Archived: Signature at The Beeches

Updated 7 June 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 two inspectors, two assistant inspectors, a directorate support co-ordinator and two experts by experience with experience of caring for people. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type: Signature at The Beeches 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 service had a manager registered with the Care Quality Commission. 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: The inspection was unannounced.

What we did:

Before inspection: We reviewed feedback we had received about the service. We checked statutory notifications that we had received from the provider. Statutory notifications are reports of important events that providers are required by law to tell us about. We reviewed information sent to us in the provider information return (PIR). Providers are required to send us key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. This information helps support our inspections.

During inspection: We spoke with 23 people and eight relatives. We spoke with the registered manager, the care services manager, the regional manager and an administrator. We spoke with the activities coordinator, an activities assistant, a nurse and seven care staff. We also spoke with a restaurant assistant, a moving coordinator and a housekeeping assistant.

We reviewed care plans for nine people and medicines records for 16 people. We reviewed seven staff files and looked at records of complaints, incidents and surveys. We also reviewed meeting minutes, audits and a variety of policies and procedures.

After Inspection: The provider submitted evidence to us through email.

Updated 7 June 2019

About the service: Signature at The Beeches is a residential and nursing home which is registered to provide support to up to 110 people. Care is provided across four floors in one large purpose-built building. At the time of our inspection, there were 97 people living at the service.

People’s experience of using this service:

People spoke highly of the quality of the care that they received. People gave positive feedback about the staff, management, activities and food on offer. Staff were committed to the people that they supported and knew people well. Systems were in place to involve people in their care and staff identified personalised ways to make people happy. There were a variety of dining experiences available based on people’s needs and wishes, people’s dietary needs and food preferences were met. There was a wide selection of activities on offer to cater to a variety of tastes and interests. The service was clean, and the environment was tailored to people’s needs. The facilities included spaces such as a cinema, garden areas, bistro and lounges for people to spend their time.

People told us they felt safe at the service and we saw that staff proactively identified and responded to risks. People received their medicines safely and where we identified areas for improvement within medicines record keeping, these were immediately actioned. There were enough staff to safely met people’s needs and appropriate checks were carried out to ensure staff were suitable for their roles.

Care was planned in a personalised way with regular reviews undertaken to identify and respond to changes in people’s needs. Staff knew people’s needs well and there were a variety of systems in place to enable staff to understand what was important to people. People were encouraged to be independent and staff provided care respectfully to ensure people’s privacy and dignity was promoted.

People spoke positively about the management at the service and we saw there was a clear structure in place to ensure staff were supported. There were a variety of checks and audits and systems to involve people in the running of the service. People knew how to raise a complaint and felt confident any issues would be addressed. Where there had been incidents or complaints, these had been responded to appropriately and the provider had systems to monitor and learn from these.

Rating at last inspection: Good. (report published 23 September 2016)

Why we inspected: This was a planned comprehensive inspection.

Follow up: We will continue to monitor the service and will return to carry out an inspection in line with our policies.

For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk