• Care Home
  • Care home

British Home & Hospital for Incurables Also known as The British Home

Overall: Requires improvement read more about inspection ratings

Crown Lane, London, SW16 3JB (020) 8670 8261

Provided and run by:
Trustees of British Home & Hospital for Incurables

Important:

We issued a warning notice to Trustees of British Homes for failing to meet the regulations relating to good governance at British Home & Hospital for Incurables. The provider was failing to provide safe and effective leadership and oversight of the service.

Latest inspection summary

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Our current view of the service

Requires improvement

Updated 26 September 2025

British Home Hospital for Incurables (known as The British Home) is a nursing home for up to 127 people with physical disabilities. The assessment took place between 12 September 2025 and 13 September 2025. This assessment took place to assess if improvements had been made since the last assessment in October 2024. We looked at 3 key questions of safe, effective, and well led as well as the concerns cited in a previous warning notice, which we served to the British Homes in October 2024.

The provider was in breach of the legal regulation in relation to person centred care.

The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulation in relation to person centred care. Improvements were not found at this assessment, and the provider remained in breach of this regulation.

During this assessment, we found not enough improvement had been made and the provider continued to be in breach of legal regulations in relation to, good governance and safe care and treatment, including managing risk, medicines management. We identified an additional breach of a legal regulation in relation to person centred care.

We found some improvements had been made which meant the service was no longer in breach of regulations relating to the safety of the premises and staffing

As a result of our assessment, we rated the service requires improvement.

The provider was responsive to our feedback and took appropriate action to initiate immediate improvements. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at this assessment.

At the time of the assessment there was no registered manager in post. A new manager had been recruited and was in the process of applying to be registered with CQC.

People were not always provided with safe care and treatment. Risks to people were not consistently identified and monitored. People’s care records did not always contain accurate and consistent information. Medicines were not always managed safely. For people who were prescribed medicines to be taken ‘as required’, protocols to manage these medicines were insufficient.

Audits and management checks were in place but were not consistently used to monitor outcomes or confirm completion of required actions. Care plans and risk assessments lacked detailed guidance and were not always updated when people’s needs changed.

The provider’s governance systems and processes did not always operate effectively. Whilst audits were taking place, these were not sufficiently effective to ensure improvements were made and embedded.

There were a range of meaningful activities for people which had a positive impact on their well-being. People’s relatives were able to visit without restriction. The British Home had a warm and homely atmosphere and people appeared at ease in their surroundings.

The management team were receptive to our feedback, and they demonstrated a clear commitment to improvement.

Staff had access to regular training, but records demonstrated their supervision meetings were not always consistent.

 

 

 

 

 

 

People's experience of the service

Updated 26 September 2025

People and their relatives spoke mainly positively of their experience at The British Home. People and relatives were mostly positive about how respectfully staff supported them, and our observations supported this feedback.

Overall, the feedback we received was that enough staff were available. One person said, “There is always [staff] around. They come when I call, I don’t have to wait too long.” Another person said, “I think there are enough staff, and they are helpful.”

While people expressed general satisfaction with their care and support, our assessment found elements of risk management and governance did not meet the expected standards.

We spoke with people who used the service and their relatives. We observed care delivery within the service to help us understand the experiences of people and undertook the Short Observational Framework for Assessment (SOFI) to help us understand the experiences of those people who could not communicate with us. We saw staff treated people as individuals and with dignity, kindness and respect