Archived: Berkeley House

Berkeley House is a homecare agency based in Barnet that provides services to people of any age, including those with dementia, mental health needs, or physical disabilities. At the time of this announced inspection, they were providing personal care and support to 14 people living in their own homes.

The service had 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.

Representatives of people using the service, and most community healthcare professionals, provided good feedback about the service and its impact on people’s quality of life. Staff were described as caring, careful and knowledgeable. People usually received the same staff, which helped positive relationships to develop. We found that the service was caring and responsive.

However, we found some significant concerns about how the service was operated that particularly undermined people’s ongoing safety. Risk management processes were not comprehensive. They did not ensure that all reasonable actions were taken to minimise risks to people using the service, including in relation to medicines management, checking for a safe care environment, and supporting to move people safely. Whilst efforts were made to address people’s needs in practice, people’s care plans did not consistently address all their support needs and sometimes were not set up by the agency. This all had potential to undermine safe care practices.

The provider failed to promptly notify us of significant injuries to two people whilst receiving care from the service, which prevented us from monitoring the service effectively. One of these injuries resulted in hospital admission.

Criminal record checks and appropriate references were not in place for some newer staff before they started working in people’s homes, which did not ensure people’s safety.

There were few recorded governance systems in place, and so we identified shortfalls that the management team and the provider had not recognised or addressed.

However, the service worked well in partnership with other agencies, and provided staff with a positive and supportive culture, to help ensure people received good care. The service provided good support for people’s health, nutritional and end-of-life needs. We found instances where the service had taken practical action to protect people. Attention was also paid to upholding good standards of infection control.

There were overall three breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, and one breach of the Care Quality Commission (Registration) Regulations 2009. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report. However, full information about CQC’s regulatory response to any concerns found during inspections is added to reports after any representations and appeals have been concluded.