Broughton House Residential Home

Updated 11 March 2021

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 as part of our regulatory functions. This inspection was planned to check whether the provider is meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of CQC’s response to the coronavirus pandemic we are looking at the preparedness of care homes in relation to infection prevention and control. This was a targeted inspection looking at the infection control and prevention measures the provider has in place.

This inspection took place on 24 February 2021 and was announced.

Updated 11 March 2021

This unannounced comprehensive inspection took place on 4 and 5 July 2018.

Broughton House Residential Home is a ‘care home’ located in South Liverpool, near to Sefton Park. The home has access to local amenities such as cafes, restaurants, shops and public transport links. The home accommodates up to 30 people over three floors in one large building and has a garden to the rear of the property. At the time of our inspection 28 people were living at the home.

People living in care homes receive accommodation and nursing or personal care as single package under one contractual agreement. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

The home had an experienced manager who was registered with the Care Quality Commission and had worked at the home for over 20 years. 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.

When we completed our previous inspection in April 2016 we found a breach of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, as the provider had not ensured that the premises were safe to use. We also found a breach of Regulation 13 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014, as the provider had not ensured service users were only being deprived of their liberty with lawful authority. Following the last inspection, we asked the provider to complete an action plan to show what they would do and by when to improve in our key question areas of Safe and Effective.

During this inspection we found that all the completed improvements recorded in the action plan had indeed been completed and this had led to improvements in our key question areas of Safe and Effective. Overall, we found that the home had made sufficient improvements and was no longer in breach of the Regulations.

We found that some of the window restrictors in people’s bedrooms were ineffective and allowed the windows to open wider than they should which posed a potential risk to people’s health and safety. We also saw that part of a glass roof to the side of the building had broken and left broken glass on the floor. This external area was not usually accessed by anyone but the broken glass was a potential hazard if anyone did access this area. The registered manager and the registered provider promptly addressed these issues after we had highlighted them. We found no other concerns with the environment during this inspection.

The activities on offer to people at the home were limited and people had very little to do with their time, with the main options being daytime television, reading papers and completing crosswords. This was also reflected in the feedback we gathered from various people we spoke with. We discussed this with the registered manager and highlighted that this was an area that required improvement.

We saw that there were policies and procedures in place to guide staff in relation to safeguarding vulnerable adults and whistleblowing. Staff had received training on this and information about how to raise safeguarding concerns was readily available in various places throughout the home. People living at the home and their relatives told us that they felt safe there.

We saw that medication was safely administered, stored and recorded.

During our last inspection we found that staff had been safely recruited and the home had a robust recruitment process to ensure people employed were suitable to work with vulnerable people. No new staff had been recruited since our last inspection.

Staff were supported in their roles through induction, appraisal and regular training.

The registered manager understood the requirements of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA) and the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS). This meant they were working within the law to support people who may lack capacity to make their own decisions. We saw that people were supported to make their own decisions and their choices were respected.

All of the people we spoke with told us that they enjoyed the food and drink available at the home. One person said, “The dinners are lovely here.”

All of the people we spoke with gave us positive feedback about the staff at the home. We saw that staff had very caring and well-established relationships with the people living at the home.

The care plans we looked at were person-centred, well-maintained and regularly reviewed. The care plans gave staff clear guidance in an easily-accessible format on how to meet people’s needs.

The registered manager used a variety of methods to assess and monitor the quality of the service provided at the home. These included regular audits of the home, staff and residents meetings to seek feedback about the service. The registered provider also regularly visited the home to provide support to the registered manager. They also periodically spoke with residents to ask for their feedback about the home.