Beauchamp House Nursing Home

Beauchamp House is large detached Georgian manor house with modern extensions set in its own grounds, located in the village of Hatch Beauchamp near the market town of Taunton.

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

People were safe and appeared happy with the service they received. One person told us, “I am happy they are looking after me and come in to check on me often."

We found the home did not always provide a safe environment for people, regarding ongoing renovation works at the home. Action was taken to improve the safety of the environment during the renovation work.

People received their medicines safely from trained competent staff and in line with their prescriptions. Staff followed good infection control practices.

There were enough numbers of safely recruited staff with the right skills available to support people. Improvements were made following the inspection regarding staff response times to call bells as people were not having their needs met promptly. Action was also taken during the inspection to improve monitoring of agency staff working at the home to ensure they were working to meet people’s needs.

Improvements were being made to the menu at the home giving people more choice and a better mealtime experience.

Staff knew people well and we observed staff being kind and compassionate towards the people they supported. However, at times staff did not ensure people’s dignity and privacy. Action was taken by the management team to improve this.

People’s care plans were detailed and personalised on the providers electronic care system. People’s wishes and preferences regarding end of life were recorded within care plans if they had chosen to discuss this.

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 had access to health care, this included a weekly visit by health care professionals linked to the GP practice.

A team of activity coordinators ran a schedule of activities and events although these were not always meaningful activities. The registered manager had identified improvements were required and was working with the activity team to improve the activity provision at the home. This included giving people a reason to use the communal spaces throughout the day to interact and socialise other than just for lunch.

People knew the registered manager and knew how to raise a concern.

People and staff were asked their views and kept informed.

The provider had systems in place to monitor, manage and improve service delivery and to improve the care and support provided to people. However, there were a few areas we identified at the inspection which their quality monitoring processes had not identified. Although they took action to address these issues, we have made a recommendation to the provider to look at their system to assess and monitor the service to ensure they are robust and cover all aspects of the service.

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

Rating at last inspection and update

The last rating for this service was good, (published 15 August 2018)

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.