Belong at Home Wigan ‘Outstanding’ says Care Regulator

Belong at Home Wigan ‘Outstanding’ says Care Regulator

Belong at Home, Wigan has been awarded an Outstanding rating by the industry regulator, with the dementia specialist's carers spotlighted as a key strength of the service supporting the town’s older community.

The new Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating promotes the service to a small group of around just 4% of adult social care services nationally to hold an Outstanding classification from England’s independent regulator of health and social care.

Compassionate carers support older people to live as independently as possible in their homes, as well as apartment tenants residing at Belong Wigan village, where the service operates from. Rigorously trained, its team assists with one-to-one personal care, housekeeping, food preparation, as well as running errands, helping with excursions and offering companionship.

Its customers also have the option to make use of the Millers Lane village’s amenities, including bistro, gym, salon, and entertainment venue, as well as be part of its community, make friends, join in events, or use its Experience Days day care service.

CQC inspectors praised the service’s people, highlighting their ‘genuine compassion, kindness and respect’ for customers in their care, paired with an approach that takes time to understand individual needs, preferences and life histories. As a result, relationships are described as being built on trust and therefore enable people to feel ‘valued, listened to, and safe’. Attention was also drawn to staff’s consistency and reliability, as well as the service’s leadership.

Sophie Walls, area manager at Belong at Home Wigan & Southport, said: “We are exceptionally pleased to achieve an Outstanding CQC rating – we have a culture of continuous improvement to achieve a goal of providing the best care for our customers, and so have been working hard to build on our past success. To be awarded the top rating is something we’re truly honoured to achieve.”

The CQC verdict marks an impressive upgrade on its last review, having been previously judged as ‘Good’ in 2018.

Since then, the service has continued to go from strength to strength. In 2023, the team picked up The Above & Beyond Community Team accolade at the Stars of Social Care Awards for exceeding the duties of their job. More recently, it retained its coveted spot in the North West top 20 home care services, based solely on independent reviews on homecare.co.uk.

Andrew Shield, head of operations for Belong at Home, added: “Congratulations go to our Wigan & Southport team. Our customers tell us how much they appreciate the hard work and dedication of our colleagues, and to have it rightfully recognised by regulators is a fantastic achievement.”