Enter and View: May 2018 - St Mary's Convent and Nursing Home

St Mary’s is a registered company and charity and is also a convent of the Society of St Margaret. A number of Sisters from the order make their homes at the convent and offer support to the residents. Most of the residents fund their own care, but up to 10 places are reserved for people who are funded by the local authority or the NHS, and the cost of their care is subsidised by the charity.

Background for the visit:

The Health and Social Care Act allows Healthwatch Hounslow (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 (three HWH volunteers and one HWH staff member) attended the visit. The Authorised Representatives spoke to residents, staff and visitors. Suggestions have been made on how to improve the service and good practice has been highlighted.

HWH liaises with the CQC, Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) and the Local Authority (LA) to create an Enter and View Programme, as well as the information that it collects about the experiences of local people. A number of health and social care providers are selected to be visited to provide a sample of different services. We did not have a reason for selecting St Mary’s for a visit.