people were living in supported living accommodation next door to the residential home, they were not receiving support with personal care at the time of our inspection. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. We carried out our onsite visits on 15 and 18 March 2024. Offsite assessment activity started on 25 March 2024 and ended on 12 April 2024. The assessment was carried out by 3 inspectors and a medicines manager. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. We assessed the service against this guidance. The last rating for the service was inadequate (report published 7 October 2023). At the last inspection, the provider was in breach of Regulations 12 (Safe care and treatment), 15 (Premises and equipment) and 17 (Good governance) of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. At this inspection, some improvements had been made to the premises. However, the provider remained in breach of Regulations 12 and 17. There was also a new breach of Regulation 10 (Dignity and respect) identified.

Updated 13 February 2024

People told us they were happy living at the service, and people appeared settled. Relatives told us they thought people were kept safe. However, although people were content, their actual experience was that areas of risk and concern were not appropriately managed by the service. There were significant omissions in people's support plans around key risks such as health conditions. The lack of appropriate monitoring and management of people's health needs placed them at risk of harm. Learning had not occurred following the previous inspection, and this directly impacted people's experiences. People's experience was that they did not always receive evidence-based care and treatment. There was no evidence that people’s health conditions were discussed with them, and no evidence people were involved in making plans around their health needs. People were not always supported in line with the 'Right support, right care, right culture' guidance. We observed people being given choice about day-to-day decisions. However, we observed people's independence was not always fully supported or promoted. For example, people were unable to do their own laundry due to the location of the equipment, and people did not assist with the shopping. One person was not included in the weekly house meeting. Relatives confirmed they could visit whenever they wanted to; there were no restrictions on visiting. People told us they liked the manager, and we observed people had a positive relationship with the manager in post at the time of the inspection. There had not been any accidents or incidents for people to tell us about, so we were unable to see how these would be managed by the service. There was easy read information available to help support people raise concerns if needed. While the people we spoke to expressed they were generally happy with their care, our assessment found elements of people’s care did not meet the expected standards.