- Care home
Broom Cottage
Report from 19 March 2025 assessment
Contents
Ratings
Our view of the service
Date of inspection 15 April 2025. The inspection was prompted by a review of information we held about the provider.
Broom Cottage is a care home registered to provide personal care and accommodation for up to 5 people. At the time of the inspection, the service was supporting 4 people with a learning disability. We assessed the service against ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ guidance to make judgements about whether the provider guaranteed people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices, independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.
People received safe care and support. Staff knew people’s individual needs, routines and preferences, and how to protect them from avoidable harm. New permanent staff had recently been recruited, resulting in a reduction of the need to use bank and agency staff. A sample of staff recruitment checks identified some shortfalls in the checks completed. This was discussed with the management team who agreed to address these. Risk management systems and processes were in place to mitigate risks and learn from incidents. Overall, these were working well, oversight needed to be strengthened to ensure information shared with staff was detailed and fully reflective of mitigation actions. However, we found staff to be knowledgeable. People’s care plans and risk assessments were overall detailed and up to date. Information needed to be more detailed in places, but this was identified as a recording issue and people had not experienced a negative impact. People received their prescribed medicines when they needed. The service was found to be clean and hygienic.
People received effective care and support. People’s health conditions, including dietary needs and risks had been assessed and planned for. People were supported to access health services and had their health monitored. People received a choice of meals, drinks and snacks throughout the day and evening. Where people lacked mental capacity to consent to specific aspects of their care and support, mental capacity assessments and best interest decisions had been completed as expected.
People received care and support from caring and compassionate staff. Observations of staff engagement confirmed staff knew people well and were caring, kind and respectful. People appeared relaxed and comfortable in the presence of staff.
People received care and support that was responsive to their individual care and support needs. People were supported with their interests and to access community opportunities. Action was being taken to increase people’s participation and choice making in the activities available to them. Information had been made in accessible formats to support people’s understanding. People and relatives received opportunities to share their experience about the service and relative meetings had recently been introduced.
The new management team were developing new and improved ways of working and an action plan was in place to drive improvements. There was overall good oversight of the service, including audits and checks to review quality and safety. Staff received regular support and training. Communication systems were in place and the management team had identified actions to further develop the staff team and to ensure regular management onsite presence.
People's experience of this service
Due to people’s communication needs, we were able to seek feedback from one person only, which was limited. We used observation of staff engagement with people to support our understanding of people’s experience of the care and support they received. This included using the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.
We spoke with two relatives who were positive about the care and support their relation received.
Relatives told us they were confident safe care, and support was provided by overall experienced staff. Some concerns were shared about previous staff changes, including the use of bank and agency staff and their relative being less familiar with these staff. Relatives believed there to be sufficient numbers of staff. Relatives spoke positively about the caring and respectful approach of staff.
Relatives were able to visit when they wished. They were positive that the environment and premises was clean and well maintained.
Relatives told us how staff supported their relation to attend health appointments, they were confident health needs were known, understood and monitored. Communication was described as being good.