Enter and view: Sutton Beeches - Maple and Willow Units

Healthwatch Cheshire West conducted two Enter and View visits to the Maple and Willow Units of Sutton Beeches on 11 February and 14 March 2014.

Maple and Willow Units are day services presently in a transitional phase, transferring to VIVO Day Care Services, located within Sutton Beeches; a residential short break and rehabilitation centre located in a residential area. The Maple Unit can take up to twenty day care residents and the Willow Unit provides a specialist Day Care facility for twelve people who have dementia or other similar diagnoses.

Representatives were informed by staff, that at the moment Vivo Day Care Services are looking for an alternative appropriate building in the geographical area of Ellesmere Port to enable present service users of the Day Care Services to transfer.

Enter and View Authorised Representatives found the premises rather uninviting with some of the decoration and furniture in need of attention. When the visiting team arrived, clients were just arriving and were given cups of tea and hot chocolate. The worktop in the area where these drinks were being made was observed to be stained. Clients were sitting in a big circle, some talking, some watching television and some just sitting there.

The Authorised Representative observations suggested that there were 20 day care clients and 12 in the Dementia unit. Although there were eight staff, only five were on duty at any time. When asked about staffing levels, the visiting team were told this had been looked at and there was no legal requirement to have a certain number of staff per group. However, it is the opinion of all three Authorised Representatives involved in these visits that staffing levels should be improved to cope with the range of clients disabilities.

After the clients had all had their refreshments, they took part in a quiz and, the visiting team were told, would be having a game of Bingo in the afternoon and that another activity was going on in the Dementia unit. There was an activity cupboard which was tidy and well filled with games and equipment. Authorised Representatives noted that this had improved since the first visit.

The Authorised Representatives expressed their concerns about the condition of the outside area as they had observed that there was an abundance of cigarette ends that would have built up over several weeks. They felt the whole garden area was also in need of a great deal of attention. The seating didn't look very well maintained and also observed was a hose pipe left attached to a tap in the Dementia area.

There is no provider response included within this report.