Enter and view: Little Heaton Residential Care Home for the Elderly

Healthwatch Rochdale has conducted an Enter and View visit in February 2019 to Little Heaton Residential Care Home for the elderly. The visit was completed as part of a programme of announced Enter and View visits to care homes in the Rochdale Borough. The visit was based on eight care quality indicators developed by Independent Age. These include: Have strong, visible management; Have staff with the time and skills to do their job; Have good knowledge of each individual resident and how their needs may be changing; Offer a varied programme of activities; Offer quality, choice and flexibility around food and mealtimes; Ensure residents can regularly see health professionals such as GPs, dentists, opticians or chiropodists; Accommodate residents personal, cultural and lifestyle needs; and Be an open environment where feedback is actively sought and used. Questionnaires and observations were conducted with the manager, five members of staff, and eight residents.

The observations made by the Enter and View representatives included: a varied activities schedule and residents were well looked after and encouraged to take part; flexible meals were offered with choice of meals in a dining room where residents could choose to socialise if they wanted to; there was residents and relatives meetings on offer and a satisfaction survey displayed in the entrance. Residents reported that the staff were friendly, welcoming and positive towards them and their care needs. They commented that staff knew them as individuals, whilst personal, cultural and lifestyle needs are accommodated for with religious visits and freedom within the home. Residents told the Healthwatch representatives that they felt comfortable making a complaint and would let staff and the manager know. Staff gave a mixed response regarding support they receive from their management but commented that they felt they had appropriate training. Staff told representatives that individual care plans are in place and that they knew each resident well.

Recommendations include: For management and staff to wear name badges with their name and position to help residents who are unable to recall the manager’s and staff member’s names; To build on current progress of improving activities by getting ideas from other care homes and the following website; To have a list of upcoming activities posted in a place visible to residents; To create an activities display with pictures of residents who have taken part in activities offered by the home; Having a suggestions box so that people can make suggestions for improvement anonymously; and Having a ‘you said we did’ board for both residents and staff feedback to demonstrate how giving feedback can make a positive difference.