Benson House Care Home

Benson House is a purpose-built residential care home providing personal and nursing care to up to 70 people across three separate floors, each of which has separate adapted facilities. One of the floors specialises in providing care to people living with dementia. At the time of our inspection there were 38 people living at the service and only across two floors.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

People living at Benson House received safe care from skilled and knowledgeable staff. Staff knew and were confident on how to identify and report any concerns.

Risks to people's safety and well-being were managed through a risk management process. Peoples care plans provided staff with the information they needed to manage the identified risks.

Recruitment checks were robust to ensure staff were suitable to work with vulnerable adults and staffing arrangements met people's needs.

We received mixed feedback in relation to staffing levels. However, on the day of the inspection we saw there were sufficient staff deployed to meet people's needs. The home was using agency staff to ensure continued safety. The provider was continuously recruiting using several staff recruitment and retention initiatives.

Medicines were managed safely, and people received their medicines as prescribed. The provider had an electronic self-auditing system which allowed safe management of all aspects of medicines. Staff had the necessary skills to carry out their roles. Staff had regular training and opportunities for regular supervision and observations of their work performance.

People and relatives told us staff were caring. Staff did all they could to promote people’s independence and we saw examples of this. People had access to other healthcare services, ensuring a holistic level of support was provided.

Staff demonstrated a commitment to people and displayed strong person-centred values. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. Staff had a particularly good understanding of when the principles of the Mental Capacity Act should be applied.

People were supported to meet their nutritional needs and complimented the food at the home. We saw people had an enjoyable dining experience.

The home was led by an interim manager and a recently appointed knowledgeable deputy manager who were committed to continue improving people’s quality of life. The provider had clear oversight of the service which had enabled continuity of care despite changes in management. Staff were complimentary of the support especially from the deputy manager and the provider. The provider had effective quality assurance systems in place that they used to monitor the quality and safety of the service. Feedback from people and relatives highlighted a shortfall in relation to communication. However, the provider had recognised this and had introduced and was reinforcing some existing communication channels to improve their communication and the impact was still to be seen. Staff worked well with external social and health care professionals.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk

Rating at last inspection

This service was registered with us on 25 February 2021 and this is the first inspection.

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.