Burnt Tree Croft

Updated 25 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

This inspection was completed by two inspectors and an Expert by Experience. 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

Burnt Tree Croft is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a 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 CQC. This means the manager and the provider are both 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

We reviewed information we had received about the service since the last inspection. We sought feedback from the local authority and Healthwatch (Sheffield). 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.

The provider was not asked to complete a provider information return prior to this inspection, due to the timing of the inspection. This is information we require providers to send us annually, to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make.

During the inspection

We spoke with nine people who used the service and three relatives about their experience of the care provided. We spoke with nine members of staff including the registered manager, deputy manager, care workers and other ancillary staff. We spoke with a community health professional and the provider’s quality manager who both visited the service during this inspection.

We reviewed a range of records. This included four people's care records and multiple medication records. We checked a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including staff files and policies and procedures.

We spent time observing the daily life in the service and we looked around the building to check environmental safety and cleanliness.

After the inspection

We sought some more documents from the registered manager. They were provided in a timely manner and were used to inform our judgements.

Updated 25 February 2020

About the service

Burnt Tree Croft is a residential care home that provides accommodation and personal care for adults with a range of care and support needs. This includes adults who are living with dementia. The home can accommodate up to 40 people in one adapted building over three floors. At the time of this inspection there were 37 people using the service.

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

People felt safe at Burnt Tree Croft and they were cared for by staff who knew how to protect people from abuse. Some improvements were needed to the management of risk, to ensure staff consistently reviewed and acted upon identified risks. People were supported by staff who responded to them promptly, however there were times when staff could have been deployed more effectively to promote people’s safety. Some people had not received topical medicines such as creams, as prescribed, however there was no evidence people had suffered any harm because of this. People’s medicines were ordered, stored and disposed of safely and people were protected from the spread of infection.

People were cared for by staff who knew them well. People and their relatives told us staff were kind and caring. People had enough to do, to keep them meaningfully occupied. People provided positive feedback about the activities and entertainment on offer. People had opportunities to provide feedback about the care they received and to raise any concerns. People knew how to complain, and we found any complaints were acted on appropriately.

Staff received training in a range of different areas to ensure they had the right skills to deliver effective care. Staff were happy with the training they received, and people told us the staff knew what they were doing. However, staff told us the support they received via supervision meetings was not always effective. We found improvements were needed to the communication between staff and managers, to ensure staff had opportunity to raise ideas or concerns about the service and request any additional support they needed to undertake their roles effectively.

People were happy with the food available at Burnt Tree Croft and they were encouraged to drink enough. People and their relatives were happy with the quality of care they received. People’s independence was promoted and their dignity was maintained. 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.

Staff told us they enjoyed their jobs and it was evident they had a clear desire to provide good quality care to people. However, the morale of the staff team was low. Staff felt their ideas for improvement were not acted upon by the registered manager or provider and staff told us they were not kept informed about changes to the service.

The provider and senior staff regularly completed a range of checks and audits to assess the quality and safety of the service. The registered manager used the results of these audits to make improvements to the service. However, some of systems used to monitor the safety of the service were not embedded and therefore were not effective; they had not identified some of the issues we observed during this inspection.

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

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published 19 July 2016). There was also an inspection on 21 January 2019, however the report following that inspection was withdrawn as there was an issue with some of the information we gathered.

Why we inspected

This is a planned inspection because of the issue highlighted above.

Follow up

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.