Red Brick House

Updated 28 June 2022

The inspection

We carried out this inspection under Section 60 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (the Act) as part of our regulatory functions. We checked whether the provider was meeting the legal requirements and regulations associated with the Act. We looked at the overall quality of the service and provided a rating for the service under the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

As part of this inspection we looked at the infection control and prevention measures in place. This was conducted so we can understand the preparedness of the service in preventing or managing an infection outbreak, and to identify good practice we can share with other services.

Inspection team

The inspection was carried out by two inspectors and an Expert by Experience. An Expert by Experience is a person who has personal experience of using or caring for someone who uses this type of care service.

Service and service type

Red Brick House is a ‘care home’. People in care homes receive accommodation and nursing and/or personal care as a single package under one contractual agreement dependent on their registration with us. Red Brick House is a care home with nursing care. CQC regulates both the premises and the care provided, and both were looked at during this inspection.

Registered Manager

This service is required to have a registered manager. A registered manager is a person who has registered with the Care Quality Commission to manage the service. This means that they and the provider are legally responsible for how the service is run and for the quality and safety of the care provided.

At the time of our inspection there was not a registered manager in post. The new manager had applied for registration and their application was being processed.

Notice of inspection

This inspection was unannounced.

What we did before the inspection

We used information gathered as part of monitoring activity that took place on 11 February 2022 to help plan the inspection and inform our judgements. We sought feedback from the local authority and local Healthwatch. Healthwatch is an independent consumer champion that gathers and represents the views of the public about health and social care services in England. We used the information the provider sent us in the provider information return (PIR). This is information providers are required to send us annually with key information about their service, what they do well, and improvements they plan to make. We used all this information to plan our inspection.

During the inspection

We spoke with three residents and 14 relatives. We also used the Short Observational Framework for Inspection (SOFI). SOFI is a way of observing care to help us understand the experience of people who could not talk with us.

We spoke with 12 staff including the manager, regional manager, deputy manager, nurse, senior staff, care staff, housekeeping staff and activity co-ordinator. We contacted 10 other staff by email for their views.

We reviewed a range of records. This included nine people’s care records and multiple medicine records. We looked at three staff files in relation to recruitment. We also viewed a variety of records relating to the management of the service, including audits, policies and procedures.

Updated 28 June 2022

About the service

Red Brick House is a care home providing personal and nursing care to up to up to 50 people. The service provides support to mainly older people, some of whom are living with dementia-related conditions. At the time of our inspection there were 41 people using the service.

The home provided purpose-built accommodation across two floors. One floor mainly accommodated people with dementia and one floor mainly accommodated people who had nursing needs.

People’s experience of using this service and what we found

Records about potential risks to people were not always in place or were not detailed enough. This meant staff did not always have guidance about the right support to reduce potential risks to people. The management team were aware of this and had begun to address this gap. We have made a recommendation about this.

People and relatives praised the friendly atmosphere in the home and described staff as helpful and kind. The home had a warm and welcoming culture. Staff were engaging with people.

People and relatives said the home was a safe place to live and staff were “very caring”. People said staff came quickly when they requested support. There were enough staff to provide safe care, although staff said more staff would allow more quality time with people.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff assisted them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service upheld this practice. People said they were encouraged to make their own choices.

The home was clean and comfortable. The provider had sufficient equipment to reduce the spread of COVID-19, although screening of professional visitors had not always taken place.

Relatives said staff had kept them well-informed throughout the pandemic. The home had good links with the local community and worked alongside health and social care agencies to support the well-being of the people who live there.

The provider and management team were open and approachable. Staff said they felt supported by the new management team and enjoyed working at the home.

The provider carried out checks of the quality and safety of the service. The provider was committed to improvement and refurbishment programme was taking place.

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 16 August 2019).

Why we inspected

This inspection was prompted by a review of the information we held about this service. In February 2022, we completed a direct monitoring activity, which involves gathering feedback from staff, relatives and people who use the service as well as looking at a wide range of documents. This identified some areas which were potentially of concern and needed further exploration. These were particularly around incidents between people and what risk management strategies were in place to reduce these.

The inspection was also prompted in part due to concerns received about staff practice in infection control. A decision was made for us to inspect and examine those risks. As a result, we undertook a focused inspection to review the key questions of safe and well-led only.

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.

For those key questions not inspected, we used the ratings awarded at the last inspection to calculate the overall rating. The overall rating for the service has changed from good to requires improvement based on the findings of this inspection.

We have found evidence that the provider needs to make improvements. Please see the safe and well-led sections of this report.

You can read the report from our last comprehensive inspection, by selecting the 'all reports' link for Red Brick House on our website at www.cqc.org.uk.

Follow up

We will continue to monitor information we receive about the service, which will help inform when we next inspect.