Northampton care home rated as ‘requires improvement’ says it has already resolved most of CQC’s concerns

A residential care home in Northampton has been told by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) that it requires improvement - but says it has already addressed most of the concerns raised.

The Berkeley, in Kingsthorpe Road, cares for up to 10 people with a diagnosis of learning disabilities, sensory impairments and mental health needs.

An inspection conducted by the CQC in January found that it was good in terms of effectiveness, care and responsiveness but required improvement in leadership and safety. This caused the care home to drop from an overall ‘good’ rating to ‘requires improvement’.

A spokesperson for The Barkeley’s care provider, Mentaur, said: “We would like to assure all stakeholders that we are working closely with the CQC and the local authority to address any concerns outlined in this report, most of which have already been resolved.”

A CQC inspector found that risks to people were not always assessed and strategies to reduce known risks were not always recorded.

The report added that medicine records were not always consistently recorded, not all staff had the relevant training to ensure they had knowledge of people’s health needs and not all processes were effective in identifying concerns about the service.

However, the CQC did acknowledge that - since the inspection - The Berkeley has allocated new training to all staff, put actions into place to improve medicine management and implemented the missing risk assessments.

Staff additionally felt supported within their roles, with one employee telling the inspector that the manager always checks that staff are happy and listens to any issues or concerns raised.

The Mentaur spokesperson added: “Mentaur has a longstanding excellent reputation as a residential social care provider. We are also pleased to read the positive observations from CQC throughout the report that residents at The Berkeley feel safe and that people and relatives were positive about the attitudes and behaviour of staff and the culture of the service.”

Mentaur Limited also manages Highfield care home in Abington and Rushwell House in Rushden - both are currently rated good by the CQC.

Read the full CQC inspection report of The Berkeley here.