We carried out a review of the data available to us about Beechfield Care & Support Limited on 6 July 2023. We have not found evidence that we need to carry out an inspection or reassess our rating at this stage.
This could change at any time if we receive new information. We will continue to monitor data about this service.
If you have concerns about Beechfield Care & Support Limited, you can give feedback on this service.
Beechfield Care and Support Limited provides personal care to people. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 3 people with personal care.
Not everyone who used the service received personal care. CQC only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.
Right Support:
People were supported safely with medicines. Staff followed Infection prevention and control good practice guidance. People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff assisted them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.
Right Care:
Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. The service had enough appropriately skilled and trained staff to meet people’s needs and keep them safe. Where people had support, this was flexible, available when they needed it and to the level they needed. Care was provided in a person-centred way and records reflected outcomes for people. People said staff treated them with care and kindness and supported them to take part in their individually preferred activities and to follow their own lifestyles.
Right Culture:
Overall, the culture at the service was very positive. People, relatives and staff said they were listened to. The service was open to new ways of working and ongoing developments were introduced to promote independence and continuous improvement. Staff placed people’s wishes, needs and rights at the heart of everything they did.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was good (published 5 December 2017).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has remained good. This is based on the findings at this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Beechfield Care and Support Limited on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.
Beechfield Care and Support is registered to provide personal care to adults with learning disabilities. People are supported by staff to live individually in their own homes or in small groups, referred to as independent supported living schemes. People are tenants of their home and pay rent for their accommodation which is leased from a housing association.
At the last inspection in July 2015 we had rated the service as good. At this inspection we found the service remained ‘good' and met each of the fundamental standards we inspected.
People told us they felt safe and were well cared for. There were sufficient staff hours available to meet people’s needs in a safe and timely way and staff roles were flexible to allow this. Staff knew about safeguarding vulnerable adults procedures. Staff were subject to robust recruitment checks. Arrangements for managing people’s medicines were also safe. Appropriate processes were in place for the administration of medicines.
Appropriate training was provided and staff were supervised and supported. 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. We have made a recommendation that more regular tenant’s meetings should take place with people to keep them involved in the running of their home.
Staff knew the people they were supporting well. Care plans were in place detailing how people wished to be supported and people were involved in making decisions about their care. The records gave detailed instructions to staff to help people learn new skills and become more independent. Risk assessments were in place and they accurately identified current risks to the person as well as ways for staff to minimise or appropriately manage those risks.
People received food and drink to meet their needs. People were assisted by staff to cook their own food. They also received meals that had been cooked by staff.
People told us they were supported to go on holiday and to be part of the local community. They were provided with opportunities to follow their interests and hobbies. People said their privacy, dignity and confidentiality were maintained.
People had access to health care professionals to make sure they received appropriate care and treatment. Staff followed advice given by professionals to make sure people received the care they needed. Most people told us staff were kind and caring and they felt comfortable with all the staff who supported them.
People had the opportunity to give their views about the service. There was consultation with staff, people and/ or family members and their views were used to improve the service. People we spoke with said they knew how to complain. The provider undertook a range of audits to check on the quality of care provided.
Further information is in the detailed findings below.
The inspection took place on 24 and 27 July 2015 and was unannounced. This meant the provider or staff did not know about our inspection visit.
This was our first inspection of Beechfield Care & Support Limited (Beechfield).
Beechfield is a small domiciliary care provider in Newton Aycliffe providing support to people living in one of four adjoining houses. It is registered with the Care Quality commission to provide personal care. During our inspection we found the service provided personal care to three people.
The service has a registered manager in place. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the 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.
We found that there were sufficient numbers of staff available in order to meet the needs of people using the service. All staff were trained in core areas such as safeguarding, as well as training specific to the individual needs of people using the service. We found that staff had a good knowledge of people’s preferences, needs, likes and dislikes.
Dignity in care and socialisation through encouragement and enablement were themes underpinning management and staff behaviours. We observed these behaviours during our inspection and saw evidence of them in recorded documentation. Relatives and external stakeholders told us that people were encouraged to build on social skills through interaction and we saw this during our inspection.
There were effective pre-employment checks of staff in place and effective supervision and appraisal processes.
The service had in place person-centred care plans for all people using the service. The provider sought consent from people for the care provided and regular reviews ensured relatives and healthcare professionals were involved in ensuring people’s medical, personal, social and nutritional needs were met.
The registered manager was knowledgeable on the subject of mental capacity and had undertaken relevant capacity assessments.
The service had individualised risk assessments in place and a robust range of policies and procedures to deal with a range of eventualities. We saw these processes were reviewed regularly.