Open Attitude to Complaints

Policy & Procedure

Corner Lodge operates an open-door policy. Residents or their relatives are encouraged to bring complaints on any subject to the attention of the manager (or proprietor if manager is unavailable), without fear of discrimination, or disapproval. The manager will ensure that all complaints are dealt with promptly and fully investigated.

An Acknowledgement of the complaint will be made within 7 working days, and a full response following investigation will be made within 28 days. However, a full resolution of the problem may occasionally take longer.

If the resident or their representatives are not satisfied with the outcome, you may take the complaint up with the Care Quality Commission whose address is as follows:

Care Quality Commission, CQC Eastern, Citygate, Gallowgate, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE1 4PA

Tel: 03000616161 Fax, 03000 616171

Email: enquiries.eastern@cqc.org.uk

The home takes any safeguarding issue seriously. Training is provided to all care staff on this matter and our policy is displayed on the notice board.

PLEASE NOTE THAT THE COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE, THE SAFEGUARDING

POLICY and THE SERVICE USERS GUIDE ARE AVAILABLE IN LARGE PRINT.

Review of this document

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

In-House Facilities

Laundry: Corner Lodge provides bed linen, towels & flannels to all rooms. Personal clothing for laundering is collected in the morning by your carer, and laundered clothes are returned to your room.

Garden: Corner Lodge has a main garden area, garden furniture, flower patches, and an undercover seating area for our residents and their visitors to enjoy.

Parties: Should you wish to have a private function or party with family or friends, we can offer you the use of our middle floor lounge. We can offer catering to you – sandwiches / cakes / tea / coffee, or a hot buffet by arrangement. Please see a member of the Management staff to discuss arrangements and prices.

The In-House Shop: The home keeps a supply of toiletries for the residents’ convenience. If you should require anything in between times, please speak to the Senior on duty or an Office Manager. Items from the shop are invoiced monthly for a modest price.

The items available from the in-house shop are as follows:

• Deodorant – Men’s & Women’s

• Shower Gel

• Liquid Soap / Body Wash

• Talc

• Steradent

• Disposable Razors

• Tissues

• Bar Soap

• Baby Lotion

• Shaving Gel / Foam

• Toothpaste

• Toothbrushes

• Shampoo

• Hairspray

Recommended Toiletries

All residents are required to have their own toiletries for their personal use and for the carers to assist in maintaining the residents’ hygiene and comfort.

The following guide is the Corner Lodge list of recommended toiletries:

• Liquid soap / Body Wash

• Talc

• Deodorant

• Shower Gel / Bath Foam

• Moisturising Cream or Lotion

• Steradent (if required)

• Toothbrush & Toothpaste

• Hair Removal Cream

• Electric Razors

• Hairbrush / Comb

• Nail Care Kit

Visiting Services

Hairdressing: we have a hairdresser who visits the home on Thursdays. A list of prices is available on request.

Chiropody: a Chiropodist visits the home every four (4) weeks. The cost for this service is £20.00.

Please see a member of staff to arrange an appointment for one of these services. Charges for hairdressing, chiropody and items from the in-house shop will be invoiced monthly.

Optometry and Dentistry

Optometry: Outside Optometrists visit the home on a regular basis. This service provides eye exams and furnishes new lenses and frames. Price for this service depends on frames chosen. If you would prefer using your own Optometrist, please let us know and we will assist you in making and keeping appointments.

Dentistry: We assist residents in making and keeping dental appointments.

Those residents who are entitled to NHS funding will need to provide information regarding any benefits they receive to these companies directly.

Visiting Times

Corner Lodge has open visiting. This is the resident’s home and visitors are always welcome.

As a courtesy to the residents, if mealtimes could be avoided that would be appreciated. However, visitors are always welcome to enjoy a meal with their family member or friend.

Early morning cup of tea is available from 6:30 AM – 7AM.

From 7AM – 9 PM, Corner Lodge is staff by a Senior Carer, Second Senior Carer, and 5 Care Assistants.

Breakfast is served from 7 AM – 9 AM, and offers a variety of choices to suit all needs and tastes.

Tea & Coffee trolley will be available from 10:30 AM, for tea, milky coffee and biscuits.

Morning activity, please see the monthly newsletter for what’s on or the activity boards.

Lunch is served from 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM, and two main choices are offered each day.

Tea & Coffee trolley will be available from 2:30 PM, for tea, coffee, biscuits, cold drinks & in the summer months, ice lollies.

Afternoon activities begin at 2 PM. Please see the monthly newsletter for what’s on or see the activities board.

Tea is served from 5 PM – 6 PM, and offers a hot option each day, and also a variety of sandwiches along with fruit, yoghurt & cake.

Visitors are welcome to a drink from the tea trolley. Other times, you are free to use the tea & coffee facilities available in Dining Room.

We also serve a supper trolley in the evenings, offering sandwiches & cheese with crackers and a choice of hot drinks, Horlicks, Ovaltine, Tea & Coffee.

During the night we have a Senior Carer on duty plus three (3) Care Assistants.

Complaints Policy

At Corner Lodge we take concerns and complaints seriously. We like to be told when you are not happy with our service it helps us to improve what we do. We hope that you will feel comfortable raising your concerns with any member of staff. We find that the quicker an issue is raised with us the quicker we can deal with it. The person who has overall responsibility for monitoring complaints is:

Mr Sanjay Jagota

Email: cornerlodgecare@aol.com

Telephone: 01255 220228

You can contact Mr Jagota (or the CQC listed at the end of this document) at any time.

We will give you as much assistance as possible to help you raise your concerns you can also contact an independent advocate contact details are at the end of this document.

In most cases, complaints are investigated by the Home Manager Complaints will always be investigated by someone who has sufficient authority in respect of the issue raised.

Procedure for making complaints

Complaints under this procedure can be made by anybody who lives at the home. Where people living at the home have given their consent, or where they lack the capacity to give consent (within the meaning of the mental capacity act 2005) and a representative is acting in the person’s best interest, a representative may make a complaint on behalf of a person living at the home.

We encourage you to bring matters to our attention as soon as possible as this makes it easier to fully investigate what has happened. We can however accept complaints up to 12 months after an incident. Where someone has a good reason for making a complaint after 12 months and it is still possible to investigate the complaint fairly and effectively, we will carry out an investigation.

You may make a complaint in whatever way you feel most comfortable, this could be verbally, in writing, by telephone or email. We will talk to you to ensure that we understand the points you are raising to ensure that we investigate the complaint thoroughly. and try and reach an acceptable outcome.

We will also investigate anonymous complaints. We keep records of all complaints and the action we take for inspection by the Care Quality Commission or the Local Authority.

We will acknowledge your complaint in writing within 3 working days of receiving it and advise you of what, how and who will investigate. We will include a copy of the complaint where it has been made verbally to us.

If a complaint is about a safeguarding issue (an allegation of abuse) we are required to refer it to the local authority, and they will decide who should investigate the matter. In these instances, we will let you know that we have made the referral and we will contact you again once a decision has been made about how it will be investigated and who will investigate it.

We will keep a record of your complaint, either a copy of a written complaint or notes made from a conversation with you. We will also keep a record of the investigation we undertake and any action we take as a consequence of that investigation.

We will aim to complete our investigations and get back to you (in writing) within 28 days of the receipt of the complaint. If this is not possible, we will write to you and explain why, and tell you when we expect the investigation to be completed. We would not expect the investigation of any complaint to exceed 6 months.