Cheshire House in Sale, Cheshire, a residential home providing nursing care for people with a mental health need and / or a learning disability was rated outstanding for being responsive and well-led following an inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), 12 & 15 November 2019.
It achieved the score of good for the safe, effective and caring categories.
The CQC report highlighted that since Cheshire House became involved in people's lives, they had improved and changed dramatically compared to previous services they had received. The staff and management actively encouraged and supported people to plan for major changes in their lives.
One person had been successfully supported to move on from Cheshire House to a more independent flat, after spending many years in a long stay hospital setting prior to Cheshire House.
Staff worked particularly closely with people to increase their independence for the activities they participated in. People were exceptionally well supported to take positive risks in a planned and monitored environment. Following a programme of shadowing and review, one person was now travelling to meet their family on their own each week.
One person said, "I've started to go out on my own, with the staff being close by. I'm building up so I can go out by myself when I'm confident to do it."
A social worker told CQC inspectors, "There is now a positive risk strategy in place; with supervised access to the internet and phones in order to build skills to, at some point, enable them to become more independent."
The whole team had a clear ethos of empowering people to be involved in the shaping of the service, their support and in agreeing the things they wanted to do and to identify goals with people, both short and long term. This ethos was evident throughout the service and evidenced through the many positive outcomes that CQC inspectors witnessed, for example, people's increased independence and autonomy within the local community.
Staff embraced and were committed to the services vision and values and as a result people's achievements were celebrated by the whole team. The home developed highly personalised step by step plans to support people to gain new skills, independence, responsibility and to achieve their goals.
One person had been supported to go on a short holiday for the first time in 15 years, one person had started to walk to the local shop on their own and another was starting to use a mobile phone responsibly when going out on their own.
