High Broom Care Home

We found the following examples of good practice.

Due to a recent outbreak of COVID-19, the home was closed to visitors unless in exceptional circumstances such as for people receiving end of life care. The registered manager had identified an area of the home to use for visitors when the home was able to open again. There was a separate entrance for visitors which led them into a testing area. The testing area had tape on the floor to indicate where relatives needed to stand to receive their lateral flow test and an area to wait for the results was labelled.

Staff had taken over the role of providing all in-house activities for people. This had included linking with other care homes to play bingo. Staff had also supported people to attend virtual church services. Activities had been adapted to support social distancing. During the outbreak of COVID-19 people were supported with one to one activities in their bedrooms.

Throughout the pandemic, staff kept relatives up to date with changes to government guidance and what was going on in the home. Staff produced a weekly newsletter called the 'HB Herald' which kept people and relatives informed of activities, fun events, staff information and actions taken from the Feedback Friday meetings. Feedback Friday meetings were an opportunity for people living at the home to give feedback on various aspects of the service.

The home was clean and hygienic and communal areas had been adapted to support people to socially distance from each other. Staff were wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) in line with government guidance. There were plenty of PPE supplies at the home and this was regularly audited.

Staff had completed a COVID-19 workforce welfare form which was reviewed by the registered manager. This assessed how staff were feeling during the pandemic and allowed the registered manager to provide staff with extra support if needed. Staff had individual risk assessments in place to assess for factors that may increase the staff member's risk from COVID-19. These risk assessments considered personal details about staff which may impact on their mental wellbeing during the pandemic such as living arrangements, health conditions and being a member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBQ+) community. Staff were supported by the registered manager and signposted to external support where needed.

The five questions we ask about services and what we found