Lessons from the Tribunal on Adding Rooms to LD and Autism services  

Bleak House Limited v CQC

2.      Smaller services are more likely to be produce better outcomes for adults with LD.

3.      Choices were based on or influenced by group preference.

4.      The large prominent premises diminished the benefits that accrued to those who live in the community.

5.      Lack of objective evidence to show that the larger setting was capable of delivering better practice than smaller settings.

6.      The proposal did not amount to a genuinely innovative model of care.

7.      Very limited evidence of support from the LA, and no LA witness was put forward to answer questions at the hearing.

8.      Not clear who would be taking up the additional places.

9.      There would need to be compelling reasons backed by LA commissioners showing a critical local need to justify an increase in service users.

10.   No formal impact assessment had been carried out by Directors or Manager.

11.   Inadequate consultation with residents and those acting on their behalf.

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Action for Care v CQC

2.      The impact on the current service users was not considered adequately or at all.

3.      There was no evidence of plans to mitigate the risk of increasing the numbers of residents at the location.

4.      Residential accommodation for those with autism should be in small, local community-based units of not more than six people and with well supported single accommodation.

5.      The location would not meet the present and future needs of a proposed service user as his mobility was deteriorating and this was not catered for in the design.  It was too small for people with proxemic issues (people who need space) and wheelchair users.

6.      The bungalow was too small for able bodied persons and was much too small for those with mobility issues.

7.      There were no kitchen or laundry facilities, and no space for them.

8.      Accommodation should be as close to a normal home as possible which was not the case in respect of the proposed accommodation.

9.      There was no evidence of attempts to meet the proposed service user’s needs in other accommodation.  There was therefore inadequate evidence that there was a local need for this type of accommodation.

Lifeways Community Care v CQC

2.      National Learning Disability Director and Senior Responsible Officer for the Transforming Care Programme said that site was ‘not close to…. what is an appropriate setting’ and had ‘many of the characteristics of the campus and congregate sites that are …. inappropriate’.  The home looked institutional because of its size and how it stood out from its surroundings.

3.      Focus should be on more independent living arrangements, not large residential provisions.

4.      The evidence of CQC’s National Professional Advisor for Learning Disabilities was not biased and was highly persuasive.  Her evidence was that the application did not meet national guidance because, among other things ‘it is not small-scale, is not domestic in style and is clearly different to the houses in the local area.  It has the appearance of a care facility, not of typical housing….It was a cluster model of service which has some features of a campus’.

5.      Another persuasive expert said the proposed home was very different to housing around it.  It had an institutional feel and created a sense of otherness.  It was placed in the community, but apart from it.

6.      The appellant’s own witness accepted that the proposal was not in accordance with national policy and guidance.

7.      Large spaces, communal garden and parking spaces increased the sense of and institutional campus style setting.

8.      The CCG had not been consulted and would have preferred small settings consistent with Registering the Right Support.

9.      The Tribunal visited and found the home had an institutional look and campus style which stood apart from the surrounding neighbourhood.  It was large and had many shared facilities.

10.   Service user groups had not been clearly identified by the appellant.

Centurion Health Care Limited v CQC

2.      CQC failed to exercise its discretion appropriately because it did not analyse the nature of the service users who would be placed at the location.  The decision had a whiff of policy about it.  CQC failed to consider whether conditions could have addressed any of its concerns.  They applied a ‘one size fits all’ approach contrary to its own guidance.

3.      Service users, like other people, should be able to choose whether or not to live in a town, city or village.  Service users with particular disorders may benefit from the peace of a rural setting.

4.      CQC wrongly equated geographical location with lack of engagement with the community.

5.      The commissioner’s market statement recognised the need for more ASD accommodation, including in rural locations, to avoid out of area placements.  There was accordingly a need for the location.

Care Management Group Ltd  v CQC

2.      ‘Registering the Right Support’ is statutory guidance, and even if were not, it is a material consideration.

3.      The setting was of a campus type.  It was distinctly congregate and institutional and precluded a feeling of a small-scale domestic setting and person-centred care.

4.      Recreational features and facilities involved timetables and are not used by the community at large.  Life was regimented and far removed from small scale settings within a community.

5.      Access to the community was limited, affecting the options, choices, dignity and independence others take for granted.

6.      Few people came onto the site, apart from courting couples (which provided an indication of how secluded and private it was).

7.      Distance from the community would have affected the amount of time that could be spent in the community.

8.      Lack of shared staff is not determinative of whether a setting is a ‘campus’ but in any event there were some shared staff.

9.      Service users were isolated from others; both within the setting and within the wider community.

10.   There was no real choice as to who residents would live with.

11.   “Quality of life improves with inclusion and when rights are fully respected.  [CQC’s National Professional Advisor for Learning Disabilities] does not recognise a separate group of people…. who cannot live in the community….. Experience shows that challenging behaviour is often reduced in the community”.

12.   It was not the Tribunal’s task to say whether guidance was right or wrong; it was to apply it in the context of the evidence, subject to proportionality.

13.   When registering services, CQC has a role in promoting the outcomes set out in national policy.  It is entirely appropriate for CQC to base regulatory decisions on ‘best practice’.

Oakview Estates Ltd v CQC

2.      Premises were clinical and not personalised.  There was no plan as to how residents would be able to regain access if they left the bungalow.

3.      Accommodation would need to be adapted to the least able person, impacting adversely on the others.

4.      No discharge plans or evidence that placement and discharge plans would be regularly reviewed (despite this being raised in the notice of proposal).

5.      Training plan had not been drafted.

6.      The same staff were to be used in the hospital and the care home despite different cultures between the two locations, in particular the hospital being more clinical.

7.      The culture is unlikely to change from a hospital setting.