Beechwood House

Beechwood House is a care home providing personal care to 5 people with a learning disability. The service can support up to 5 people.

We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.

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

Right Support: People were not supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff did not support them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service did not support this practice. People had a choice about their living environment and were able to personalise their rooms. Staff supported people to take part in activities and pursue their interests in their local area. The home ensured people had access specialist health and social care support in the community.

Right Care: People received kind and compassionate care. Staff promoted equality and diversity. Staff protected and respected people’s privacy and dignity. They understood and responded to their individual needs. Enough appropriately skilled staff were deployed to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. The home gave people opportunities to try new activities that enhanced and enriched their lives.

Right Culture: The provider ‘s quality assurance systems had not identified the gaps in the monitoring of people’s financial support and ensuring the MCA code of practice was followed. People received compassionate and empowering care that was tailored to their needs. Staff knew and understood people well and were responsive to their needs. People and those important to them, including advocates, were involved in planning their care.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

This service was registered with us on 16 July 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.

Enforcement and Recommendations

We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.

We have identified a breach in relation to the failure to follow the principles of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) at this inspection.

We have made a recommendation that the provider keeps their quality monitoring system under review to ensure it effectively monitors the quality and safety of the service.

Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.

Follow up

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