CQC Chief Executive Praises Belong Atherton

Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), Ian Trenholm, praised the best practice demonstrated at a Greater Manchester care village, recently awarded the inspectorate’s highest ‘outstanding’ rating by CQC inspectors, when he toured Belong Atherton, which is amongst only 2% of care facilities achieving the rating nationally.
Trenholm, who took over at the helm of the CQC last summer, was accompanied by Jon Rouse, Richard Preece and Jo Chilton from Greater Manchester Health and Social Care Partnership. The group met with Belong team members and residents as well as seeing first-hand a number of pioneering initiatives launched at the specialist dementia care village, including its state-of-the-art exercise studio and multi-sensory equipment, introduced by Belong Atherton to provide stimulation to those unable to engage in other activities.
Commenting on the visit, Tracy Paine, Deputy Chief Executive of Belong, said: “We were honoured to host Mr Trenholm and colleagues from across Greater Manchester, and it was really rewarding for our team in Atherton to have this opportunity to demonstrate the positive impacts of the initiatives and technologies they have implemented.”
In its positive inspection report, the CQC noted the effectiveness of the village’s hand-held Mobile Care Monitoring system, which has been successfully adopted by Belong to give teams up-to-the-minute insight into each resident’s wellbeing and support needs.
Mr Trenholm said: “It has been a pleasure to visit Belong Atherton today and to meet the staff and residents. What stands out at this care village is the commitment to a strong person-centred culture built on kindness, respect, compassion and dignity.”
Last year, Belong Atherton celebrated three wins at the Hospice in Your Care Home Awards 2018 for the quality of its end-of-life care, which is accredited under the Gold Standards Framework. The organisation also won the ‘Innovative Quality Outcomes Award’ for its exercise service at the Third Sector Care Awards, as well as achieving international recognition of its outstanding people management practices at the Investors in People Awards 2018.
Belong is a Real Living Wage employer and invests in high levels of training to develop the skills and career development opportunities of its people, which in turn ensures the highest quality care for customers.