The Cedars, Avery Healthcare’s nursing home in Bourne, Lincolnshire, has been awarded the ‘Gold Standard’, a highly sought after and nationally recognised standard of the quality of the homes end of life care.
The Cedars was presented with the award by social campaigner and Liberal Democrat peer Baroness Julia Neuberger at a ceremony in London, sponsored by Help the Aged and new charity Omega.
The Cedars was acquired by Avery in 2007 after the company was attracted by its excellent reputation in the local community and the high standards of care it offers. The home is registered for 56 beds and is one of just 25 homes to have completed the Gold Standards Framework for Care Homes (GSFCH) Training Programme. In addition it is one of only six homes to be awarded beacon status, the highest possible rating.
Matron Helen Brewster said: “I am very proud of all the staff here, it’s been a real team effort. The Gold Standards Framework has helped the residents feel confident in communicating their needs and helped the staff improve their ability to meet those needs.”
Avery Healthcare’s Managing Director John Strowbridge commented: “We are working very hard to ensure that all our homes offer the very highest standards of care available in the UK in a positive environment that encourages the maximum independence of all who stay with us. This award for the Cedars in Bourne is a very well justified recognition of the work Helen and all her staff have implemented in what is widely acknowledged as a home setting benchmark standards for the sector.”
The Gold Standard programme, recommended in the Government’s End of Life Care Strategy, aims to improve the quality of care for those in the last years of their life, provide better co-ordination with primary care teams and specialists and reduce avoidable hospital admissions. To qualify for accreditation, care homes must have undertaken the full GSFCH Training programme over 9 months, embedded this into their homes for at least 6 months and then undertaken a rigorous accreditation process 'Going for Gold.'
Baroness Neuberger, author of Not Dead Yet: A Manifesto for Old Age said: “The Gold Standards Framework is at the forefront of efforts to engineer a cultural change that allows older people to have the care, the honesty and the kindness they have every right to expect at the end of their lives. I am delighted to be able to present these valued awards to homes that have shown what can and should be achieved in the provision of end of life care and to recognise care at the end of life- and in care homes- can be superb, as has been shown here.”
Avery recently announced a £53 million development capital package from Graphite Capital and RBS for investment in a new company Willowbrook under the Avery umbrella brand. The move marks Avery as being one of a handful of companies able to continue developing large numbers of new care home beds in the current climate.
The company has followed a model of developing upmarket care homes at a variety of sites from Bristol and Salisbury in the West to Peterborough, Grantham, Kettering, Northampton and Bourne in the Midlands and East and at Mollington near Chester.
Other developments planned include new homes at Heckmondwike, Yorkshire opening early this year, Chippenham in Wiltshire, Rugeley in Staffs and Bulwell in Nottingham.
"The Gold Standards Framework will raise the bar in End of Life Care. Help the Aged believe that however you die; you should be able to do so with dignity.”
