Archived: Forget-Me-Not Project

Berry House, 4 Prospect Place, Newport Road, Barnstaple, Devon, EX32 9AS (01271) 323879

Provided and run by:
Forget-Me-Not Project

All Inspections

17 May 2012

During a routine inspection

We carried out a review with an inspection to Berry House on

17 May 2012. We looked at essential standards covering consent, care and welfare, safeguarding people from abuse, recruiting staff and assessing and monitoring the quality of the service.

We looked at the records of two people in detail; and where possible we spoke to the individual and or their carer. We observed other people being attended to whilst we were visiting. We spoke with five carers about their relations experiences of respite at Berry House. We asked three professionals about people's experiences of care and support at Berry house. However, we did not receive any comments back.

People we spoke to said that they 'like it' at Berry House. For example, one person said 'I get to meet my friends here'. We saw that people are treated as individuals in a respectful way. People were able to follow their usual routines, such as attending a day centre or doing voluntary work that they normally would when at home.

All five carers we spoke with said that Berry House was a well run respite service, which they value. Their comments were positive, for example the 'care is excellent', 'he's very safe and always clean', 'the staff are so kind and caring' and 'XXX likes going there and he feels safe'. An area that carers suggested might be improved was with regard to people's well being at weekends, with comments like 'it would be nice if there were more staff on duty at weekends so they can go out to the beach, bowling or the theatre for example'. However, carers told us that their main concern was to do with changes social services were making to funding and support arrangements for respite care and they feared that this would affect the future viability of the service at Berry House.

There are three areas where we have highlighted improvements that the provider should consider. Firstly, these relate to inclusion of people through the use of reasonable adjustments so that they have greater ownership in planning their respite stay. Secondly, tighter controls over financial records. And finally, the implementation of the risk assessment for the service in relation to the frequency of fire drills.

During an inspection looking at part of the service

We did not speak to anyone using this service. The provider sent us a satisfactory improvement plan that tells us that awareness of people's right to consent for care and treatment has been improved through additional training for care workers and updating information for carers.

17 May 2011

During a routine inspection

There were three people using this service when we visited Berry House. We had a conversation with two people about their stay and also obtained information about people's experiences through observation.

People told us that they were 'very happy' and always looked forward to staying at Berry House. Information had been obtained before their stay, for example we were told 'mum fills out the form and sends it back to Berry before come here'.

Food, we were told is "very good". We saw people being offered choice at mealtimes.

Part of people's stay at Berry House is to ensure that they continue to do as many activities as possible that they normally do at home. For example people are encouraged to learn new skills like cooking and one person told us they were going to classes to do this.

We talked to people about the environment and they showed us that they had their own room whilst staying at Berry House. It was spotlessly clean.

There were sufficient care workers on duty during the day to give people the support they needed. People said that the care workers are 'nice' to them and know them very well. We saw that people are respected and treated as an individual in their own right.

People told us they felt safe and we saw that they were settled.

They knew who to talk to if they had any concerns or complaints and they were confident that they would be listened to and actions would be taken to address any concerns or complaints.