26 April 2022
During an inspection looking at part of the service
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
People and relatives spoke positively about the care and support that was in place. People told us they felt safe and staff were attentive to their needs.
There had been workforce pressures within the service when on occasions the home was staffed below expected numbers due to staff absence. The registered manager and the team had tried to cover the shortfalls including contacting staff agencies.
Staff received training on how to keep people safe and what to do if they had concerns. Medicines were administered safely. Since the last inspection, the provider had made improvements to their recruitment processes to ensure appropriate checks had been carried out before staff were employed.
The provider was following government guidance to prevent people and visitors to the home spreading COVID-19 infection. The provider kept in touch with relatives through regular emails, telephone calls and newsletters. Visits to the home were promoted and in line with government guidance. We observed good infection control measures were in place. The home was clean and free from odour. Staff were wearing appropriate personal protective equipment (PPE).
People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice. People were involved in their care and consulted on how they wanted to be supported. Regular meetings were held with people to gain their views on the service and make improvements. People were consulted about what they wanted to eat.
There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the care and support. The provider regularly visited the service to drive improvements and support the registered manager and the staff. Improvements had been made to ensure incidents, accidents and allegations of abuse were reported in a timely manner in response to a breach of regulation found at the last inspection.
For more details, please see the full report which is on the CQC website at www.cqc.org.uk
Rating at last inspection and update
The last rating for this service was requires improvement (published 12 August 2020) and there were breaches of regulation in respect of ensuring robust recruitment processes were followed and failure to notify the Commission of safeguarding concerns.
The provider completed an action plan after the last inspection to show what they would do and by when to improve. At this inspection, we found improvements had been made and the provider was no longer in breach of regulations.
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a direct monitoring review we held about this service, concerns were raised about staffing, risk management, accuracy of records and governance arrangements. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks.
We found no evidence during this inspection that people were at risk of harm from this concern.
We looked at infection prevention and control measures under the Safe key question. We look at this in all care home inspections even if no concerns or risks have been identified. This is to provide assurance that the service can respond to COVID-19 and other infection outbreaks effectively.
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 changed from requires improvement to good based on the findings of this inspection.
You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the ‘all reports’ link for Beaufort Hall Nursing Home 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.