Brooke House

We identified risks within the care environment, where equipment needed to be replaced, changes were needed to reduce the risk of harm to skin from hot and uncovered surfaces and unsecured access to risk items, which placed people at risk of potential harm. This was of particular concern because many of the people at the service were living with dementia and relied on staff to maintain their safety.

Some areas of medicine management needed to be improved to ensure staff were working in line with local and nationally recognised best practice. We observed some people's teeth and finger nails to be visibly dirty, their daily records indicated gaps in the completion of these basic care tasks.

Provider level auditing and oversight of the service, in the absence of a registered manager required some improvements, as areas of risk and shortfalls identified at this inspection had not been found as an outcome of their own audits and quality checks.

Inspection findings have resulted in breaches of the regulations and a recommendation being made to support improvement at the service. We found the provider team to be responsive to our feedback from the inspection, and they acted promptly to make changes and address risks to support improvement and safety at the service.

People were supported to engage with visitors, friends, and members of the local community to reduce the risk of social isolation. We observed there to be sufficient numbers of trained staff on shift to respond to people's needs.

People were supported to have maximum choice and control of their lives and staff supported them in the least restrictive way possible and in their best interests; the policies and systems in the service supported this practice.

We observed caring and friendly interactions by staff and members of the management and provider team with people and their relatives. Members of the provider team were familiar with people's needs and we observed they made time to meet with relatives and visitors during the inspection.