Care home for adults with learning disabilities is one of the best in UK

A care home in Lincolnshire has been awarded its third Outstanding rating in a row.

The Old Hall in Fiskerton has been praised for its “person centred” care, support and culture by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

It is one of 11 homes run by Home From Home Care, a family-owned provider in Lincolnshire which specialises in care for adults with learning disabilities and autism. Founded in 2004, the organisation is seen as a pioneer within the care sector thanks to its culture of innovation, dynamism, empowerment and empathy.

CQC inspectors observed that staff deliver high quality care, with good knowledge of each individual's needs and are well supported by their colleagues, with effective oversight. It was noted that staff worked “in a caring way” and that individuals were “supported to maintain as much independence as possible and live a meaningful life”.

Just 4% of all care homes in the UK have been rated Outstanding by the CQC, meaning that The Old Hall - along with seven other Outstanding Home From Home Care services - rank among the very best in the country.

Managing Director of Home From Home Care, Jo Hurley, said:

“We are delighted that CQC inspectors have recognised that The Old Hall and our exceptional team are truly ‘Outstanding’.

“The report highlighted how our colleagues go ‘above and beyond, bringing out the best for the individual’. We are driven to improve each individual’s life, from their bespoke environment designed around their specific needs to an empathetic support team who want to make every day fulfilling.

“It’s widely known that there is a great deal of pressure on the care sector, from workforce challenges to funding, but we’re breaking the mould and using ingenuity and compassion to deliver exceptional care.”

Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Home From Home Care, Paul de Savary, said:

“My daughter has learning disabilities and my family and I started Home From Home Care because we wanted to transform the way care homes operate. We combine innovation with compassion and dedication to change lives for the better.

“With our unique, high-tech, data-informed model of care that was developed in-house, we’re empowering colleagues to make a far greater impact. We appreciate the time that the CQC inspector took to understand how this positively impacts the service because we’re so unlike other care providers.

“It’s about a shared ethos and passion that drives continuous improvement, making it an everyday expectation as we must never forget that it is both a privilege and a reward to support society’s most vulnerable individuals.” 

The Old Hall is a converted two-storey farmhouse on Chapel Road in Fiskerton near Lincoln. It accommodates adults with a range of learning disabilities, autism, and complex physical and mental health. 

In addition to its overall rating, the care home was also rated “Outstanding” in the categories of ‘responsive’ and ‘well-led’, scoring 93 and 96 out of 100 points respectively. It was also graded “Good” in the categories of ‘safe’, ‘effective’ and ‘caring’. 

The CQC said that Home From Home Care “had robust processes in place to oversee the quality of the service they provided” and that “staff used these processes effectively to support the day to day care people received”, adding “the ethos of the provider was to support people to achieve a high quality of life.”

The CQC said individuals were “supported by a team who treated them with kindness and involved them in their care.” It said that staff “felt positively about the culture at the service”, “spoke passionately about their jobs” and that they “had confidence in managers at the service to deal with any safeguarding concerns reported to them”.

It also said that throughout its visit it saw that “people were supported appropriately by staff” and that it has a “comprehensive training programme in place”. It said that “staff worked to achieve good outcomes for people” and “this included supporting them with health issues or working with people towards different goals… supporting people to make their own decisions where possible and working in the least restrictive way possible.”

Family members of individuals being supported by Home From Home Care were also “extremely positive about how well they had been kept informed about their family members’ needs.” It also added that “there were many very positive comments from people’s relatives about how their family members were supported by staff”.

To find out more about Home from Home Care, visit www.homefromhomecare.com.