AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

At Pear Tree Grove we understand how important it is to provide a friendly, supportive and caring atmosphere to live in if our service users are going to feel happy and secure. We provide a residential home, with personal care, for people with Learning Difficulties.
Pear Tree Grove is a small home which can take up to ten residents at any one time, caring for adults under 65 years and caring for adults over 65 years with learning disabilities. The staff team aim to provide a homely atmosphere where service users can feel happy and secure.
Our service users will be valued as individuals and encouraged to share in the routines and to take responsibility for making their own choices. Service users will be able to make new friends and there will always be people to share their happy times and to help them through difficult ones. Service users will also be given the opportunity to be involved in new experiences and so gain confidence and abilities.

ADMISSION AND ADMISSION CRITERIA

Initial contact with Pear Tree Grove would be by telephone, email or a letter from the service user's carer, social worker or another key person. The management would carry out an assessment on the service user by visiting them. A visit would then be arranged for that person to come and initially look around the home. At this visit the service user would be able to ask anything they wished to know and would also have the opportunity of meeting the other residents who live there. After this visit it would be decided if they would like a permanent place, if one is available. If so a month's trial will be offered giving the person more time to be sure that we are right for them and giving us time to assess their needs and progress.
There will be a further three months settling in period after which a review will be made with the service user and the key people involved as well as the other residents in the home.

RESIDENT'S RIGHTS

We place the rights of residents at the forefront of our philosophy of care. We seek to advance these rights in all aspects of the environment and the services we provide and to encourage our residents to exercise their rights to the full.

PRIVACY

We recognise that life in a communal setting and the need to accept help with personal tasks that are inherently invasive of a resident's ability to enjoy the pleasure of being alone and undisturbed. We therefore strive to retain as much privacy as possible for our service user's in the following ways:

• Giving help in intimate situations as discreetly as possible.
• Helping residents to furnish and equip their rooms in their own style and to use them as much as they wish.
• Guaranteeing resident's privacy when using the telephone, opening and reading post and communicating with friends, relatives or advisors.
• Ensuring the confidentiality of information the home holds about residents.

DIGNITY

Disabilities quickly undermine dignity, so we try to preserve respect for our service user's intrinsic value in the following ways:

• Treating each resident as a special and valued individual.
• Helping residents to present themselves to others as they would wish through their own clothing, their personal appearance and their behaviour in public.
• Offering a range of activities which enables each resident to express themselves as a unique individual.
• Tackling the stigma from which our residents may suffer through disability or status.
• Compensating for the effects of disabilities which residents may experience on their communication, physical functioning, mobility or appearance.

INDEPENDENCE

We are aware that our service users have given up a good deal of their independence in entering a group living situation. We regard it as all the more important to foster our service users' opportunities to think and act without reference to another person in the following ways:

• Providing as tactfully as possible human or technical assistance when it is needed.
• Maximising the abilities of our residents for self-care, for independent interaction with
  others, and for carrying out the tasks of daily living unaided.
• Helping residents take reasonable and fully thought-out risks.
• Promoting possibilities for residents to establish and retain contacts beyond the home.
• Using any form of restraint on residents only in situations of urgency when it is essential for their own safety or the safety of others.
• Encouraging residents to have access to and contribute to the records of their own care.

SECURITY

We aim to provide an environment and structure of support which responds to the need for security in the following ways:

• Offering assistance with tasks and in situations that would otherwise be perilous for residents.
• Protecting residents from all forms of abuse and from all possible abusers.
• Providing readily accessible channels for dealing with complaints by residents.
• Creating an atmosphere in the home which residents experience as open, positive and inclusive.

CIVIL RIGHTS

Having disabilities and residing in a home can all act to deprive our service users of their rights as citizens. We therefore work to maintain our service users' place in society as fully participating and benefiting citizens in the following ways:

• Ensuring residents have the opportunity to vote in elections.
• Preserving for residents full and equal access to all elements of the National Health Service.
• Helping residents to claim all appropriate welfare benefits and associated services.
• Assisting residents' access to public services such as libraries, further education and lifelong learning.
• Facilitating residents in contributing to society through volunteering, helping each other and taking on roles involving responsibility within and beyond the home.

CHOICE

We aim to help service users exercise the opportunity to select from a range of options in a all aspects of their lives in the following ways:

• Providing meals which enable residents as far as possible to decide for themselves where, when and with whom they consume food and drink of their choice.
• Offering residents assistance to find leisure activities from which to choose.
• Enabling residents to manage their own time and not be dictated to by set communal timetables.
• Avoiding wherever possible treating residents as a homogeneous group.
• Retaining maximum flexibility in the routines of the daily life of the home.

FULFILMENT

We want to help our service users to realise personal aspirations and abilities in all aspects of their lives. We seek to assist this in the following ways:

• Informing ourselves as fully as possible about each resident's wishes about their
  individual histories and characteristics.
• Helping each individual to find a range of leisure and recreational activities to suit their
  tastes and abilities and to stimulate participation.
• Responding appropriately to the personal, intellectual and spiritual values and practices of every resident.
• Respecting our residents' religious, ethnic and cultural diversity.
• Helping our residents to maintain existing contacts and to make new liaisons, friendships and personal relationships if they wish.
• Attempting always to listen and attend promptly to any resident's desire to communicate at whatever level.

QUALITY CARE

We wish to provide the highest quality of care and to do this we give priority to a number of areas relating to the operation of the home and the services we provide.

CHOICE OF HOME

We recognise that every prospective resident should have the opportunity to choose a home which suits their needs and abilities. To facilitate that choice and to ensure that our residents know precisely what services we offer, we will do the following:

• Provide detailed information on the home by publishing a statement of purpose and detailed service user guide.
• Give each resident a contract or a statement of terms and conditions specifying the details of the relationship.
• Ensure that every prospective resident has their needs expertly assessed before a decision on admission is taken.

PERSONAL AND HEALTH CARE

We draw on expert professional guidelines for the services the home provides. In pursuit of the best possible care we will do the following:

• Produce with each resident, regularly updated and thoroughly implemented, a service user's care plan, and risk assessment, based on an initial and then continuing assessment.
• Seek to meet or arrange for appropriate professionals to meet the health care needs of each resident.
• Establish and carry out careful procedures for the administration of residents' medicines.
• Take steps to safeguard residents' privacy and dignity in all aspects of the delivery of health and personal care.
• Treat with special care residents who are dying and sensitively assist them and their relatives at the time of death.

LIFESTYLE

It is clear that service users may need care and help in a range of aspects of their lives. To respond to the variety of needs and wishes of service users, we will do the following:

• Aim to provide a lifestyle for residents which satisfies their social, cultural, religious and recreational interests and needs.
• Help residents to exercise choice and control over their lives.
• Provide meals which constitute a wholesome, appealing and balanced diet in pleasing surroundings.

LOCATION AND PHYSICAL LAYOUT OF THE HOME

Pear Tree Grove is four miles from the centre of Leicester, enjoys having a complete range of facilities nearby and all medical facilities can be found in the village.
There is a bus stop near to the home and a regular bus service that will provide transport to Leicester. A shop where smaller items, newspapers, sweets, etc can be bought is just around the corner from the home. The home is built on two levels: downstairs there are two single bedrooms, two lounges, dining room, kitchen, laundry room and store room, office, staff room and toilet. Upstairs there are eight single bedrooms, one bathroom and one shower room.

CONCERNS, COMPLAINTS AND PROTECTION

Despite everything that we do to provide a secure environment, we know that residents may become dissatisfied from time to time and may even suffer abuse inside or outside the home.

To tackle such problems we will do the following:

• Provide and when necessary, operate simple, clear and accessible complaints procedure.
• Take all necessary action to protect residents' legal rights.
• Make all possible efforts to protect residents from every sort of abuse and from the various possible abusers.
• Complaints or concerns can also be made direct to: Care Quality Commission (See front page for address and telephone number).
• Safeguarding issues can be made to: staff/ management at Pear Tree Grove; Care Quality Commission; or to the Leicestershire County Council on telephone 0116 3057130 (Leicestershire Rutland Safeguarding Adults Board).

TERMINATION OF CONTRACT

We hope to provide a home for life but under certain conditions you may have to leave. These are as follows:

1. Illness that requires twenty four hour nursing.
2. Unacceptable behaviour such as fighting, excessive drunkenness or any other anti-social behaviour that distresses other residents.
3. If a decision is made that your needs can no longer be met at Pear Tree Grove.
4. Non-payment of fees.
5. You as a resident no longer feel Pear Tree Grove can provide that care you require.

FEES AND PAYMENTS

1. The fees at Pear Tree Grove will be agreed prior to admittance with your payment
   provider and will be subject to a yearly review unless your needs are identified as having
   changed and further funding is needed to accommodate those changes.
2. Fees cover accommodation, food and laundry. Fees do not cover day charges, outings, holidays, clothing or personal toiletries.
3. If it becomes necessary for your placement to end then six weeks notice will be required by yourself or given to you by Pear Tree, unless immediate vacation is required due to health and safety issues.

THE ENVIRONMENT

The physical environment of the home is designed for residents' convenience and comfort. In particular we will do the following:

• Maintain the building and grounds in a safe condition.
• Make detailed arrangements for the communal areas of the home to be safe and comfortable.
• Supply toilet, washing and bathing facilities suitable for the residents for whom we care.
• Arrange for specialist equipment to be available to maximise residents' independence.
• Provide individual accommodation which at least meets the National Minimum Standards.
• See that residents have safe, comfortable bedrooms, with their possessions around them.
• Ensure that the premises are kept clean, hygienic and free from unpleasant odours, with systems in place to control the spread of infection.

STAFFING

We are aware that the home's staff will always play a very important role in the residents' welfare. To maximise this contribution, we will do the following:

• Employ staff in sufficient numbers and the with the relevant mix of skills to meet residents' needs.
• Provide at all times an appropriate number of staff for the client group.
• Observe recruitment policies and practices which both respect equal opportunities and protect resident's safety and welfare.
• Provide our staff with a range of training which is relevant to their induction,
  foundation experience and further development into QCF Levels in Care (previously NVQ).

MANAGEMENT AND ADMINISTRATION

We know that the leadership of the home is critical to all its operation. To provide this we will do the following:

• The responsible person/proprietor and registered manager is Akash Pancholi. Akash has a background in management and business. Within the care field he has an NVQ 2, 3 in Health and Social Care and a Level 5 Leadership and Management Award in care.
• The registered address of Pear Tree Grove Limited is:
  94 New Walk, Leicester, England, LE1 7EA
  The address of the residential home is:
  Pear Tree Grove, 97 Fosse Way, Leicester, LE7 1NH.
  Telephone number 0116 2698686, Email: peartreegrove@btconnect.com
• Always engage as registered manager a person who is qualified, competent and experienced for the task.
• Aim for a management approach which creates an open, positive and inclusive
  atmosphere.
• Install and operate effective quality assurance and quality monitoring systems.
• Work to accounting and financial procedures that safeguard residents' interests.
• Offer residents appropriate assistance in the management of their personal finances.
• Supervise all staff and voluntary workers regularly and carefully.
• Keep up to date and accurate records on all aspects of the home and its residents.
• Ensure that the health, safety and welfare of residents and staff are promoted and protected.
• The service provider has a legal status to provide residential care according to the guidance under "Essential standards of quality and safety" as issued by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

THE UNDER-PINNING ELEMENTS

A series of themes both cut across and underpin the aims we have relating to the rights of residents and quality care.

FOCUS ON SERVICE USERS

We want everything we do in the home to be driven by the needs, abilities and aspirations of our residents, not by what staff, management or any other group would desire. We recognise how easily this focus can slip and we will remain vigilant to ensure that the facilities, resources, policies, activities and services of the home remain resident-led.

FITNESS FOR PURPOSE

We are committed to achieving our stated aims and objectives and we welcome the scrutiny of our service users and their representatives.

COMPREHENSIVENESS

We aim to provide a total range of care, in collaboration with all appropriate agencies, to meet the overall personal and health care needs and preferences of our residents.

MEETING ASSESSED NEEDS

The care we provide is based on the thorough assessment of needs and the systematic and continuous planning of care for each resident.

QUALITY SERVICES

We provide staff and management personnel, to provide the highest quality of care, through ongoing training in mandatory and complementary disciplines of care.

REVIEW OF THIS DOCUMENT

We keep this document under regular review and would welcome comments from service users and others.