Archived: Braeside Residential Care Home

Updated 10 June 2017

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 12 May 2017 and was unannounced. The inspection was carried out by one adult social care inspector.

Before the inspection, we had received a completed Provider Information Return (PIR). The PIR asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We reviewed the PIR and other information we held about the service as part of our inspection. This included the notifications we had received from the provider. Notifications are changes, events or incidents the provider is legally obliged to send CQC within required timescales. We contacted commissioners from the local authorities who contracted people’s care to gather their feedback about the service delivered.

During this inspection we carried out observations using the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a specific way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not communicate with us.

We spoke with the manager, area manager and three support workers. We looked around the communal areas and looked in the kitchen and people’s bedrooms with their permission. We reviewed a range of records about people’s care and how the home was managed. We looked at care records for three people, recruitment, training and induction records for three staff, two people’s medicines records, staffing rosters, staff meeting minutes, the maintenance book, maintenance contracts and quality assurance audits the provider had completed. This included actions plans as a result of actions the new provider had identified themselves to make improvements to the service.

Updated 10 June 2017

Braeside Residential Care Home provides accommodation and personal care for up to eight adults with a learning disability. Nursing care is not provided. Five people currently use the service.

A manager was in place who had not yet applied to be registered with the Care Quality Commission. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’. Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

The manager had very recently been appointed and staff felt they were open and approachable. The manager had many ideas they were introducing to ensure people received individual care that met all of their needs.

Due to their health conditions and complex needs not all of the people who used the service were able to share their views about the support they received. People appeared relaxed and comfortable with staff who supported them. We had concerns however that there were not enough staff on duty at all times to promote choice and provide individual care to people.

Not all areas of the home were clean and well maintained for the comfort of people who used the service. Communal areas, the kitchen and bathroom were showing signs of wear and tear.

People were protected as staff had received training about safeguarding and knew how to respond to any allegation of abuse. Staff were provided with other training to give them some knowledge and insight in order to meet people’s care and support needs. A system was in place for staff to receive supervision and appraisal and there were robust recruitment processes being used when staff were employed. Accidents and incidents were regularly reviewed and action taken as required to keep people safe.

People had access to some health care professionals to make sure they received appropriate care and treatment. People at risk of poor nutrition or with mobility needs did not have current advice and guidance from appropriate professionals to ensure their needs were met. Other people received a varied diet. People received their medicines in a safe and timely way.

Braeside Residential Care Home was meeting the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

People did not receive person centred care that enabled them to live a fulfilled life in the community with opportunities to learn new skills to maximise their potential and independence. There were some limited activities and outings.

Staff were kind, caring and compassionate with people they supported. Staff had developed good relationships with people and treated people with respect. Regular staff knew most people’s care and support needs but accurate information was not available for new staff. Care records and risk assessments were not all up to date and did not accurately reflect people’s needs. They lacked detailed guidance for staff and evidence of regular evaluation and review to keep people safe and to ensure all staff were aware of their current individual care and support needs.

People and their relatives had the opportunity to give their views about the service. A complaints procedure was available.

The home had a quality assurance programme to check the quality of care provided. The new provider and manager had identified and prioritised several actions that needed to take place in the home to ensure people received safe and individual care and to ensure its smooth running. However, the systems used to assess the quality of the service had not identified all the issues that we found during the inspection to ensure people received individual care that met their needs.

We found four breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. These related to safe care and treatment, staffing, person centred care and good governance.

You can see the action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.