Birch House

The following is CQC's published account of its assessment, published 8 January 2025. References to “we” mean CQC. It describes findings at that time.

We undertook this assessment of Birch House between 28 and 30 October 2024. We completed this assessment due to serious concerns identified in another of the providers services. Therefore, we carried out a comprehensive assessment looking at all quality statements in safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. We did not identify any breaches of regulation during this assessment but identified areas of improvement in assessing and recording people’s goals, decision making and choices around activities. The service continues to have the overall rating of Good. Birch House is a residential care home providing accommodation for up to 5 autistic people or people with a learning disability. At the time of our assessment there were 5 people living at the service with varied support needs including different abilities to communicate. We spoke with people and their family members and also observed staff interactions in communal areas. An assessment has been undertaken of a specialist service that is used by autistic people or people with a learning disability. We expect health and social care providers to guarantee autistic people and people with a learning disability respect, equality, dignity, choices and independence and good access to local communities that most people take for granted. ‘Right support, right care, right culture’ is the guidance CQC follows to make assessments and judgements about services supporting people with a learning disability and autistic people and providers must have regard to it.