Enter and View Report: Simonsfield Care Home

In July 2024 we visited Simonsfield Care Home, owned by Qualia Care. It consists of a 3-storey purpose-built building with 36 bedrooms and is in the Anfield area of Liverpool. It provides residential care mainly but not limited to those for aged 65 and older. At the time of our visit there were 35 residents living at the home aged from early 60s to 98 years of age. The manager told us they often have waiting lists and requests to provide respite care but usually did not have space to facilitate that.

The home does not charge top-up fees.

Summary

The small number of residents we spoke to had majority positive comments about the staff, the care and the home in general. There were lots of positive comments about the food, although some residents would prefer more choice. We had been told this was a topic regularly discussed at residents’ meetings and shown the notes of this by management. There is also acknowledgement of this on the homes ‘you said we did’ boards.

The lounge areas had a homely feel, and the dining area looked like it could be in a B&B. The glimpses of residents’ bedrooms we had showed clean and homely rooms. Overall, the residents we saw seemed content, and the home appeared clean and well looked after.

We did question the relatively low number of bathrooms for the number of residents given that there are no ensuite facilities. There were no complaints from residents regarding this and management and staff did not report any difficulties in managing the situation. The Care Quality Commission states that there should be ‘sufficient bathrooms for the number of people using the service’ and staff seem to be managing the situation well.

Recommendations 

We make the following recommendations for Simonsfield care home:

• Focus on providing more accessible information for residents. We would suggest looking at providing easy-read menus and providing more easy-read signage and displays around the home.

Response from Simonsfield

We shared our recommendations to the manager at Simonsfield who responded promptly. They advised they would make a start on the recommendations in the report.

Positives and good practice

We found during our visit examples of positives and good practice which included but were not limited to:

• Activities seem a real strength at Simonsfield with multiple residents praising the work done by staff. Having activities coordinators with multiple years of experience working in the same home undoubtedly helps in building relationships and expertise. Activities can be seen on their Facebook page including most recently chair basketball, manicures, baking and darts.
• The quality and quantity of food was praised by many residents. The dining room was a very pleasing environment also and seemed a nice place to have lunch. The staff response to feedback regarding choice also seems very open and demonstrates a willingness to listen to residents and family.