Background to this inspection
Updated
9 April 2019
The inspection: We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.
Inspection team: The inspection was carried out by one inspector.
Service and service type: Brunel Court is a supported living service. This service provides care and support to people living in a ‘supported living’ setting, so that they can live as independently as possible. People’s care and housing are provided under separate contractual agreements. CQC does not regulate premises used for supported living; this inspection looked at people’s personal care and support.
Not everyone using Brunel Court supported living services receives a regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene, eating and medication. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided.
The service had a manager registered with the CQC. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.
Notice of inspection: We gave the service four days’ notice of the inspection visit because it is a small service we needed to be sure that the registered manager would be in.
Inspection site visit activity started on 15 February 2019 and ended on 19 February 2019. We visited the office location on 19 February 2019. On 15 and 18 February 2019, we spoke with relatives and staff by telephone.
What we did: Before the inspection we looked for the Provider Information Return (PIR) completed by the provider. However, this was not available as this had not been sent to the provider prior to our inspection. This is information we require providers to send us to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. We looked at information we held about the service including notifications such as accidents and safeguarding alerts they had made to us about important events.
We also reviewed information sent to us from other stakeholders including the local authority and members of the public.
We spoke with three people during our visit, and one relative on the telephone. We also spoke with three staff, the registered manager and the area manager during our visit.
We reviewed three people's care records, policies and procedures, documents relating to the management of the service, training records and two staff recruitment records.
Updated
9 April 2019
About the service: Brunel Court is a supported living service. At the time of the inspection it provided personal care support to 17 people aged 65 and over.
People’s experience of using this service: People said staff were kind, caring and spent time talking with people. Staff treated people with respect and dignity. People were involved in decisions about their care and encouraged by staff to be as independent as possible.
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.
People were supported safely and protected from harm. There were systems in place to reduce the risk of abuse and to assess and monitor potential risks to people. Environmental checks were carried out to ensure people remained safe in their homes. Staff used personal protective equipment to prevent against cross infection.
Incidents and accidents were managed effectively; lessons learned were shared with staff to reduce the risk of further occurrences. Risk assessments had been completed, provided detailed guidance for staff to follow and were reviewed regularly.
The management of medicines was safe and people said they received their medicines as prescribed. Robust auditing of medicines meant medication errors were prevented or immediate actions taken to prevent future occurrences.
There were enough skilled and experienced staff to meet the needs of people who used the service. Recruitment checks were robust and new staff completed a comprehensive induction and training programme.
Initial assessments were carried out to ensure people’s needs could be met. Biographies of people’s life had been created which helped staff understand people’s daily routines. Care plans followed and detailed people’s likes, dislikes and preferences and people told us they were offered choices about their care.
People’s preferences and wishes for end of life care had been recorded in their care plans.
Staff supported people with their food and fluid intake and were trained to support people with specific dietary needs. People were supported to live a healthy life and staff supported people to access health care professionals when required. The provider employed a wellbeing nurse to support people in their own homes to prevent hospital admissions.
Complaints were managed effectively in line with the providers policy and actions were taken to address concerns.
Quality assurance systems were in place to monitor the quality and safety of the care provided. The provider worked in partnership with other services to support people’s care and quality of life. Surveys were carried out with people, staff and stakeholders to gather their views.
Values had been embedded within the service which staff followed. The management team were open, honest and supportive of their staff.
More information is in the full report below.
Rating at last inspection: This was the providers first inspection.
Why we inspected: This was the providers first inspection after they registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) on 26 March 2018.
Follow up: Going forward we will continue to monitor this service and plan to inspect in line with our re-inspection schedule for those services rated Good. If any concerning information is received we may inspect sooner.