Archived: The Berry's Care Home

Updated 9 April 2016

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 18 February 2016 and was unannounced, and was completed by one inspector. This was the services first inspection since it was registered in 2015.

The Berry’s care home is a small home providing accommodation and support on an individual basis. At present there is only one person living in the home who has one to one support at all times.

We reviewed the information we held about the service including safeguarding alerts and statutory notifications which related to the service. A notification is information about important events which the provider is required to send us by law.

The person living in the home had limited verbal communication and responded to most questions asked by nodding and smiling or saying “No.” We therefore observed interactions between themselves and staff. We also spoke with two staff and the manager.

Following the inspection we made telephone calls to relatives and professionals for feedback about the service. We reviewed care records, medication administration records (MAR) and a selection of documents about how the service was managed. These included, staff recruitment files, induction, and training schedules and training plan.

We also looked at the service’s arrangements for the management of medicines, complaints and

compliments information, safeguarding alerts and quality monitoring and audit information.

Detailed findings

Updated 9 April 2016

The Berry’s Care Home is a small home which provides accommodation and personal care for up to two people who have a learning disability. People who use the service may also have a physical disability. On the day of our inspection there was one person living in the home.

The service had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to manage the service. Like registered providers, they are ‘registered persons’.

Registered persons have legal responsibility for meeting the requirements in the Health and Social Care Act and associate Regulations about how the service is run.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) monitors the operation of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) which apply to care homes. We found the provider was following the MCA code of practice.

People were safe because staff supported them to understand how to keep safe and staff knew how to manage risk effectively. There were sufficient numbers of care staff on shift with the correct skills and knowledge to keep people safe. There were appropriate arrangements in place for medicines to be stored and administered safely.

Staff had good relationships with people who used the service and were attentive to their needs. People’s privacy and dignity was respected at all times. People and their relatives were involved in making decisions about their care and support.

Care plans were individual and contained information about how people preferred to communicate and their ability to make decisions.

People were encouraged to take part in activities that they enjoyed, and were supported to keep in contact with family members. When needed, they were supported to see health professionals and referrals were put through to ensure they had the appropriate care and treatment.

Relatives and staff were complimentary about the management of the service. Staff understood their roles and responsibilities in providing safe and good quality care to the people who used the service.

The management team had systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of the service provided.

Summary of findings