Thornton Gardens Care Home

Thornton Gardens closed down on 27^th March due to the Pandemic. Through discussion with my line manager and projecting potential emergency situations I was asked to discuss the possibility of using the building at Thornton Gardens for emergency situations such as hospital discharges and Adult protection issues for all older adults.

The current service at Thornton is short breaks for service users with Learning Disabilities and respite for their families. It caters for up to 4 admissions with an additional emergency bed. The building is a large building and has capacity up to 14 beds. I liaised with the Care Inspector for the service.  They agreed these were exceptional circumstances and I was asked to submit a Care Inspectorate variation form requesting an additional registration to use the building for emergency situations.

Through a number of discussions with various Care Inspectors the registration was approved. When the service re-opened in June it was under its new registration and although no longer involved in the service, I know that the increased capacity has enabled more service users and their families to be supported through these challenging times.

Recently my management colleague has secured a further extension to this part of the registration. Personally I felt good about having done this piece of work, felt supported by my line manager in doing this and the Partnership. It was projecting ahead and acting on this to provide additional support to the most vulnerable service users in our community.