Byron Court Care Home

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

Date of Assessment: 27 March 2025 to 5 April 2025. The service is a residential home providing support to older people with nursing needs. The provider was previously in breach of the legal regulation in relation to governance and safe care and treatment. Improvements were found at this assessment and there was no longer a breach of these regulations.

Medicines were now managed safely. There were now processes in place to ensure the accurate recording and administration of medication. Where people required medication as and when required, often referred to as PRN medicine, there were plans in place to support this. People told us they received their medicine safely.

The provider had a good learning culture and people could raise concerns. Managers investigated incidents thoroughly. People were protected and kept safe. Staff understood and managed risks, however staff did not always record in daily notes where they had taken action needed as per one person’s risk assessment. On day 1 of our inspection the facilities and equipment were not clean or well-maintained. We raised this with the registered manager and immediate action was taken to mitigate any risks.

There were enough staff with the right skills, qualifications and experience. Managers made sure staff received training and regular appraisals to maintain high-quality care.

People commented positively regarding the kind and caring nature of the staff. We observed friendly, caring and familiar interactions between staff and people who lived at the home.

We received some negative feedback regarding the food. One person told us the food was ‘disgusting’ and another person said, “It isn’t very good.” We observed there was a lot of waste regarding the food. We raised this with the provider as we were concerned people were not being given a good choice of food. We saw from some recent feedback collected from people there was also some mixed responses around food. Some people also described to us instances where care was not always person centred, which we followed up with the registered manager who has since provided us with reassurance.

Some people told us they did not always get access to a dentist in a timely way, and another family member told us they were still waiting for other teams to be involved in their relative’s care. We saw the provider had chased this up for them recently, along with a SALT referral.

People told us they knew who the registered manager was and that they were approachable. The registered manager and the provider were responsive to our feedback during the inspection and updated us soon as possible with any actions they had taken as a result of our feedback. The registered manager understood what was required to be reported to CQC and understood their role and responsibilities with regards to duty of candour.