Archived: Branston Court Care Home

There was a registered manager in post. 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.

Although the provider determined the staffing levels on an assessment of people’s needs, they had not taken into consideration the additional level of support people needed at specific times of the day. For example at meal times. This led to insufficient staff being available to meet people’s individual needs. The environment did not offer sufficient orientation and memory objects to support people’s memories and reduce confusion .Staff were knowledgeable about people’s care and support and understood what constituted abuse or poor practice and processes were in place to protect people from the risk of harm. Systems were in place and followed so that medicines were managed safely and people were given their medicine as and when needed. The provider had undertaken thorough recruitment checks to ensure the staff employed were suitable to support people.

Staff received training to meet the needs of people. Staff received supervision, to support and develop their skills. The registered manager understood their responsibility to comply with the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). Where people lacked capacity in certain areas, capacity assessments had been completed to show how people were supported to make those decisions. Applications had been made for DoLS in line with legislation. People received food and drink that met their nutritional needs and were referred to healthcare professionals to maintain their health and wellbeing.

Staff were caring in their approach and had a good understanding of people’s likes, dislikes and preferences. Staff supported people to maintain their dignity. People were supported to maintain and develop their social interests. People felt confident that they could raise any concerns with the registered manager. There were processes in place for people and their relatives to express their views and opinions about the service provided. There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service to enable the registered manager and provider to drive improvement.

Staff had a good knowledge of people's support needs and we saw they were respectful to people when providing this support. People were relaxed with staff and one person told us, 'We can have a laugh with the staff and tell them what we think. They're very good at listening.'

People using the service had care records which recorded how they wanted to be supported. Information was reviewed to ensure the information matched any identified risk or changes to people's care.

The staffing was organised to meet the needs of people using the service.

The provider had systems in place to ensure people could raise concerns and improve the quality of the care received. Complaints were responded to and people were able to voice their opinions.

Some people using the service had special communication needs and used a combination of words and sounds to express themselves. Where people were not able to express their views to us, we observed interaction between people and staff. We saw staff provided sensitive support and people were treated with respect. Personal care issues were discussed sensitively and discreetly. One relative we spoke with told us, 'I can't fault the staff. They treat people properly and nothing is too much trouble.'

We saw people were dressed in their own style and they told us if they needed support, the staff would help them to continue to take a pride in their appearance. One relative said, 'The staff always make sure my mum looks nice. She always dressed well and it's nice to see her still looking good.'

Staff told us they enjoyed working at the home and checks were made to ensure they were fit to do their job. Staff felt they worked well as a team and supported each other in order to do a good job.

Medication was not always recorded correctly to demonstrate the quantity of medicines in the service and how these had been administered. This meant people could not be confident the records matched what had been prescribed to them.