Brun Lea Care

Updated 4 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 team consisted of an inspector and an expert by experience. An expert by experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service. The expert at this inspection had experience of looking after a person who lived in a care home.

Service and service type:

Brun Lea is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection. Brun Lea accommodates 20 people in one adapted building.

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:

Our inspection was informed by evidence we already held about the service. We also checked for feedback we received from members of the public, and local authorities. 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.

We reviewed other information that we held about the service such as notifications. These are events that happen in the service that the registered provider is required to tell us about.

We used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us. We spoke with the registered manager, the assistant manager and two care workers. We also spoke with five people living at the home and four relatives who visited during the inspection.

We looked at a range of documents and written records including three people’s care files and two staff recruitment records. We also looked at information relating to the administration of medicines, monitoring of fluid intake and the auditing and monitoring of service provision.

Updated 4 June 2019

About the service:

Brun Lea is a residential care home that was providing personal and nursing care to 18 people aged 65 and over at the time of the inspection.

People’s experience of using this service:

People were looked after by kind and caring staff who knew their individual needs well. There were enough staff available to meet people’s needs and staff had received appropriate training and support to provide safe care.

People felt safe living at the home and staff knew how to raise safeguarding concerns. Risks to people while receiving care had been identified and care was planned and equipment was in place to keep people safe. People’s ability to eat safely was assessed along with their ability to maintain a healthy weight. Where needed they were referred to healthcare professionals for advice. Medicines were safety stored and administered.

Staff had a good working relationship with other healthcare professionals such as community nurses. They completed monitoring as requested by external healthcare professionals and raised concerns appropriately.

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. People were involved in planning their care and offered choices about their everyday lives. Communication aids were available to support people living with dementia to make choices. Care plans accurately reflected people’s needs. People were happy with the activities offered to them.

People’s wishes at the end of their lives were recorded and respected. The registered manager liaised with external healthcare professionals to ensure people were supported with effective end of live care.

There were effective systems in place to monitor the quality and safety of care provided. The registered manager gathered the views of people living at the home and staff to make improvements in the quality of care. The registered manager had taken action to keep up to date which changes in best practice and employed a number of nationally recognised tools to support safe effective care.

Rating at last inspection:

At the last inspection the service was rated as Requires Improvement (report published 21 February 2017). At this inspection we found the provider and registered manager had made the necessary improvements.

Why we inspected:

This was a planned inspection based on the previous rating.

Follow up:

We will continue to monitor intelligence we receive about this service until we return to visit as per our inspection programme. If any concerning information is received, we may inspect sooner.

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