Brenalwood Care Home

This report from the Care Quality Commission provides an overview of Brenalwood Care Home following an inspection. It details the findings across key areas of care, including safety, effectiveness, how caring the service is, its responsiveness to needs, and leadership. The report aims to give families an insight into the current state of the home and where improvements have been made and where further development is needed.

Regarding safety, while cleanliness has improved, staff were not always adhering to hand hygiene policies and some safety checks, like fire drills, need to be more thorough. There are also concerns about medicine administration, with some medications not being given as prescribed or with insufficient guidance for staff. However, risk management for people's health is generally well-handled, and important safety protocols like emergency evacuation plans are being developed.

In terms of how effective the care is, staff have received improved training, but they sometimes struggle to put this learning into practice in their daily work. Further training is needed for specialist roles, and systems for staff supervision and appraisals require enhancement to ensure competence is consistently assessed. While people's health outcomes are generally positive, improvements are needed in end-of-life care planning to ensure individuals' wishes are documented and respected.

The inspection found that staff are generally kind and caring in their interactions, which is appreciated by residents and their families. However, at times, this care appeared more intuitive than based on formal training, which could lead to privacy and dignity being compromised. Recommendations have been made to improve staff training in dignity and respect.

Concerning how responsive the service is, significant efforts have been made to improve the environment, with the premises being redecorated. While people generally enjoy the meals and there's a creative approach to food events, better support is needed for those who are reluctant to eat and for residents to have genuine choices in their meals. Engagement with residents has improved, and feedback is being used to make changes, but more needs to be done to ensure residents are meaningfully involved day-to-day. Communication needs for those with disabilities or sensory loss also require further attention.

Finally, looking at how well-led the service is, there have been notable improvements since changes in management, with improved staff morale and a calmer atmosphere reported by both staff and relatives. Engagement with families and staff has strengthened, and feedback mechanisms are in place. However, systems for identifying and managing risks to service quality and safety need to be more consistently embedded and sustained, as some audits had not identified all the issues found during the inspection.