Care home celebrates CQC report

Residents, staff and friends enjoy time on the bouncy castle at the Ashdene summer fair.

A Sleaford nursing home for elderly residents is celebrating turning around its? fortunes in just two years since its last Care Quality Commission inspection.

Ashdene Care Home in Eastgate had been deemed as ‘requiring improvement’ in a number of areas where necessary paperwork was not in place, including medication management, when it was visited by inspectors in August 2017, just as current manager Jilly Hunt took over the role.

In a new report just released following a return visit in March, inspectors have graded the home as ‘good’ in all areas.

Mrs Hunt said: “We had some amazing comments from the lead inspector.”

Management - from left - Michael Hunt, Rob Wing and Jilly Hunt. EMN-190107-162134001

She said: “We are extremely proud of the team.”

“I had a lot of things that needed changing when I arrived. Since then, staff morale has much improved, continuity of staff was another issue and we are keeping a lot for quite some time now.

“We are coming up with new ideas and thinking outside the box. The garden has been changed, adding lots of colour and we are getting visiting helpers who are past or present relatives who volunteer. A lot of the staff’s children regularly come in and engage with the residents.”

The home has received carer of the year awards from Sleaford Town Awards and the Lincolnshire Care Awards.

Cake stall at the fair - from left -0 Monica Rayes, Lauren Smith and Karen Hickman. EMN-190107-162218001

Inspectors encouraged the home to be even more involved with the community and to use a befriending service, but they already invite visits from Eslaforde Nursery, whose children came along for the home’s summer fair on Friday which raised £200.