Enter and View: August 2017 - Vicarage Farm Nursing Home

The home has a waiting list for rooms. There are 42 rooms with ensuite facilities. Each floor also has its own bathroom with baths and showers. The ground floor has 7 rooms for residents and 18 rooms allocated for elderly residents. The 1st floor (top floor) has 33 rooms allocated to residents with various degrees of dementia, with 7 rooms reserved for residents who have a high dependency requirement.

Background for the visit:

The Health and Social Care Act allows HWH ‘Enter and View’ Authorised Representatives to observe service delivery and speak to patients, residents, staff, relatives, friends and carers. The visit can happen if people tell us there are concerns, but equally, the visits can take place when services have a good reputation. We can therefore learn from shared examples of what they are doing well from the perspective of the people who experience the service first hand.

‘Enter and View’ visits are not intended to specifically identify safeguarding issues. However, if safeguarding concerns arise during a visit, they are reported in accordance with the HWH Safeguarding Policy. If at any time an Authorised Representative observes a potential safeguarding concern, they will inform their lead. The lead Authorised Representative will then end the visit. In addition, if any member of staff wishes to raise a safeguarding issue about their employer, they will be directed to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and Hounslow Council’s Safeguarding Team.

On this occasion, four ‘Enter and View’ Authorised Representatives (two HWH volunteers and two HWH staff members) attended the visit. The Authorised Representatives spoke to staff and visitors. Recommendations have been made on how to improve the service and good practice has been highlighted.

HWH had liaised with the CQC, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Local Authorities (LA) to create an ‘Enter and View’ Programme. A number of health and social care providers were selected to be visited. There wasn’t a particular reason for visiting VF, the visit was part of HWH’s remit.