Home from Home: A Healthwatch Isle of Wight Report on Quality of Care within Residential Care and Nursing Homes on the Isle of Wight 2016

Summary

Healthwatch Isle of Wight felt it was important not just to listen to people's experiences of care and nursing homes, but to reflect on why some homes are performing better than others and what can be done to support those homes that are failing. 

This workplan comprised three strands:

1. The collection of people's experiences
2. A survey for registered managers
3. Planned Enter and View visits to a range of residential care and nursing homes. 

Key findings

• It is essential that quality is systematically and continuously reviewed by providers, commissioners and regulators to ensure that nursing and residential care homes adapt and evolve to meet the needs of the people they support and continually strive to provide a culture and practice that delivers a high standard of care
• Many managers see training as a priority and regularly attend training seminars and workshops. Other managers have not attended accredited training for many years, meaning that their practice is not up to date. Peer support can be particularly productive in developing skills and delivering culture changes within care and nursing homes
• Healthwatch Isle of Wight is aware that there are many homes on the Island that provide an excellent quality of care to the vulnerable adults they support. However, it was found that there are also a number of homes that are providing unsafe and inadequate care. In this day and age, older people, who are among the most vulnerable in our society, should not be placed at risk in poor services commissioned by the Local Authority and the Clinical Commissioning Group. This is not an acceptable standard of care. Poor care is poor care and providers should be supported to improve, not merely given justification for their failure to meet 'Fundamental Standards'.