Archived: The Brambles

Updated 22 May 2018

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection checked whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This was an unannounced comprehensive inspection, which took place on 10 and 11 April 2018 and was undertaken by one inspector. We made a site visit on the first day and contacted relatives for their feedback on the second day.

Before the inspection, the provider completed a Provider Information Return (PIR). This is a form that asks the provider to give some key information about the service, what the service does well and improvements they plan to make. The provider completed and returned the PIR in December 2017 and we considered this when we made judgements in this report.

We also reviewed other information that we held about the service such as notifications, which are events, which happened in the service that the provider is required to tell us about, and information that had been sent to us by other agencies.

We sought feedback from commissioners who placed people and monitored the service.

During this inspection, we spoke with one person and spent time observing the people living in the home to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk to us. We also spoke with the registered manager, a senior support worker and three support workers and contacted the relatives of two people.

We looked at the care records of two people to see whether they reflected the care given and three staff recruitment records. We looked at other information related to the running of and the quality of the service. This included quality assurance audits, training information for care staff, and arrangements for managing complaints.

Updated 22 May 2018

The Brambles is a ‘care home’ for people with learning disabilities. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The Brambles accommodates up to ten people in one adapted residential house in a residential area. At the time of the inspection there were seven people living there. The care service has been developed and designed in line with the values that underpin the Registering the Right Support and other best practice guidance. These values include choice, promotion of independence and inclusion. People with learning disabilities and autism using the service can live as ordinary a life as any citizen.

This inspection took place on the 10 and 11 April 2018 and was unannounced. We had previously inspected this service in April 2016, at that inspection the service was rated ‘Good’. At this inspection, we found the evidence continued to support the rating of good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and on- going monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns.

This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

There was a registered manager in post. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission 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 were consistently protected from the risk of harm and received their prescribed medicines safely. Staff were appropriately recruited and there were enough staff to provide care and support to people to meet their needs.

The care that people received continued to be effective. Staff had access to the support, supervision and training that they required to work effectively in their roles. People were supported to maintain good health and nutrition and live fulfilled lives.

People developed positive relationships with the staff. The staff were friendly, passionate about their work and caring; they treated people with respect, kindness, dignity and compassion. People had detailed personalised plans of care in place to enable staff to provide consistent care and support in line with people’s personal preferences.

Staff knew their responsibilities as defined by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA 2005). The provider was aware of how to make referrals if people lacked capacity to consent to aspects of their care and support and were being deprived of their liberty. People were supported to use communication aids and information was provided to people in an accessible format to enable them to make decisions about their care and support.

People knew how to raise a concern or make a complaint and the provider had implemented effective systems to manage any complaints received. Information was available in various formats to meet the communication needs of the individuals.

The service had a positive ethos and an open culture. The registered manager was approachable, understood the needs of the people in the home, and listened to staff and relatives. There were effective systems in place to monitor the quality of the service and drive improvements.