Welcome to Frome Care Village

We want to start by clearly saying “it is more than OK to come and say a social hello to people living in our home and to have a tea or coffee together”

Frome Care Village supports up to 60 individuals at any one time and currently employs 80 individuals. Our family members (service users) are currently funded by 6 different funders and come to us from all over the country.

Each family member that lives in our community should reasonably expect to receive at least one annual care review from a health and/or social care professional and any new family member in our community would reasonably expect to receive an additional interim review.

In the past 12 months we have had 17 new family members in our community and so this would this means in the past 12 months Frome Care Village would have expected to host 77 care reviews.

In addition to scheduled reviews all of the family members of our community have Deprivation of Liberty requests in process and at present 14 cases per year are being completed. Each of these cases requires the visit of a professional to complete a capacity assessment and a second visit from a best interest assessor. This represents a further 28 professionals visits per year.

In addition to this in the past 12 months we have had 42 family members require a FNC/CHC assessment of review meeting.

So the experience of Frome Care Village is currently 147 scheduled assessment and review meetings every year, which on an average level alone is 3 per week. This does not include, responsive reviews, PCN visits, GP patient rounds, OPMH reviews and visits and any other ADHOC visits.

This is a very significant level of time for a complex nursing home to allocate to its clinical leaders to. As such we see it as entirely reasonable to have a booking system for such a large volume of visits.

We also believe that it is entirely reasonable for a Health and Social Care professional to expect from the home that for every scheduled assessment and review;

  • That the care plans for the individual have been additionally reviewed and are accurate for the professional.
  • The daily notes are prepared, along with associated records as a PDF ahead of the visit and review.
  • That it is reasonable to Family Member to have the chance to arrange representation or support for the assessment or review.
  • That it is reasonable for the Family Member to not have to move or cancel any existing plans or activities they have arranged, nor should anyone they are inviting to attend with them or on their behalf.
  • That an appropriate member of the team is available to the visiting professional in order to facilitate and assist the visit to ensure effective communication with the individual and to answer any questions the professional has.

Based on this we believe it is reasonable to allocate 90 minutes to the physical visit and a further 90 minutes to the preparation for the visit. This means scheduled reviews and assessments for Frome currently require 441 hours a year which is 8.5 hours a week every week.

Given the foreseeable negative impact on the both the running of the home, and the outcomes for the 60 people living the most complex journeys within the county that it would be unreasonable to not have a booking system would be knowingly irresponsible and potentially abusive.

This ensures that the 6 different funders have their requirements to review fulfilled whilst ensure the home is able to give their time to these reviews whilst balancing our legal requirements with the Care Quality Commission in fulfilling the Regulated Activity.

This also ensures a reasonable and balanced approach to meeting our contractual requirements with the various commissioning agencies whilst maintaining the well being and clinical oversight of all the complex family members they commission us to care for.

It is our reasonable expectation as a provider that every Health and Social Care professional involved in assessments, reviews or social contact with our family members;

  • Has the right to see/speak to the professional privately should they wish (so long as there are no reasons to be concerned)
  • That if the professional is aware of a matter that is likely to cause anxiety or distress that they make the Assessments and Contracts team aware of this at the point of booking request so the home can make a reasonable consideration about what risk mitigation measures may be required prior to and following the meeting.
  • That the professional provides a summary of the conversation held with the family member to the clinical team before leaving the home so that the running record can be updated.
  • Feeds back to the clinical team before leaving any concerns around any harm or abuse they have concerns over in line with Chapter 14 guidance so the home can ensure they take immediate action to maintain safety.

We hope that our Health and Social Care partners will agree to jointly work in a collaborative manner for the benefit of those who require our collective care and support.