Brenalwood Care Home

Updated 15 October 2024

Brenalwood Care Home is a residential care home providing accommodation and personal care to up to 38 older people, people living with dementia, with a physical disability and/or a sensory impairment. During this assessment 30 people were using the service, most were living with dementia. The service is on a residential street, set over 2 floors.

This assessment was prompted by information we held about this service and concerns received about safety and the quality of care provided. Assessment activity included on-site visits on 24 and 30 October 2024. We reviewed records remotely, including 5 people's care records and audits, and gained feedback from relatives following our visits. We provided feedback of the assessment to the manager and operations director, who is also the nominated individual, on 18 November 2024 via video call.

Our last inspection (published November 2023) rated the service requires improvement, with 3 breaches of regulation of The Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, relating to safe care and treatment, good governance and staffing. The provider sent us an action plan to show how they planned to improve.

During this assessment, we assessed 8 quality statements from the Safe key question, and 7 from Well-led. The provider failed to make necessary improvements and remained in breach of the 3 regulations. In instances where CQC have decided to take civil or criminal enforcement action against a provider, we will publish this information on our website after any representations and/ or appeals have been concluded.

This service is being placed in special measures. The purpose of special measures is to ensure that services providing inadequate care make significant improvements. Special measures provide a framework within which we use our enforcement powers in response to inadequate care and provide a timeframe within which providers must improve the quality of the care they provide.

Updated 15 October 2024

We spoke with 6 people who lived at Brenalwood Care Home. We spoke with 11 relatives and received electronic feedback from a person’s relative. We received mixed feedback; some told us they felt there were enough staff and others felt there were not enough staff to respond to people’s needs, and whilst they were complimentary about the kindness of longer standing staff, some were concerned that some temporary staff did not know people well. Many relatives told us they felt communication from the service could be improved and they were not always kept updated with what was happening with their family members, such as health appointment outcomes. In addition, some relatives, we spoke with were not aware there had been a change in management of the service.

The people who used the service we spoke with told us they were happy living in the service and were complimentary about the food provided, which was confirmed by some relatives. One relative said, “It is absolutely fantastic, [family member] is happy… they look after us too.” Another relative told us, “It is alright, not the best place, but [family member] is happy.” Another said, “Not the greatest of homes, but [family member] seems happy there.” A fourth relative commented, “It is grim, I want [family member] moved. It has deteriorated in the last 10 months.”

We spent some time in the shared areas to observe the staff interactions with people who used the service. Whilst we saw that staff spoke with people in a caring way, they were busy supporting people with their physical needs and we could see there was limited time for social interactions to meet people's cognitive and emotional needs. During our first visit, there was a planned activity being coordinated by the activity staff member. However, they only worked five days a week, and in the mornings/early afternoon. We received feedback from some relatives who told us their family members were bored when the activity staff was not on duty.