Archived: Beech Tree Total Care

Beech Tree Total Care provides personal care and support to people in their own homes. There were 96 people using the service at the time of our inspection.

The service has a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) 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. People did not always know who the registered manager was but found that there was always a member of staff they could speak with at the office if they needed to.

The provider’s quality assurance systems did not always capture and address all areas that required improvement within the service. The people who used the service and their relatives were able to contribute to the development of the service by way of satisfaction surveys. Six monthly staff meetings were also held as a way of involving staff in the development of the service.

Staff were trained in safeguarding people and they knew how to keep people safe. People had care plans in place but they were inconsistent and there was one care plan for 2 people which was not reflective of person-centred care. People had risk assessments that gave guidance to staff on managing risks that people were exposed to. There were enough staff to provide care to people who used the service and we found that there was only one missed care visit in an eight weeks period. However, the deployment of staff meant that the travel time allocated to staff from one care visit to the next was not always adequate. Consequently people experienced rushed or late care delivery and calls that were shorter than they should have been.

Staff were trained and understood their responsibilities under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. They were respectful of people, their dignity and privacy, and they made sure they sought people’s consent before they provided care. Where necessary, staff supported people with their nutritional needs and to have access to healthcare services. Staff were supported in their roles by way of supervision and appraisals of their performance.

People and their relatives found staff to be kind, caring and of good humour. Positive relationships had been developed by staff with the people who used the service and their relatives. Staff were knowledgeable about the people they cared for. There was an effective system in place for managing complaints.

During this inspection we identified that there were breaches of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 relating to the safe care and treatment of people and person-centred care. You can see what action we told the provider to take at the back of the full version of the report.