Aspinden Care Home

Generally, the Local Authority Social Services pay for placements. However, funds are sometimes available via the NHS either because someone has been under the Mental Health Section or sometimes to enable hospital discharge. As part of social services placements, people referred to us are financially assessed and may have to contribute, but we ask that any contribution is collected by the Local Authority directly.

We cannot accept indivuals currently using illicit drugs such as opiates, crack or cocaine. However, we can take people who are prescribed opioids or Methadone.

We cannot take DoLS (Deprivation of Liberty) where locked doors are required, as we operate an open door service.

We suggest that you contact us directly to discuss any individual issues, and we can assess these on a case-by-case basis.

Yes, provided all documentation and funding are in place, we can offer short notice admissions.

We cannot accept people currently using illicit drugs such as opiates, crack or cocaine. However, we can take individuals who have been prescribed opioids or Methadone. Please feel free to contact us directly as every client is different, and we assess each on a case-by-case basis.

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Yes, we offer short-term placements, open-ended stays, and respite care. We operate a harm minimisation model, where our residents are encouraged to lower their alcohol intake to safe levels, which in many cases allows them to move on to a detox programme and/or go back to living independently.

Yes. Aspinden Care Home offers a high complexity service to manage a wide range of individuals with different support needs.

Yes, but this would depend on the person’s specific needs.  We work with people who have early stages of Korsakoffs (alcohol-related dementia). However, if someone has a Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards (DoLS), requiring them to  stay on the premises, we wouldn’t be able to offer them a placement due to our open-door policy. Please get in contact with our team for an individual assessment.

Once we identify vulnerability, we work with the individual’s Social Worker, who will conduct a Mental Capacity Assessment around finance management, which may result in DoLS  to safeguard the client.

If an individual is relocating to London, the nearest DAAS service would need to pick up the prescription for the new resident prior to their arrival.

Placements are only open to people with recourse to public funds. However, someone with NRPF might be able to access charitable funding. We would need the referrer to source this.

Yes, you can contact our local team to confirm availability over the dates required. Please note you will need to provide evidence of funding.

Personal reviews take place every six weeks alongside any additional updates that may be necessary.

While we don’t provide in-depth psychotherapy at Aspinden, we provide personalised care planning sessions and daily check-ins with staff on a 1-2-1 basis. Staff are always available to support anyone struggling during their stay.

We also train all our staff in the PIE model (Psychologically Informed Environment), where we reflect on what we are doing and how we can be more effective, empowering our residents through a range of tools, including The Alcohol Star^TM.

Roles include Service Managers, Administration, Personal Wellbeing and Health Coordinators, Volunteers, Maintenance and Housekeeping.

We do not allow smoking within the building. Residents are permitted to smoke outside the building in a designated smoking area.

Availability varies throughout the year. Please get in touch to learn about vacancies at this service.

The organisation has a clinical governance board that sits alongside our trustees. Its membership includes representatives from the trustees and the clinical team. The Board aims to review efficacy against the continual changes to best practices and assess and cascade learning from any incidents.

To decide whether we proceed with admissions, we need to capture all the necessary information to have a complete picture of a person’s physical and mental health and risk-related factors.

We ask referrers to provide all the information available to them when completing the referral form and attach any other relevant documents or reports.

We will cover any additional information required during the formal assessment.

We require staff, visitors and professionals to carry out a LFT on site if they have not already done so before visiting Aspinden Care Home and to follow our Infection Prevention and Control processes, which include practising hand hygiene and wearing appropriate PPE if supporting residents with personal care.

Referrals admitted from the community, or another care setting should take a PCR test within the 72 hours before they’re admitted (or a lateral flow test if they have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 90 days) and a lateral flow test on the day of admission (day 0).

Referrals admitted from a hospital, should take a PCR test within 48 hours before discharge, or a lateral flow test if they have tested positive for COVID-19 in the past 90 days.

Admission to care home from the community or another care setting
Residents who test positive for COVID-19 on either test should isolate for 10 days and take part in daily lateral flow testing from day 5. They can end self-isolation after receiving 2 consecutive negative tests 24 hours apart, or after 10 days’ isolation.

Residents who are close contacts of a COVID-19 case do not need to isolate or undertake additional testing. Instead, they should: minimise contact with the person who has COVID-19, avoid contact with anyone who is at higher risk of becoming severely unwell if they are infected with COVID-19, especially those with a severely weakened immune system, and follow the advice regarding testing and isolation if they develop symptoms of COVID-19.

Discharge from hospital into a care home
Care home residents should not be required to self-isolate when discharged back to the care home following an admission into hospital, subject to a negative PCR or lateral flow test. Residents will still need to self-isolate for 10 days if they have been discharged from a part of hospital where there is an active outbreak.

For more information, please visit: Admission and care of residents in a care home during COVID-19 – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

No.

Yes, there is a ban on all Illicit substances and illegal drugs at this service.

Personal IT equipment is allowed, and resident have access to the service’s Wi-Fi network.

Yes.

We can meet cultural needs through our food menu upon request. When there is a language barrier, we can provide an interpreter. We charge translation service costs to the referring agency and ensure this is a known requirement and agreed in advance of admission. We can make prayer time available and online religious sermons.

A local GP visits Aspinden Care home once a week to attend to all health needs and carry out required investigations as per primary care protocols. The nursing staff are available daily.

• Nurse leads on medication ensuring staff competence
• Carryout weekly physical checks
• Running the Clinic with the GP
• Ensuring clients attend hospital appointments
• Following up client hospital admissions

We assess every referral on a case by case basis and we discuss their particular requirements with the individual’s social worker team. In cases where direct access to funds are a trigger for higher alcohol consumption, residents often ask us to lock bank cards away and restrict the access to their funds to a limited amount of money per day.

We administer medication by trained staff under the established professional Code of Conduct. All staff administering medication receive annual medication supervision overseen by the Clinical Lead in  SIG Equinox Care.

We operate a policy in accordance with the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) Standards for the Administration of Medication in line with associated legislation.

An electronic system known as Omnicell eMAR (Electronic Medication Administration Records) manages medication administration using specific barcoding related to the client and  the medication’s original packaging to automate  management. The administration process makes it safe, simple and compliant for everyone involved. The eMAR helps digitally manage, schedule and track the administration of all our client’s medication. The system is linked with our local Pharmacist  to mitigate risks around medication administration errors and potential health issues.

Yes. However, we encourage residents to leave their rooms and socialise with other residents. We organise days out and weekly activities to facilitate the above.

Medication is managed and administered by staff. Residents do not have access to dependency forming medication.

Aspinden recently moved from being a CQC registered Treatment Service to a Care Home with Nursing to reflect better the long-term stays of many of our residents alongside their higher-level needs of care and support. This resulted in us being under “Requires Improvement”.

The CQC requested improvements under Regulations 9, 12 and 17 and we have completed all recommendations in full.

A breakdown of the improvements is as follows:

We welcome your questions on these areas of improvement and are happy to share what we have learned from this feedback and the changes implemented.

We are in regular contact with our inspector and are confident that when we are next inspected we will achieve a Good or Excellent in all areas.