Community Care Village Belong Chester Rated ‘Good’ By Regulators

Community Care Village Belong Chester Rated ‘Good’ By Regulators

There has been heartening news for dedicated carers at Belong Chester, which has been certified as ‘Good’ by Care Quality Commission (CQC) inspectors, with praise for the dementia specialist for its exceptional understanding of the needs of people it supports.

The report from the independent regulator of health and social care in England summarised the City Road village as having ‘a focus on supporting people to enjoy life’ underpinned by welcoming the local community to join its customers in everyday life, including use of its on-site bistro, salon and gym, and partaking in its vibrant activities programme.

It highlights comments received from relatives during the inspection, including: “They (colleagues) treat my relative as part of their family, with utmost care and respect, so kind and caring.” and “It’s brilliant, they look after [my relative]’s physical and emotional wellbeing.”

Support for customers to live healthy lives was singled out, with the gym, and in-house exercise and rehabilitation department assisting in maximising independence, choice and control through personalised exercise programmes.

Belong’s dementia expertise and its Admiral Nurse service with charity, Dementia UK, was also recognised, the latter providing vital assistance to families, such as advice on securing finance and arranging external health assessments, as well as emotional support.

Caroline Ray, general manager at Belong Chester, commented: “We are especially pleased to receive a ‘Good’ CQC rating. We are for people, not profit, and so our ethos is to promote quality of life for our customers by assisting them in any way we can to live as independently as possible. To know we are doing a sound job is testament to the hard work and compassion of our team here.”

In further success, inspectors praised the overall care provision, including Belong’s shared vision, strategy and culture, and its links and collaborations with partners in the wider community.

Inspectors also drew attention to the children’s nursery integrated with the village, operated by charity, Ready Generations. They lauded the ‘innovative approach’ to care for offering a wealth of opportunities for older people to enjoy the benefits of intergenerational relationships, with relatives describing the ethos as ‘amazing’ and the interaction between old and young as ‘a joy to behold’.

Caroline continued: “This is our first inspection since we opened and we are proud of the many positives that it highlights. It also gives us some advice on areas where we can improve to enhance our rating further in the future, and we have already made excellent progress on these aspects. We want to provide the very best service to those we care for and we are excited about continuing this journey in our wonderful village.”

The CQC regulates both the premises and the provision of care services and carries out its inspections through a number of observations, interviews with staff and residents, and reviews of records related to medicine administration, recruitment, quality and safety of the service.