Burham Court

Updated 25 May 2018

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, to look at the overall quality of the service, and to provide a rating for the service under the Care Act 2014.

This inspection took place on 10 April 2018 and was announced. We gave the service 48 hours’ notice of the inspection visit because it is small domiciliary care service and the registered manager may have been out of the office supporting staff or providing care. We needed to be sure that they would be in. The inspection was carried out by one inspector.

Inspection site visit activity started on 10 April 2018 and ended on 11 May 2018. It included meeting people and staff at the office and telephone calls with relatives and staff. We visited the office location on 10 April 2018 to see the provider and to review care records, management records and policies and procedures.

Before the inspection, we reviewed the information we held about the service including previous inspection reports. We also looked at notifications about important events that had taken place in the service, which the provider is required to tell us by law. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

We observed staff interactions with people. We spoke with two people about the care and support they received. We spoke with seven staff, which included support workers, the registered manager from another of the provider’s services (who arranged the staffing for the service), the facilitation director, the registered manager and a director of the company (the management team). We also telephoned one relative to gain their feedback about the service.

We requested information by email from local authority care managers and commissioners who were health and social care professionals involved in the service. We received feedback from a nurse assessor.

We looked at the provider’s records. These included people’s care records, which included care plans, health records, risk assessments, daily care records and medicines records. We looked at two staff files, a sample of audits, satisfaction surveys, staff rotas, and policies and procedures.

We asked the management team to send additional information after the inspection visit, including staff training records, policies and medicines records. The information we requested was sent to us in a timely manner.

Updated 25 May 2018

This inspection was carried out on 10 April 2018 and was announced.

Burham Court is a domiciliary care agency. It provides personal care to people living in their own houses and flats in the community. It provides a service to people with learning disabilities and autism.

Not everyone using Burham Court receives regulated activity; CQC only inspects the service being received by people provided with ‘personal care’; help with tasks related to personal hygiene and eating. Where they do we also take into account any wider social care provided. There were two people receiving support with personal care.

At our last inspection we rated the service Good. At this inspection we found the evidence continued to support the rating of Good and there was no evidence or information from our inspection and ongoing monitoring that demonstrated serious risks or concerns. This inspection report is written in a shorter format because our overall rating of the service has not changed since our last inspection.

At this inspection we found the service remained Good.

The service had a registered manager. 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. The registered manager was also the provider.

Risks were appropriately assessed and mitigated to ensure people were safe. Medicines were managed safely. Records evidenced that people had received their medicines as prescribed.

Effective systems were in place to enable the provider to assess, monitor and improve the quality and safety of the service.

People were very happy with their care and support. Staff had built up good relationships with people.

Health and social care professionals were complimentary about the service people received.

There were enough staff deployed to meet people’s needs. The provider operated safe and robust recruitment and selection procedures to make sure staff were suitable and safe to work with people.

Staff knew what they should do to identify and raise safeguarding concerns.

People were encouraged to make their own choices about everyday matters.

People's care plans clearly detailed their care and support needs. People were fully involved with the care planning process including identifying triggers, signs and actions to address their mental health needs.

People were encouraged and supported to engage with activities that met their needs. People accessed their local community with staff support.

People had choices of food at each meal time. One person was supported to purchase their own food and to manage a weekly budget for this. Another person received most of their meals with support from their relatives. However staff provided support for the person to have build up milkshake drinks to help them maintain or build up their weight. People were supported and encouraged to have a varied and healthy diet which met their cultural needs.

People were supported and helped to maintain their health and to access health services when they needed them.

Staff were cheerful, kind and patient in their approach and had a good rapport with people. The atmosphere in the service was calm and relaxed. Staff treated people with dignity and respect. The service was small and homely.

People were supported to maintain their relationships with people who mattered to them.

People knew who to talk to if they were unhappy about the service. Complaints had been handled effectively.

Staff were positive about the support they received from the management team. They felt they could raise concerns and they would be listened to. Health and social care professionals provided positive feedback about the service.