Archived: Birch Green Care Home

Updated 15 February 2022

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic we are looking at how services manage infection control and visiting arrangements. This was a targeted inspection looking at the infection prevention and control measures the provider had in place. We also asked the provider about any staffing pressures the service was experiencing and whether this was having an impact on the service.

This inspection took place on 26 January 2022 and was announced. We gave the service 24 hours notice of the inspection.

Updated 15 February 2022

About the service

Birch Green Care Home (Birch Green) is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 74 adults. At the time of our site visit there were 73 people living at the home.

The care home accommodates people over two floors, each of which has separate adapted facilities. The upper floor is served by a passenger lift and specialises in providing care and support for those living with dementia.

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

We assessed medicine practices within the home and found in general medicines were handled safely. However, some improvements were needed to ensure protocols for when required medicines included relevant information for the staff team. Medicine policies should also be specific to Birch Green and should cover the management of electronic records. We made a recommendation about this.

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.

Safeguarding protocols were being followed and risks to peoples’ health and safety were being managed appropriately. This helped to protect people from harm. The environment was safe and well maintained and good infection control practices were being followed. One relative told us, “They [staff] bent over backwards to keep contact going [during lockdown]. They’ve done really well to protect staff and residents.” Another commented, “I know (relative) is safe. I can sleep at night.”

The provider had implemented robust recruitment practices and new staff had received a good induction period. The staff team were supervised, and a range of mandatory training modules were provided. One staff member told us, “We have a training officer on site. Staff are fully supported and trained to a high level. Carers are encouraged to further their careers with opportunities to become team leaders and assistant practitioners.”

Those who lived at the home and their relatives spoke highly of the managers and the caring attitude of the staff team. Staff we spoke with felt well supported by the managers of Birch Green. The management team was co-operative during the inspection process, providing information requested in an open and transparent way. The provider had implemented systems which helped to ensure the quality of service provided was assessed and monitored regularly and those with an interest in the service were supported to provide feedback so that improvements could be made as suggested. The registered manager was described as being ‘lovely’, ‘approachable’ and ‘fantastic- going above and beyond.’

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 25 May 2018).

Why we inspected

We received a range of concerns about the management of the home, infection control practices, staffing levels and people's care, support and safety. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

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.

We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from the concerns raised. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.

The overall rating for the service has not changed and remains Good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.

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

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Birch Green Care Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. If we receive any concerning information we may inspect sooner.