Archived: Briarmede Care Home

Updated 19 November 2019

Inspection team

Two inspectors and an Expert by Experience were present for the inspection on day one and one inspector concluded the inspection on a second day. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Briarmede Care Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The service had two managers registered with the Care Quality Commission. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

The provider completed the required Provider Information Return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us with key information about the service, what it does well and improvements they plan to make. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return. This information helps support our inspections.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch Rochdale. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used all of this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection-

We spoke with the registered managers, the registered provider, the cook, three care staff, thirteen residents and two relatives. We reviewed a range of records. This included four people’s care records, numerous medicines records, four staff files and records relating to the management of the home.

After the inspection –

We continued to seek clarification from the provider to validate evidence found. We looked at training data.

Updated 19 November 2019

Briarmede Care Home is registered to provide accommodation for up to 32 older people who require personal care. Briarmede Care Home is a detached converted building with bedrooms on the ground and first floor.

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

We found some aspects of the environment were unsafe on inspection. Some initial repairs were completed before the inspection concluded. However, there were other areas that posed a hazard to safety that remained in need of repair. Some bedrooms and communal areas of the home were in need of redecoration, repair or updating.

The CQC was not always notified of events that affect the running of the service in a timely manner.

Safeguarding policies, procedures and staff training helped protect people from harm. The recruitment of staff was safe.

Risk assessments helped protect the health and welfare of people who used the service. Systems for quality assurance checks and audits had improved. However, they were not sufficiently robust and had not ensured that where issues were found action was taken rectify the problems.

People and staff thought the registered managers were supportive and approachable.

People were supported to live healthy lives because they had access to professionals, a well-trained staff team and a choice of a nutritious diet.

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.

People were treated as individuals which helped protect their dignity. People’s equality and diversity was respected by a caring staff team and where they wanted, supported to pursue their religion and chosen activities.

We saw that the service responded to the needs of people by providing meaningful activities, having regularly reviewed plans of care and any concerns acted upon. Staff were able to support people at the end of their lives.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was requires improvement (last report published 15/04/2019). At this inspection the service were in breach of Regulation 12(1), failure to comply with fire risk assessments, Regulation 15 (1) some equipment was unsafe and Regulation 17(1), a lack of good governance. The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.

At this inspection we found that some improvements had been made, however the service was in breach of Regulation 18: Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009; Notification of other incidents and Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, Regulation 15 premises and equipment and Regulation 17 lack of good governance.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns being received about the lift being out of action and people were having to be cared for in a lounge area, which was a risk of cross infection and a possible breach of privacy and dignity. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvement. Please see the regulatory requirements in the well-led section of this full report.

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

The overall rating for this service is ‘Requires improvement’. However, we are placing the service in 'special measures'. We do this when services have been rated as 'Inadequate' in any Key Question over two consecutive comprehensive inspections. The ‘Inadequate’ rating does not need to be in the same question at each of these inspections for us to place services in special measures. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.

If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe, and there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.

For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.

We held a prearranged meeting with the provider following the first inspection day to discuss how they will make changes to ensure they improve their rating to at least good.

We will work with the local authority to monitor progress. 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.