29 June 2023
During an inspection looking at part of the service
Brierton Lodge is a residential care home providing personal and nursing care for up to 58 older people some of whom were living with dementia. The care home accommodates people over two floors in one adapted building. At the time of this inspection there were 57 people living at the service.
People’s experience of using this service and what we found
Risks to people’s safety had been assessed and care plans were in place to guide staff regarding the support people needed. However, information in care plans was hard to navigate. We have made a recommendation about this.
People and their relatives spoke positively about the care and support they received. Comments included, “The staff are second to none. They are amazing. What I have found is how knowledgeable and professional they are with the residents on the dementia unit, and they are all very patient.”
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.
Safe recruitment processes were followed to ensure people were supported by staff with the appropriate experience and were of good character. Staff said they felt supported. Comments included, “Management are fantastic. I’ve seen a lot of changes. [registered manager] is approachable and supportive and wants to improve the home. It’s very much the resident’s home.”
Staff had the knowledge and confidence to identify safeguarding concerns and acted on these to keep people safe. There were safe systems in place and people received their medicines when required.
Infection and prevention control processes were in place to support the prevention and spread of infection.
There were systems in place to monitor the quality of the service. The registered manager was clear about their role and responsibilities and a home improvement plan was in place to support the development of the service. The service worked in partnership with others including health professionals and the local community.
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 31 October 2017).
Why we inspected
This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service.
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.
Recommendations
We have made a recommendation regarding reviewing care plans.
For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. Please see the Safe and Well-led section of this report.
Follow up
We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.