Service Users' Rights

We place the rights of Service Users at the forefront of our philosophy of care. We seek to advance these rights in all aspects of the environment and the services we provide and to encourage our residents to exercise their rights to the full.

Privacy

We recognise that life in a communal setting and the need to accept help with personal tasks are inherently invasive of a service user's ability to enjoy the pleasure of being alone and undisturbed. We therefore strive to retain as much privacy as possible for our residents in the following ways.

1. Giving help in intimate situations as discreetly as possible

2. Helping service users to furnish and equip their rooms in their own style and to use them as much as they wish for leisure, meals and entertaining.

3. Offering a range of locations around the home for residents to be alone or with selected others.

4. Providing locks on service user's storage space, bedrooms and other rooms in which residents need at times to be uninterrupted.

5. Guaranteeing service user's privacy when using the telephone, opening and reading post and communicating with friends, relatives or advisors.

6. Ensuring the confidentiality of information the Home holds about service users.

Dignity

Disabilities quickly undermine dignity, so we try to preserve respect for our service user's intrinsic values in the following ways.

1. Treating each service user as a special and valued individual.

2. Helping service users to present themselves to others as they would wish through their own clothing, their personal appearance and their behaviour in public.

3. Offering a range of activities, which enables each service user to express himself or herself as a unique individual.

4. Tackling the stigma from which our service users may suffer through age, disability or status.

5. Compensating for the effects of disabilities which service users may experience on their communication, physical functioning, mobility or appearance.

Independence

We are aware that our service users have given up a good deal of independence in entering a group living situation. We regard it as all the more important to foster our service users' remaining opportunities to think and act without reference to another person in the following ways.

1. Providing as tactfully as possible human or technical assistance when it is needed.

2. Maximising the abilities our service users retain for self-care, for independent interaction with others, and for carrying out the tasks of daily living unaided.

3. Helping service users take reasonable and fully thought-out risks.

4. Promoting possibilities for service users to establish and retain contacts beyond the home.

5. Using any form of restraint on service users only in situations of urgency when it is essential for their own safety or the safety of others.

6. Encouraging service users to have access to and contribute to the records of their own care.

Security

Many service users have sought admission to the home as an escape from elements in their previous living arrangements, which threatened their safety or caused them fear. We therefore aim to provide an environment and structure of support, which responds to this need in the following ways.

1. Offering assistance with tasks and in situations, which would otherwise be perilous for service users.

2. Avoiding as far as possible the dangers especially common among older people, notably the risk of falling.

3. Protecting service users from all forms of abuse and from all possible abusers.

4. Providing readily accessible channels for dealing with complaints by service users.

5. Creating an atmosphere in the home which service users experience as open, positive and inclusive.

Civil Rights

Being old, having disabilities and residing in a home can act to deprive our residents' place in society as fully participating and benefiting citizens in the following ways.

1. Ensuring the service users have the opportunity to vote in elections and to brief themselves fully on the democratic options.

2. Preserving for residents' full and equal access to all elements of the National Health Service.

3. Helping service users to claim all appropriate welfare benefits and social services.

4. Assisting service user's access to public services such as libraries, further education and lifelong learning.

5. Facilitating service users in contribution to society through volunteering, helping each other and taking on roles involving responsibility within and beyond the home.

Choice

We aim to help service users exercise the opportunity to select from a range of options in all aspects of their lives in the following ways.

1. Providing meals which enable service users as far as possible to decide for themselves where, when and with whom they consume food and drink of their choice.

2. Offering service users a wide range of leisure activities from which to choose.

3. Enabling service users to manage their own time and not be dictated to by set communal timetables.

4. Avoiding wherever possible treating service users as an homogeneous group.

5. Respecting individual, unusual or eccentric behaviour in service users.

6. Retaining maximum flexibility in the routines of the daily life of the home.

Fulfillment
We want to help our service users to realise personal aspirations and abilities in all aspects of their lives.

We seek to assist this in the following ways.

1. Informing ourselves as fully as each service user wishes about their individual histories and characteristics.

2. Providing a range of leisure and recreational activities to suit the tastes and abilities of all service users and to stimulate participation.

3. Responding appropriately to the personal, intellectual, artistic and spiritual values and practices of every service user.

4. Respecting our residents' religious, ethnic and cultural diversity.

5. Helping our service users to maintain existing contacts and to make new liaisons. friendships, and personal or sexual relationships if they wish.

6. Attempting always to listen and attend promptly to any service users' desire to communicate at whatever level.

Quality Care

We wish to provide the highest quality of care, and to do this we give priority to a number of areas relating to the operation of the home and the services we provide.

Choice of Home

We recognise that every prospective service user should have the opportunity to choose a home, which suits his or her needs and abilities. To facilitate that choice and to ensure that our residents know precisely what services we offer, we will do the following.

1. Provide detailed information on the home by publishing a statement of purpose and a detailed service users guide.

2. Give each resident a contract or a statement of terms and conditions specifying the details of the relationship.

3. Ensure that every prospective resident has his or her needs expertly assessed before a decision on admission is taken.

4. Demonstrate to people about to be admitted to the home that we are confident that we can meet their needs as assessed.

5. Offer trail visits to prospective residents and avoid unplanned admissions except in cases of emergency.

6. Arrange for the provision of dedicated areas and services for service users admitted for intermediate care.

Health and Personal Care

We draw on expert professional guidelines for the services the home provides. In pursuit of the best possible care we will do the following.

1. Produce with each resident, regularly update, and thoroughly implement a resident's plan of care, based on an initial and then continuing assessment.

2. Seek to meet or arrange for appropriate professionals to meet the health care needs of each resident.

3. Establish and carry out careful procedures for the administration of service user's medicines.

4. Take steps to safeguard service user's privacy and dignity in all aspects of the delivery of health and personal care.

5. Treat with special care service users who are dying, and sensitively assist them and their relatives at the time of death.

Daily Life and Social Activities

It is clear that service users may need care and help in a range of aspects of their lives. To respond to the variety of needs and wishes of service users~ we will do the following.

1. Aim to provide a lifestyle for residents, which satisfy their social, cultural, religious and recreational interests and needs.

2. Help service users to exercise choice and control over their lives.

3. Provide meals, which constitute a wholesome, appealing, and balanced diet in pleasing surroundings and at times convenient to service users.

Complaints and Protection

Despite everything that we do to provide a secure environment, we know that residents may become dissatisfied from time to time and may suffer abuse inside or outside the borne. To tackle such problems we will do the following.

1. Provide and when necessary operate a simple, clear and accessible complaints procedure.

2. Take all necessary action to protect service user's legal rights.

3. Make all possible efforts to protect service user from every sort of abuse and from the various possible abusers.

The Environment

The physical environment of the home is designed for service user's convenience and comfort. In particular, we will do the following.

1. Maintain the buildings and grounds in a safe condition.

2. Make detailed arrangements for the communal areas of the home to be safe and comfortable.

3. Supply toilet, washing and bathing facilities suitable for the residents for whom we care.

4. Arrange for specialist equipment to be available to maximise service user's independence.

5. Provide individual accommodation, which at least meets the National Minimum Standards.

6. See that service users have safe, comfortable bedrooms, with their own possessions around them.

7. Ensure the premises are kept clean, hygienic and free from unpleasant odours, with systems in place to control the spread of infection.

Staffing

We are aware that the homes staff will play a very important role in resident's welfare. To maximise this contribution, we will do the following.

1. Employ staff in sufficient numbers and with the relevant mix of skills to meet residents needs.

2. Provide at all times an appropriate number of staff with qualifications in health and social care.

3. Observe recruitment policies and practices, which both respect equal opportunities and protect resident's safety and welfare.

4. Offer our staff a range of training, which is relevant to their induction, foundation experience and further development.

Management and Administration

We know that the leadership of the home is critical to all its operations. To provide leadership of the quality required, we will do the following.

1. Always engage as registered manager a person who is qualified, competent and experienced for the tasks.

2. Aim for a management approach, which creates an open, positive and inclusive atmosphere.

3. Install and operate effective quality assurance and quality monitoring systems.

4. Work to accounting and financial procedures, which safeguard resident interests.

5. Offer service users appropriate assistance in the management of their personal finances.

6. Supervise all staff and voluntary workers regularly and carefully.

7. Keep up-to-date and accurate records on all aspects of the home and its service users.

8. Ensure that the health, safety and welfare of service users and staff are promoted and protected.

Focus on Service Users

We want everything we do in the home to be driven by the needs, abilities and aspirations of our service users, not by what staff management or any other group would desire. We recognise how easily this focus can slip and we will remain vigilant to ensure that the facilities, resources, policies, activities and services of the home remain service user-led.

Fitness for Purpose

We are committed to achieving our stated aims and objectives and we welcome the scrutiny of our service user and their representatives.

Comprehensives

We aim to provide a total range of care, in collaboration with all appropriate agencies, to meet the overall personal and health care needs and preferences of our service users.

Meeting Assessed Needs

The care we provide is based on the thorough assessment of needs and the systematic and continuous planning of care for each service user.

Quality Services

We are aiming for a progressive improvement in the standards of training at all levels of our staff and management.

Review of this Document

We keep this document under regular review and would welcome comments from service users and others.