Birchwood Retirement Home

Updated 4 December 2020

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to care homes with outbreaks of coronavirus, we are conducting reviews to ensure that the Infection Prevention and Control practice was safe and the service was compliant with IPC measures. This was a targeted inspection looking at the IPC practices the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 19 November 2020 and was announced the previous day.

Updated 4 December 2020

Birchwood Retirement Home is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. The home is registered to provide accommodation for up to 17 people, including older people and people living with dementia.

We inspected the home on 1 and 6 November 2017. The inspection was unannounced. There were 16 people living in the home on the first day of our inspection.

The home had a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with CQC to manage the service. Like registered providers (‘the provider’) 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.

In August 2016 we conducted a first comprehensive inspection of the home. We rated it as Requires Improvement, reflecting shortfalls in a number of areas.

On this inspection we were pleased to find the provider had taken action to address these issues and the rating is now Good.

There were sufficient staff to keep people safe and meet their care and support needs. Staff worked well together in a mutually supportive way and communicated effectively, internally and externally. Training and supervision systems were in place to provide staff with the knowledge and skills they required to meet people’s needs effectively. Staff provided end of life care in a sensitive and person-centred way.

There was a friendly, relaxed atmosphere and staff were kind and attentive in their approach. People were provided with food and drink of good quality that met their individual needs and preferences. The physical environment and facilities in the home generally reflected people’s requirements. People were provided with physical and mental stimulation appropriate to their needs.

People’s medicines were managed safely and staff worked closely with local healthcare services to ensure people had access to any specialist support they required. Systems were in place to ensure effective infection prevention and control.

The registered manager had worked hard to address the issues for improvement identified at our last inspection. He was well liked and well known to everyone connected to the home. A range of audits was in place to monitor the quality and safety of service provision. People’s individual risk assessments were reviewed and updated to take account of changes in their needs. Staff knew how to recognise and report any concerns to keep people safe from harm. There was evidence of organisational learning from significant incidents and events. Any concerns or complaints were handled effectively.

CQC is required by law to monitor the operation of the Mental Capacity Act, 2005 (MCA) and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS) and to report on what we find. DoLS are in place to protect people where they do not have capacity to make decisions and where it is considered necessary to restrict their freedom in some way, usually to protect themselves. At the time of our inspection, no-one living in the home was subject to a DoLS authorisation. Staff understood the principles of the MCA and demonstrated their awareness of the need to obtain consent before providing care or support to people. Decisions that staff had made as being in people’s best interests were correctly recorded.