Birnbeck House - Care Home Learning Disabilities

Updated 21 May 2024

Date of assessment 13 June to 26 June 2024. We visited the service and spoke to people and staff on 13 June 2024. We reviewed records offsite and spoke with people, relatives and advocates between 13 June and 26 June 2024. Birnbeck House – Care Home manages a supported living service which provides personal care for up to 12 people with a learning disability, some of whom were also autistic. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) only inspects where people receive personal care. This is help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also consider any wider social care provided. Not everyone who used the service received personal care. At the time of the inspection the service was supporting 5 people with personal care. The service did not have a registered manager, but an interim manager was based at the service and was supported by a senior management team. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee people with a learning disability and autistic people respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. 'Right support, right care, right culture' is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it. This was a responsive assessment due to concerns raised to us about the service. This is the first assessment of the service. The assessment did not cover all parts of our Single Assessment Framework. We reviewed quality statements in Safe, Effective and Well-led key questions. We will carry out future assessments to cover other parts of the Framework and will update our website with our findings. We found 4 breaches of the legal regulations in relation to safe care and treatment, good governance, staffing and need for consent. We have asked the provider for an action plan in response to the concerns found at the assessment.

Updated 21 May 2024

We spoke with 2 people who use the service, 3 relatives and an advocate between 13 June and 26 June 2024. The service was not always able to demonstrate how they were meeting the underpinning principles of right support, right care, right culture. People were at increased risk of harm because staff were not trained in specific health conditions and the use of emergency medicines. People’s capacity to make decisions for themselves in specific areas had not always been assessed and the principles of the Mental capacity Act 2005 (MCA) had not always been followed.” People we spoke to said they were supported by staff and told us they had choice and were encouraged to be independent where they were able. They told us they liked the staff who supported them and enjoyed going out and attending activities. People were observed to be comfortable in the presence of staff and we saw positive engagement between staff and people living at the service. Relatives felt their loved ones were safe. However, they were not assured staff were appropriately trained and told us people’s independence and choice was not always promoted. They had raised with the service their concerns around communication but generally felt the service was improving.