24 May 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Bramley Court is residential care home providing accommodation, nursing and personal care to up to 72 people. The service provides support to older people some of whom were living with dementia. Each person’s accommodation included en-suite facilities with shared communal areas. The home is divided into 3 units, called Damson, Pear, and Cherry. At the time of our inspection there was 67 people using the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found.
Staff understood how to protect people from poor care and abuse. Staff had training on how to recognise and report abuse and knew how to do this. The service had enough safely recruited staff who were appropriately skilled and knew people's needs to help keep them safe.
Risks to people were identified and systems in place to reduce them, including falls, skin integrity, eating and drinking and accessible means for people to go outdoors. However, we found staff had temporarily left a mobility aid blocking a fire escape. The registered manager removed this immediately. They told us our inspection had interrupted their walk round which covered checking fire escapes. Audit records and fire safety checks showed these areas were covered on a daily basis. Lessons were learned and shared across the staff teams as required with reflective practice sessions being available so staff could learn what to do better next time.
Staff had regular, effective medicines administration training and had their competency assessed to do this safely. Staff supported people with their medicines in a way that respected their independence and achieved positive health outcomes. People were enabled to administer their own medicines independently where this was safe. One person told us, “I don’t have any worries about my medication. I know what I take and I am full of admiration for [staff], they bring it on time and make sure I take it.”
The service was clean and suitably equipped to meet people's support needs. One relative told us, “There are never any unpleasant smells here.”
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. One person told us that when they asked staff to help them go outside, this was enabled.
Staff were reminded of their responsibilities in meetings, such as for medicines administration recording. The provider set high standards of care and there was an embedded open staff team culture. All staff spoken with praised the registered manager for being approachable, listening and acting on concerns raised including reporting any concerns staff may have.
Management and quality assurance teams were in place to effectively evaluate the quality of support provided to people, and to make changes as needed. This involved people, their families, advocates and other professionals as appropriate. Staff respected people's wishes, needs and rights and values and acted upon their views. People had a say in how the service was run. People’s lives were enriched by staff who put people first and foremost. One relative said, "It is definitely a place I would recommend to others if they needed care. I know my [family member] is in the right place being able to [spend their life in a way they want to]."
For more information, please read the detailed findings section of this report. If you are reading this as a separate summary, the full report can be found on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) website at www.cqc.org.uk
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.
Rating at last inspection
The last rating for this service was outstanding, published on 16 January 2020.
Why we inspected
The inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service, concerns received about people's care and support, risks to people's safety, the staff team culture and management of the service. 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 these concerns. Where the provider had already identified risks, actions taken had been effective. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this full report.
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 outstanding based on the findings of this inspection.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.