Baring Lodge Residential Home

Baring Lodge Residential Home is a residential care home. At the time of the inspection the service was providing personal care and support to five people, living with mental health needs. The service can support up to six people. The accommodation has been adapted to meet people’s needs.

People’s experience of using this service

People’s feedback showed they enjoyed living at the service. One person said, “Staff are really helpful, they’re nice.”

Staff understood their responsibility to implement the provider’s safeguarding procedures and to report an allegation of abuse to keep people safe from harm.

Staff were scheduled daily work at the service. The registered manager assessed the level of staff needed to ensure people’s individual needs were met safely.

Medicines were managed so people had them as required. There were systems in place to ensure medicines were ordered, stored and administered using best practice guidance.

There were suitable measures to protect people from COVID-19, including the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), testing and vaccination. The service was clean and hygienic throughout, with enhanced cleaning of frequently touched surfaces to protect people from cross infection. The service had a designated infection prevention and control (IPC) lead who had been trained and was knowledgeable about the current guidance. The service’s IPC and COVID-19 policies were up to date. Managers contacted their local health protection team in a timely way when they suspected a COVID-19 outbreak.

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.

People, relatives and social care professionals gave positive feedback about the quality of care and the service.

Rating at last inspection

The last rating for this service was good (published on 8 November 2018).

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received about the management of the service. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of Safe and Well-Led only. We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern. Please see the Safe and Well-Led sections of this full report.

We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.

We reviewed the information we held about the service. No areas of concern were identified in the other key questions. We therefore did not inspect them. Ratings from previous comprehensive inspections for those key questions were used in calculating the overall rating at this inspection.

The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection. We have made a recommendation about the submission of notifications.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Baring Lodge Residential Home on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

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.

The service 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. At the time of this inspection four people with a mental health condition lived at the service.

This is the first inspection at Baring Lodge since they registered with the Care Quality Commission in October 2017.

The service has a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 2008 and associated Regulations about how the service is run.

Safeguarding policies and processes were in place to keep people safe. Staff followed safeguarding guidance to reduce the risks of harm and abuse. Staff completed safeguarding training which enabled them to manage an allegation of abuse effectively and to report this to the local authority for investigation.

Staff identified risks that affected people’s health and wellbeing. Staff developed risk management plans to record the actions they would take to manage and reduce those identified risks.

The registered manager carried out pre-employment checks with newly employed staff before they began working at the service. Staff recruitment records contained documents relating to their previous employment, identification, job references and the right to work in the UK.

The registered manager arranged for sufficient numbers of staff to support people each day. The staffing levels were flexible enough to support people to attend appointments or activities outside of the home.

Medicines were managed safely. There were systems in place for the ordering, storage and management of people’s medicines. Staff were assessed as safe to administer people’s prescribed medicines.

Care records were person centred. Assessments detailed the care decisions people made including their opinions and views of their support. Each person had a care plan and an assessment of their health and care needs. People, relatives, health and social care professionals were involved and contributed to them. There were no people requiring palliative care or end of life care at the service. However, staff understood how they would support a person’s wishes and views at this time.

There was an activities programme in place. People had an individual and a group programme of activities. Staff supported people to attend social activities of their choice in their local community. There was a wide range of activities that took place in the service which people also enjoyed.

There was a programme for staff that supported them in their role. Staff completed an induction programme, training and supervision. The registered manager had plans in place for an annual appraisal.

Staff understood the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and protected people’s rights. People gave staff their permission and consent to the care and support they received. People also provided their consent in a written format when required.

People had enough to eat and drink. Meals were cooked on site by staff and people decided what meals were to be on the menu. People told us they had enough to eat and drink as they wished.

People were supported by staff to access health care services. When people’s needs changed, staff sought advice and support from health and social care professionals. Annual health care checks were arranged for people.

Staff were kind to people and showed them compassion. Staff provided assurance and support when people were upset or distressed. Privacy and dignity was promoted and respected.

The complaints systems in place supported people to make a complaint about the service. People said they knew staff would listen and act on their complaints if needed.

The registered manager understood the requirements of their registration with the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The registered manager referred incidents that occurred at the service to the CQC.

The registered manager routinely monitored and reviewed the service. Audits carried out reviewed the quality of the service, people’s care and support and feedback from people using the service to ensure it maintained and improved standards.

Staff said they were supported by the registered manager. Staff enjoyed working at the service and said they were continually learning whilst working within the organisation.

Staff developed relationships with health and social care services. People benefited from the working relationships which helped them receive appropriate and co-ordinated care.