Brook House

Brook House is a residential care home providing personal care to up to 36 people in one adapted building. At the time of our inspection there were 19 people using the service. Some people were living with dementia.

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

Whilst the provider had refurbished the service to a very high standard, they had not, however, prioritised improvement in line with safety and risk such as fire and infection control.

The registered manager was creating a positive and inclusive culture at the home, with a supportive approach, developing strong and productive relationships with the staff team. However, improvement was needed to establish a regular one to one supervision programme for staff to strengthen their support. We have made a recommendation to the provider about this. The registered manager had formed good working relationships with external stakeholders and was honest and open about work which still needed doing.

Provider governance systems needed further development in order for them to provide an accurate overview of the service to inform an ongoing plan for improvement, enable proper monitoring and review, or enhance the quality of the service. This would complete the quality monitoring cycle and demonstrate the quality of the service was continually improving and developing to provide good outcomes for people.

Improvement was needed in dementia care provision and a review of staff moving and handling training. We have made recommendations to the provider about this.

The registered manager took appropriate action to safeguard people and care staff understood how to raise concerns. People told us they felt safe.

Staff treated people with kindness and compassion and respected their privacy and dignity. Positive relationships had developed between people and staff. The home encouraged and supported people to maintain relationships that were important to them.

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.

The chef produced quality home cooked food that people enjoyed. Snacks and drinks were available when people wanted them. Peoples nutritional needs were well catered for.

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 08 March 2022 and this is the first inspection under the new legal entity.

The last rating for the service under the previous provider was requires improvement, published on 11 December 2019.

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

We have identified a breach of regulation 12 in relation to fire safety and infection control at this inspection and a breach in Regulation 17 in relation to identifying failings in service provision and outcomes for people.

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.