Staff at a Plymouth residential care home are celebrating after the service was given the Care Quality Commission’s highest rating following a recent inspection. After its previous CQC inspection in January 2016, Restormel House was given an overall rating of good. But following its latest inspection, in September this year, it has been upgraded to outstanding.
Carla Dearing, who has been manager of the service for four-and-a-halfyears, said: “I’m so pleased that the hard work, commitment and passion demonstrated by the staff here has been rewarded with the CQC’s highest rating.
“I’m privileged to lead an excellent team here who put everything into providing the best possible care for the people we support, and the team thoroughly deserve to be recognised in this way.”
Restormel House, a large, six-bedroom Victorian property in Restormel Terrace, is run by the Regard Group, the UK’s third largest care provider in its sector.
It specialises in accommodating and supporting adults with learning disabilities, mental health issues and other complex needs, including autism and Asperger’s.
Carla said: “The ethos here is to promote empowerment, and this means enabling an element of positive risk-taking, to help the people we support develop their independence.
“We work with young adults who want to take risks and experience the same opportunities as other people their age.
“For example, they sometimes want to go out drinking, so we sit and budget with them and provide support.”
Over the past 18 months Restormel House has said goodbye to five people who have been able to move on to less-supported environments, increasing their independence.
Carla said: “I like to lead by example, but this is not really a management and staff, them and us, kind of place, I try to be very inclusive, always inviting suggestions and ideas from the team.
“I am so proud of the team, and it’s very satisfying to read comments like ‘staff said they loved their work’ in the CQC report.
“We treat Restormel House as people’s home rather than a place of work, and work had as a team for the benefit of the people we support.”
She said the team will not be resting on any laurels having achieved the top rating.
“We are always looking for ways to improve what we do, and we will continue to do that because we are determined to keep getting better and better; it’s not good enough to reach a certain level and then just stand still.
Kerry Libby, Regard’s Regional Director, said: “I am incredibly proud of Carla and her team at Restormel House on being given a well-deserved outstanding rating by the CQC.
“It’s heartening that the CQC recognised the positive culture and can-do approach of the staff, who are clearly passionate about providing very high standards of care for the people they support.
“This inspection report adds to our industry-leading quality ratings, of which we are immensely proud.
“Currently, 95% of our services are CQC rated good or outstanding, compared to an industry average of 82%, and that’s due, in no small part, to the commitment of staff and the quality of their managers.
“I would also like to thank Locality Manager Sarah Ghent and the wider management team, for the support they have provided to Carla and her staff at Restormel House; earning the outstanding rating has been a true collaborative effort.”
The Regard Group supports more than 1,300 people, with a dedicated staff of more than 2,600 people at 168 sites throughout the UK.
For more information about the group, visit www.regard.co.uk.
