Compassion, dignity and respect praised at Sanford House Nursing Home

The team at Sanford House Nursing Home in East Dereham, Norfolk, are delighted to have received a ‘Good’ overall rating from care regulators, the Care Quality Commission (CQC), following an unannounced inspection in September.

Sanford House has the reputation of being one of the premier nursing homes in Dereham. It has been specifically designed to create an accessible and safe environment for elderly residents who may have mobility problems. All rooms and services are laid out over the ground floor and the home is arranged in a quadrangle around an attractive and sensory courtyard garden.

During their visit inspectors observed residents were involved in their care and treated with compassion, kindness, dignity and respect. There was a lot of positive feedback about the care team. One relative said, “The team have a real sense of humour, it makes this home,” another said, “The support of the team to the residents is exceptional, I have never even heard a raised voice from the staff.”

Another relative added,” The home tells me first thing in the morning when I arrive if anything has happened and I am certain that they would phone me if there was a serious problem.”

During their visit, Inspectors noted that the care team knew people well and involved both residents and relatives on their care, supporting them to be as independent as possible.

Care plans were personalised to meet people’s needs. One relative told the team, “I think the resident’s quality of life is greatly improved here, I don’t think they sometimes appreciate what a struggle it was living in their own home.”

Inspectors agreed that people were supported to eat and drink enough, there was a varied and healthy menu in place which catered for people’s needs and special ‘lunchboxes’ for those at risk of malnutrition including finger food snacks. Tasting days were put on regularly where people could try different foods, these were especially helpful for people living with dementia who may not remember the names of food but could say whether they liked them or not when they tried them.

Inspectors noted that the design and decoration at Sanford House was adapted to meet people’s needs with handrails, easy signage and murals on the walls which one resident said, “Reminds me of my childhood days.”

In the entrance hall at Sanford House, there is a wish tree which was used to display information about wishes that had been granted for people. For example, one person had been granted a wish to go to London and there were pictures of them on the tree during their visit to Buckingham Palace.

Over the moon with the feedback, Sanford House Manager Joan Auton said, “At Caring Homes we want to ensure that our homes are just that – caring homes. We are all really pleased that the CQC inspectors have recognised the positive open culture and our expectation that residents and relatives always come first. We are delighted with our second consecutive ‘Good’ rating, this is down to the fantastic team here and great support from senior managers and colleagues across Caring Homes.”

To ensure consistent, high-quality care and support the team benefit from Caring Homes’ specialist award-winning in-house dementia training ‘My World’ to support those living with dementia and actively promote dementia awareness developing and growing a dementia-friendly community through sharing their knowledge, skills and shared experience.

As part of the rigorous inspection, process Inspectors spoke to five people who used the service and five relatives about their experience of the care provided. They also spoke with 11 members of staff including the area manager, deputy manager, senior care workers, care workers, cleaners, maintenance team and the chef. Inspectors reviewed a range of records including six people’s care records and multiple medication records. Two colleague records were examined in relation to recruitment and staff supervision as well as a variety of records relating to the management of the home.

click here for more details or to contact Sanford House Nursing Home