Enter and View: Precious Homes Assisted Living

The purpose of this Enter and View programme was to engage with residents, their relatives, or carers, to explore their overall experience of living at Precious Homes Assisted Living: Fenny Mews, Stratford View, and Howe Park House. As well as building a picture of their general experience, we asked about experiences in relation to social isolation and physical activity.

Summary

Precious Homes is assisted living for adults with diverse conditions, but the long term aim is for individuals to become independent. Each of the premises we visited has self-contained ‘flats’ for each of their residents. Residents living at Precious Homes all have carers, on either a 1:1, 2:1, or 3:1 basis depending on the personalised care plan developed according to individual’s needs. Each of the homes provide support and housing for residents at different stages of independence.

What we found

The care provided by staff appeared to be attentive, good, kind, and compassionate, although the cleaning of the Home could do with the same attention. There is no signage in the flats, with corridors mostly bare in Stratford View and Fenny Mews. Most residents seem very happy; people appear to trust the staff and go to them openly with questions or frustrations. During our visit, staff played board games with residents in the communal space. We observed several residents joining in and discussing plans for the remainder of the day, and who was doing what for their evening meal.

Our recommendations include:

Overall, this was a positive visit, however we do have a few recommendations.

• Consider upgrading the flooring on the stairwell and landing in Stratford View and Fenny mews. The current flooring is showing significant signs of wear and tear and is unsafe.
• Provide LGBT+ awareness training for all staff. It is not acceptable for care staff to purposely misgender, or otherwise discriminate against, LGBT+ people.
• Milton Keynes is working towards becoming a Dementia Friendly City. Look at ways of introducing dementia-friendly signage to both Stratford View and Fenny Mews.
• Howe Park House has extensive grounds but these need to be made safe from discarded rubbish and unsafe discarded items.

We found these examples of best practice:

• Residents generally feel safe, genuinely trust, and have no concerns about raising issues, good or bad.

We were, again, very impressed with the responsiveness of Precious Homes to our recommendations.  Precious Homes work hard to ensure their residents are well supported and as independent as possible.