• Care Home
  • Care home

Woodland House

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

22 Woodland Road, Northfield, Birmingham, West Midlands, B31 2HS (0121) 243 9349

Provided and run by:
Mr Brendan Freeman

Latest inspection summary

On this page

Background to this inspection

Updated 6 February 2020

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors on 07 January 2020.

Service and service type

Woodland House 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 a manager 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 was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We took this into account when we inspected the service and made the judgements in this report.

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority, health professionals and Healthwatch who work with the service.

During the inspection

We spoke with five people who used the service about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with three members of staff, the registered manager, assistant manager and a support worker. We also spoke to one health professional who was visiting people who use the service on the day.

We reviewed a range of records. This included two people’s care records and medication records. We looked at resident and staff meetings and training records. A variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits of the systems and processes in use, compliments and complaints, quality assurance questionnaires and policies, and procedures which were currently being reviewed.

After the inspection

We spoke with a professional who regularly visits the service and two family members to gain their feedback on the service.

Overall inspection

Requires improvement

Updated 6 February 2020

About the service

Woodland House is a residential care home for people with learning disabilities and autism spectrum disorders, providing personal care to six people at the time of the inspection. The service can support up to six people.

The building deliberately had no identifying signs, intercom, cameras, industrial bins or anything else outside to indicate it was a care home. Staff were also encouraged to wear their own clothes that didn’t suggest they were care staff when coming and going with people.

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

People were safe living at the home. Staff had received training so that they knew how to protect people from harm. At the time of our site visit, we found there were enough numbers of suitably recruited staff on duty to meet people’s needs to keep people safe. People were supported by staff who knew their needs well, but had not all received training on people’s unique health conditions. Staff supported people with their medicines. Systems to prevent and control the spread of infection needed some improvement.

People were offered a choice of foods and where appropriate, received additional support with their health care needs. Staff worked with external health and social care professionals and ensured people were supported to access these services when they needed them to maintain their health and wellbeing.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff. During inspection we did see that one person was restricted from using a bathroom as the door was locked. Alternative options had not been explored that are less restrictive .

People's support focused on them having as many opportunities as possible for them to gain new experiences and maintain independence.

The service was rated as Good in all five key questions at the last inspection in July 2017.

However, at this inspection, we found they key questions for Safe, Effective and Well-led were rated as requires improvement.

We also found during the inspection that there was a breach of Good governance again with systems not being in place to identify and mitigate any risks to people and failing to ensure the service was compliant with regulations. Also, the registered manager had failed to keep themselves up to date with current regulatory requirements and best practice.

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

Why we inspected

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.