Enter and view: Amber Wood

Healthwatch Staffordshire conducted an Enter and View visit to Amber Wood, a residential home for up to 45 residents. The home was evaluated against eight quality indicators: strong, visible management; staff with the time and skills to do their jobs; good knowledge of each individual resident, their needs and how their needs may be changing; a varied programme of activities; quality, choice and flexibility around food and mealtimes; ensuring residents can regularly see health professionals such as GPs, dentists, opticians or chiropodists; accommodating residents' personal, cultural and lifestyle needs; and being an open environment where feedback is actively sought and used.

Observation by the Enter and View representatives found that: Amber Wood was a new, purpose-built home, with high standards of accommodation and state-of the-art facilities. The management and staff provided high quality, personalised services to residents. There was, however, still some way to go to achieve a full staffing complement who are all comfortable working in what for some was still a new and very different environment from that they have previously experienced. Healthwatch Staffordshire noted five points that should be included in future monitoring. The report contains a response from the service provider.