Enter and View : Silk Court Care Home, Tower Hamlets

Healthwatch Tower Hamlets conducted an announced enter and view visit to Silk Court Care Home on 13th October, 2016. Silk Court was managed by Anchor Trust and had 51 self contained flats all occupied at the time of the visit.

The HW team spoke to 7 residents and 2 staff members. The report lists a summary of the observations made by the Healthwatch team from the resident feedback and their observations and comments.

The residents at Silk Court seemed very happy as this was evident from their body language, appearance, their interaction with staff and with their engagement with services organised for them (e.g. the church service).

- The residents gave very positive feedback about the staff. One resident said that staff are like angels and they know what she liked and disliked.

- HW team were also impressed with the staff as they seemed genuinely interested in their work and seemed to enjoy working in a care home environment.

- HW also agreed that there was a lot of emphasis on providing activities for residents, which is significantly important when it comes to tackling loneliness and isolation.

One such activity is called such as ‘Streetlife’ which offers residents the unique opportunity to have one to one time with staff by going out together to explore the area with their own name.

Healthwatch had visited many care homes in Tower Hamlets in the last year and felt that Silk Court by far had one of the best activities programme for their residents.

HW team was also very impressed with Anchor Trust senior managers after having the opportunity to speak to them briefly, as they displayed the right attitude to manage care homes to high standards.

The Tower Hamlets HW team felt that Silk Court is one of the best care home that they have visited in Tower Hamlets, and were impressed with the environment of the care home, staff feedback and interaction, activities on offer for residents, engagement with the local community, the fresh food provided daily and the management of Anchor Trust in ensuring that this care home is maintained to a high standard.

The Healthwatch staff had one question for Anchor Trust about the safety of the residents while building work was going on. The provider responded that risk assessment is carried out before the workmen start, and the workmen had been informed not to let anyone in or out of the home. Customers who are at risk (with Dementia etc.) are monitored on the unit by the staff.

There were no recommendations made in this report.