What makes an Outstanding care home? We have been working with Paul Rowley of Heathfield Ladies Residential Home, one of the first in the North West to be awarded Outstanding.

Heathfield Residential Home in Grappenhall, Warrington, is one of less than 1 per cent of homes in the country to be rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission.

Family owned and operated, the 22 bed ladies only home prides itself on its elegant living, varied programme of activities and culinary excellence.

We started working with the team at Heathfield in April 2015. Following a detailed inspection, we highlighted ways the home could grow and improve – looking at everything from person-centred care plans to ensuring the home is dementia friendly – and worked with them to help them implement the changes.

After an unannounced inspection by the CQC in February 2016, the home was recently awarded the highest rating for being Responsive and Well Led. The story made the news on Granada Reports.

Inspectors praised Heathfield for its innovative use of assistive technology to enable residents to keep up to date with news and events and to have regular electronic contact with family and friends.

The home had worked with Lancaster University to develop specialist software to support dementia care and had introduced this system into the home as part of effective care support and to promote family engagement.

Heathfield also used ‘if I could I would’ forms which held details of the wishes expressed by people who lived in the home as what they wished they could do. The CQC saw that the staff worked hard to make some of these a reality such as going to a tea dance or a local swimming pool.

The report said staff were ‘well trained and used their training effectively to support people and assist them with their daily life and help them to retain their independence’. It also praised the home for being ‘well managed’ with ‘excellent services’ that ‘enhance the lives of the people who lived there’.

Finally, the report added: “People who lived in the home and their relatives spoke of the outstanding care delivery. They told us that the provider and staff of the home went above and beyond to ensure they received a person centred service.”

For the full report see here.

Paul Rowley, who has run Heathfields with his wife, Louise, for the past ten years said: “I invited Caresolve in because I wanted a third party to tell me how high the bar was set and who would make us sweat and push the boundaries of what we could achieve.

“Ben Challinor carried out a detailed inspection of the home and it was good to get a dispassionate view of how we were doing. He gave us lots of useful advice on how we could improve across each of the five sectors of the CQC rating.

“In a care home you can become insular and believe that what you are doing is the best. That’s why it was so helpful to have Caresolve as our trusted advisors – someone with a wiser and broader view of things who can test our understanding.

“So when the home was awarded Outstanding by the CQC we were delighted. It was a culmination of what we had been working hard for.

“We have always strived to create a great residential home and feel it is a privilege to not only share the last chapter of our residents’ lives, but to make it memorable for each and every one of them.”

Around 80% of care homes in England have been rated by the Care Quality Commission – to date, 62% have been rated Good, 37% as Requires Improvement or Inadequate and fewer than 1% are Outstanding.