Beachcroft House

Beachcroft House is a care home which is registered to provide personal care and nursing care to up to 84 older people with physical disabilities, frailty and/or living with dementia. There were 50 people living at the service at the time of our inspection and two people were in hospital. The provider had not yet opened the designated suite for people assessed to require nursing care. The service is purpose built over five floors and offers a range of communal areas and facilities.

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

People and their relatives were happy with the quality of care and support they received at the service.

People received care and support that was developed to meet their individual needs as reflected in their care plans. However, some of the individual assessments to identify and meet risks to people's safety and wellbeing needed to be more detailed and tailored to people's unique circumstances.

People were supported with their medicine needs, although some improvements were needed to ensure the safety and effectiveness of the medicine system.

People were pleased they were provided with a clean and hygienic home where staff followed correct procedures to protect them from the risk of infections.

Staff were described as "lovely and caring" and relatives praised the staff team for keeping their family members safe.

People enjoyed activities to keep them entertained and stimulated during the lockdown. People and their relatives spoke highly about well appointed and comfortable premises, which were described as "beautiful".

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 felt consulted about their wishes and they knew how to make a complaint if they wished to. They told us the service was well managed and they had full confidence in the performance of the registered manager.

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

This service was registered with us on 17 September 2020 and this is the first comprehensive inspection.

Why we inspected

The inspection was prompted in part due to concerns received from an anonymous source about people’s safety and the quality of their care. This included concerns in relation to how people were protected from the risks of malnutrition, falls and infection, neglect, leaving the premises unwitnessed and unsatisfactory continence support. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.

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 found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from the concerns alleged by the anonymous source. However, we have found evidence that the provider needed to make improvements.

We have recommended the provider monitors the level of detail within risk assessments and reviews some of the medicine practices which were not in line with their own medicine policy and procedures. We have also recommended the provider develops its monitoring and auditing processes in order to effectively identify and address issues with the quality of people's risk assessments.

You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service until we return to visit as per our re-inspection programme. We may inspect again if we receive any further information of concern.

We found the following examples of good practice.

The risks associated with Covid-19 were considered and plans were in place to mitigate these. Staff understood the signs and symptoms that might indicate acute ill health that required immediate medical attention. The service had a separate isolation unit with access to a garden for people who would find it difficult or traumatic to self-isolate in their own room when they received a positive test result.

There was a clear process in place to ensure all visits to the service were managed safely. The provider had adapted the visitors’ protocol when risk factors and government guidance changed. People were supported to keep in touch with family and friends using alternative methods such as video calls when visits to the service were suspended.

The provider had systems in place to ensure stocks of personal protective equipment (PPE) were maintained. All staff received training in infection control and the correct use of PP. There was signage throughout the service to remind residents, staff and visitors of best practice guidelines. The registered manager conducted regular infection control audits of the service and observations of how PPE was used by staff to ensure high standards were maintained.

The service was taking part in ‘whole service’ testing in line with current government guidance to protect all residents and staff. The testing scheduled was reviewed in line with advice from local health protection teams.