The Care Quality Commission has rated the care being provided at Birch Hill Care Centre, operated by BEN - Motor and Allied Trades Benevolent Fund, in Berwick Upon Tweed, to be Outstanding after an inspection in August this year.
The service provides accommodation for persons who require personal and nursing care for up to 24 people, at the time of the inspection there was 23 people using the service.
Birch Hill Care Centre was rated Outstanding overall and for effective and well-led services, and Good for safe, caring and responsive services.
A full report of the inspection has been published on the CQC website: www.cqc.org.uk/location/1-126700383
Debbie Westhead – Deputy Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care said:
“The home has made inspiring improvements to the quality of the care it provides. We were particularly impressed with the way the service engaged its staff through specialist and sometimes bespoke training. Learning what it’s like to live with dementia clearly had a positive impact on the service and it’s pleasing to see staff wanting to understand people’s needs from a different perspective.
“The leadership of the home demonstrated to us that they improved the service through self-learning and acting on feedback. They had very robust audits and proactive quality assessments in place across the service, which were designed to find development opportunities. People’s needs were clearly their priority, when improvements were identified they were implemented with people’s needs in full consideration.
“The home showed how far they had come to provide better care for the people there. An excellent example of Outstanding care, well done.”
Inspectors found the service had engaged heavily in supporting staff to understand people’s needs to deliver person-centred care. The specialised training exposed staff members to practical challenges that were drawn from the experiences of people living with dementia. The training in-depth and was proven to be very effective, enabling staff to learn how to better work with people’s needs. The way care was delivered in the home had changed because of the training, and further bespoke training was invested in to enhance the care being provided.
The leadership of the home was seen to take proactive and preventative measures to risk. Between the provider and the registered manager audits to assess quality and safety were completed often across the service and when areas of improvement were identified action was quickly taken. The registered manager was also a member of several forums that discussed creative care ideas and collaborative working that could improve people’s lives.
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For further information please contact CQC Regional Engagement Officer Mark Humphreys mark.humphreys@cqc.org.uk 01912011675
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