WINDMILL BANKS

Residential Care for Learning Difficulty Adults

Windmill Banks

1

windmill banks October 2005

Windmill banks

Service User Guide

1 – 2 Windmill Banks

Higham Ferrers

Rushden

Northamptonshire NN10 8JF

01933 315321

1

An Overview

w

indmill Banks is a Residential Care Home specialising in the care of people over 18 years with learning difficulty, with low to high support needs, who are in need of assistance with their daily life in a secure and caring environment. Windmill Banks is a “Home from Home” with all the benefits of a homely environment, loving care, support and the security you need to lead a normal life.

Care & Support

Home from Home

Local amenities

Loving care

Security

Windmill Banks is situated in the Market Town of Higham Ferrers, approximately 20 minutes drive from Northampton Town Centre, off A6 near Rushden. Higham Ferrers is a small historic market townwhere many of the old buildings are still preserving their historic characters. The town has a small supermarket – Co-op, a post office, doctors’ surgery, chemist public library and other small shops, restaurants and take-aways.

The home is registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspections for eight residents of mixed sex between the ages of 25 to 65 who come under the category of Learning Difficulty with medium to high degrees of support needs.

Our Statement of Intent

“WINDMILL BANKS RESIDENTIAL CARE HOME SUPPORTS PEOPLE WITH LEARNING DIFFICULTIES BETWEEN18 AND 65 YEARS OF AGE BY PROVIDING A RANGE OF HIGH QUALITY SERVICES AND ACCOMMODATION, PAYING PARTICULAR ATTENTION TO THE NEEDS AND DIFFICULTIES ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR CONDITION”

We aim to achieve these objectives by:

  • Providing accommodation where sensitive and skilful care is available 24 hours a day to alleviate the problems associated with Learning Difficulty and to enable you to live as normally as possible where yourPrivacy and personal Dignity are respected.
  • Taking a positive approach to your individual needs and capabilities and facilitate and encourage you to use your faculties to the bestso that you would be able to maintain yourIndependence as much as possible and enjoy your life in a Secure and pleasant Environment.
  • Maintaining and promoting your Civil and Human Rights, working in partnership with youor/and your representatives. We acknowledge your right to beinvolved in decisions affecting your health and welfare and to withhold your rights of individual Choice in relation to all aspects of your care and stay at Windmill Banks.

“Our philosophy of care is based on a personal commitment and belief that people with learning difficulty have the right to live and be treated as full and valued members of the society”

What we can offer you – (Included in the fees)

  • Fully furnished largeen-suite rooms
  • Passenger lift
  • Use of communal and other residential areas
  • Three well balanced meals per day
  • Daily snacks and refreshments
  • 24 hour care and assistance with personal and physical needs
  • Emergency response system (Nurse-Call system)
  • Daily cleaning of residents rooms
  • All bed linen and towels
  • Laundry service
  • Complete maintenance of the buildings and grounds
  • Maintenance of a complete fire safety system
  • Security doors for the safety of the residents
  • 24 hour CCTV surveillance in the grounds for added protection and safety
  • A range of social activities
  • Arrangements to facilitate Personal Development
  • Arrangements to facilitate Education and Occupation
  • Regular religious services/activities
  • Arrangements for contact with the resident’s own doctor and other

Professionals

  • Day care facilities - in-house and external

What is not included in the fees

  • Dry cleaning of personal clothes
  • Hairdresser’s fees
  • Personal telephone calls – payphone available in foyer
  • Chiropodist’s fees
  • Daily newspapers & magazine
  • Personal toiletries i.e. perfumes, deodorants, talc, etc
  • Halal, Kosher and any other specialist religious meals
  • Transport to hospital visits or any other places
  • Anything else not included in “What we can offer you” list above

Accommodation

Windmill Banks as a former private residence still retains all the characteristics of a warm comfortable home.

Eight large single bedrooms with en-suite facilities, Nurse-call system, TV pointsaccommodate the service users. The rooms are fully furnished with comfortable beds, wall to wall carpets, wardrobe, chest of drawers bedside tables, arm chairs etc. Service users will be given the opportunity, if they so wish, to choose their own furnishings and to decorate the rooms with colours of their choice to make them personalised to their individual taste. There are lifting hoists to assist service users with their mobility.

There is a fully equipped kitchen with a cooker, oven, microwave oven, fridge/freezer and washing machine for the residents use. Other communal space includes a living room with satellite television and comfortable seating for the residents to enjoy and relax.

The newly refurbished bedrooms

A large private garden with a well laid lawn and sensory stimulating aspects such as a large aviary, fish pond, flower plants and shrubs with paved path ways offers the residents peaceful surroundings for relaxation and enjoyment. A specially designed private barbeque area near the aviary offers an excellent surrounding for evenings of summer enjoyment.

The Aviary and part of the sensory oriented gardens

.

Leisure Activities

We will ensure that our service users have access and choose from a range of suitable leisure activities. We will facilitate for the service users to celebrate their birthdays, cultural and religious festivities such as Christmas, New Year etc. where the service users will be fully involved in planning these events. We will also make it possible for our service users to make use of all available local leisure and recreational facilities as appropriate and encourage them to peruse those activities and interests which they have an ability and a talent.

We will arrange a range of regular leisure activities in the home for service users to take part. These would take the form of trips to places of interests, indoor games, hobbies etc. The large garden at the back of the home offers scope for many gardening activities.

Personal Development

We will enable service users to have opportunities to maintain and develop social, emotional, communication and independent living skills. These would take the form of shopping trips to the local supermarkets and shops, encouraging them to have links with friends and relatives, visits to the local library etc. Service users will be given the opportunity to join the cooking, laundering, cleaning and other daily chores in the home if they are capable to do so.

Education and Occupation

Those service users who are capable of doing a job will be given all the assistance in finding and keeping a job or to continue with their education or training or to take part in other valued and fulfilling activities. We will make available a personal computer and internet facilities for those who are able to use one. We will have links with local employers, businesses, educational institutions and other professional and voluntary organisations in the locality in order to seek suitable occupations, education and training for our service users.Some these include:

Community Teams for People with Learning Disabilities, Community Nursing Staff, Occupational Therapy within LD. Physiotherapists, Clinical Psychology for LD, Care Management teams, Social clubs(Phoenix Club, Gateway Club, Mencap Cub), Employment Advisory Service, Life-long Learning, People First and Disabled Peoples Alliance.

Day care

We offer our service users a range of Day Care activities, either in-house or using other available local day care facilities provided by public, private and voluntary sectors The Day care we provide will be tailored to suit individual needs of the service users and will be carried out by experienced and qualified professionals.

Meals

A weekly Menu cycle is operated for breakfast, lunch and supper. At least one of the meals will be a cooked meal. The menu will be compiled on a weekly basis in full consultation with the service users ensuring that a nutritionally balanced diet is provided. The service users will be given the opportunity to join the shopping trips for the weekly food requirement. Special diets such as liquid meals, high protein, low sugar etc. will also be catered for. Service Users are encouraged to eat in the dining areas with their fellow residents but may eat in their own room if this is their choice. As part of the activity programme we would allow those residents who are capable of preparing/cooking their own food to do so under supervision.

Tea, coffee and other hot drinks are available 24 hours a day. Visitors are welcome to join the service users at meal times.

Pets

Whilst we acknowledge the fact that many people have pets for company during their lifetime and that they may wish to bring a pet with them when they move in, the management of the Windmill Bank has a responsibility to all the Service Users with regard to Health and Safety and their choice of pets within the home. The Management will however treat each case dependant on the need and the amount of pets already at the home before any pets are allowed to be brought to the home.

Medicines

If a Service User wishes to administer their own medicines, they will be allowed to do so provided that it is safe to do so. They will be given all help and advice they need on this matter and will be closely monitored on daily basis to ensure that it is being done safely. In all other cases the medicines will be managed by the staff and dispensed and ordered for them under the instructions of the Doctor. Any Service User may request to see a doctor in private if they wish. If any resident would like to have Homely Remedies, these must be discussed first with the Home Manager.

Arrangements to have contact with your own GP and other health professionals

We will take all necessary steps for the residents to have contact with their on GP and other health professionals as necessary.

Telephone

The home has a coin operated payphone situated in the front foyer, which can be used by the Service Users for incoming and outgoing calls. Service Users may have their own private line at their own cost through a telephone provider.

Contact with relatives and friends

We positively encourage our service users to have regular contacts with their friends, relatives and other interested parties. We have an open-book policy on visits by friends and relatives to the home anytime of the day except during the late night when residents are at sleep.

Trial Period

All new service users will be offered a trial period of 4 weeks when they will be given the opportunity to try our home’s services. During the trial period the contractual terms will not apply except for the fees incurred during the trial period.If a person wishes to be discharged from the Home, then 4 weeks notice must be given of this intention, or 4 weeks fees paid in lieu of notice. These conditions are waived during the 4 week trial period.

If a Service User temporarily moves out of the Home (e.g. to receive hospital treatment) the bed is retained for a period of eight weeks, provided 80% of the normal fee is paid. In the case of social work funded Service Users, this retention period would be reviewed by the Home Manager.

Complains

We take all complaints very seriously and positively. We will investigate each one of them thoroughly to the satisfaction of all concerned. If you feel that there is any cause for concern on any matter connected with your care and wellbeing at Windmill Banks, we gladly encourage you to tell us about it so that we can put things right for you.

If you have any complaints you should first discuss the matter with the person in charge. If the matter, in your opinion, is a serious one, or if you remain dissatisfied, you can record the complaint in the Complaints Register, which is available from Reception or from the person in charge. A full investigation will be made into the complaint, and you will be advised of the outcome within 28 days after the date the complaint is made.

If after this investigation, you are still not satisfied, or if you feel that the complaint is of a serious nature and you wish to speak to a registration officer first, then you should contact the Commission for Social Care Inspections: Northamptonshire Area Office, 1st Floor, Newland House, Campbell Square, Northampton, NN1 3EB, Tel: 01604 887620

A copy of the complaint procedure is on display and can be made available on request.

Comments

We regard all comments in a positive manner. We welcome your comments, good or bad, about anything at Windmill Banks so that we would be able to improve our service to you. We have a customer satisfaction Questionnaire for you to fill where you can express your concerns and make comments. Please ask for a questionnaire from the management if you wish to make any comments.

Bereavement

In the unfortunate event of bereavement, the family can expect every possible support and consolation from staff.Whereas funeral arrangements are usually made by the next of kin, the Home Staff can be relied upon to assist and explain what is required. Where there is no next of kin, the staff will attend to the necessary arrangements

Registered Providers

CONTACT DETAILS:The names and addresses of the registered providers and registered manager are:

Mr. Claude Fonseka & Mrs Viola Fonseka

MedowHeights

29 Woodgreen Road, Upshire, Essex EN9 3SD

Telephone 01992 711187 / Mobile 07802 167578

Email –

Claude Fonseka takes a personal interest in the day-to-day management of Windmill Banks and gives highest priority in providing the best care and services at the home. Mr Fonseka has a clear vision on providing the specialist care needed by the people with Learning Disabilities.

Mr Fonseka has been a Registered Nurse for people with Learning Difficulty for approximately 7 years (during the period 1974 to 1982) working for Surrey Area Health Authority where he trained and qualified in this field. During his employment he gained valuable experience in caring and providing for the needs of people with learning difficulties.

Mr Fonseka is also qualified in Personnel Management and Staff Training with the emphasis on Catering Management, Health & Safety and Food Hygiene. Mr Fonseka has also worked as a Catering Manager for Compass Services responsible for catering and domestic services for a variety of establishments, including St Mary’s Hospital Paddington, London, and two care homes for elderly in Hampstead and Streatham.

Mrs Viola Fonseka, who has had extensive experience in business administration specially in care home environment is providing administrative support for the home as well as assisting in the general management of Windmill Banks. Mrs Fonseka has completed a several in-house courses in relation to the care of vulnerable adults.

Who will be looking after you?

You will be looked after and cared for by a team of highly skilled and qualified staff 24 hours a day. The home's total staff establishment is 16, all of whom have duties involving direct care for service users. The staff team is headed by anexperienced and skilful manager who is responsible for all aspects of care and the homes management.

Registered Manager - TBA

How much would you pay and how?

We are committed to providing value for money within our comprehensive and caring service. As we cater for individual requirements our fees depend on the type of care package and the range of needs of each individual Service User. Prior to you taking up residence at Windmill Banks we will make a thorough assessment of your needs in consultation with you and other professionals involved in your wellbeing and decide the fees you pay.

Depending on your personal financial situation, you can either pay the fees privately or have funds arranged by social services for your fees. The current rules relating to local authority funding can be complicated and specific advice is available from the Home Management.

Contract of Residence

THIS AGREEMENT Is between Claude Fonseka & Viola Fonseka T/A Windmill Banks – The Registered providers

And “THE SERVICE USER”: ……………………………………………………………

Residence and payment of Care Fees:

1.Upon payment of the weekly charge as hereinafter defined in paragraph 2,

Windmill Banks undertake to provide accommodation, food, light, heat, laundry and all the necessary personal care in accordance with the initial and on-going assessment of the needs of the Service User.