About the service Beechwood Lodge is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care for up to 66 people. There were 61 people living in the home at the time of the inspection. The home has four distinct areas know as Oak, Maple, Holly and Willow. People living with dementia were provided with care and support in the Oak and Maple areas of the home. The building was purpose built and set in a residential area.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People told us they felt safe living in the home, and they were happy with the service provided. Staff understood how to protect people from harm or discrimination and had access to safeguarding adults’ procedures. There were sufficient numbers of staff deployed to meet people's needs and ensure their safety. We found shortfalls in the recruitment of new staff. The home had a satisfactory standard of cleanliness and staff had completed training on the prevention and control of infection. However, staff were not always using personal protective equipment appropriately.
Individual risks had been assessed and recorded, however, we observed one incident when staff did not adhere to the risk management strategies. We also noted the potential risks posed by the storage of toiletries and prescribed creams in people’s ensuite shower rooms had not been considered. The management of medicines was not always safe.
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. There was detailed information about any restrictions on people’s liberties. People’s needs were assessed prior to them using the service.
People were provided with a balanced diet and support to eat and drink. Whilst there were systems to monitor people’s food and fluid intake where necessary, staff had not always taken action when a low level of fluid had been recorded.
The provider had appropriate arrangements to ensure staff received training relevant to their role. However, there were no induction training records seen for two members of staff. We made a recommendation in respect of this issue.
People were happy with the way the service was managed and staff told us they enjoyed working at the home. The registered manager had carried out a series of audits, however, most of the audits comprised of a short comment with no actions identified. There was no evidence seen of what checks had been carried out in relation to the audits. There was no evidence seen of provider audits. People had not had the opportunity to complete a satisfaction survey and there was no evidence seen of residents’ meetings during 2022.
Following the inspection, the provider sent us an action plan which set out their response to the findings of the inspection. We will check any improvements to the service on our next inspection of the home.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 4 February 2020) and there were breaches of regulation. The service remains rated requires improvement. This service has been rated requires improvement for the last six consecutive inspections.
The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve.
At this inspection, we found some improvements, however, the provider remained in breach of the regulations.
Why we inspected
A comprehensive inspection was carried out on 2, 4 and 19 October 2019. Breaches of legal requirements were found, and we issued three requirement notices and a warning notice. This inspection was carried out to follow up on action we told the provider to take at the last inspection and to check whether the provider had met the requirements of the warning and requirement notices.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe, effective and well-led sections of the 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.
During this inspection, we also carried out a separate thematic probe, which asked questions of the provider, people and their relatives, about the quality of oral health care support and access to dentists, for people living in the care home. This was to follow up on the findings and recommendations from our national report on oral healthcare in care homes that was published in 2019 called ‘Smiling Matters’. We will publish a follow up report to the 2019 'Smiling Matters' report, with up to date findings and recommendations about oral health, in due course.”
You can see what action we have asked the provider to take at the end of this full report.
Enforcement and recommendations
We are mindful of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our regulatory function. This meant we took account of the exceptional circumstances arising as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic when considering what enforcement action was necessary and proportionate to keep people safe as a result of this inspection. We will continue to monitor the service and will take further action if needed.
We have identified breaches in relation to the management of medicines, the recruitment of new staff and the governance arrangements.
Please see the action we have told the provider to take at the end of this report.
Follow up
We will request an action plan from the provider to understand what they will do to improve the standards of quality and safety. We will work alongside the provider and local authority to monitor progress. We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
The overall rating for this service is ‘Requires improvement’. However, we are placing the service in 'special measures'. We do this when services have been rated as 'Inadequate' in any Key Question over two consecutive comprehensive inspections. The ‘Inadequate’ rating does not need to be in the same question at each of these inspections for us to place services in special measures. This means we will keep the service under review and, if we do not propose to cancel the provider’s registration, we will re-inspect within 6 months to check for significant improvements.
If the provider has not made enough improvement within this timeframe. And there is still a rating of inadequate for any key question or overall, we will take action in line with our enforcement procedures. This will mean we will begin the process of preventing the provider from operating this service. This will usually lead to cancellation of their registration or to varying the conditions the registration.
For adult social care services, the maximum time for being in special measures will usually be no more than 12 months. If the service has demonstrated improvements when we inspect it and it is no longer rated as inadequate for any of the five key questions it will no longer be in special measures.