St Andrew’s House Nursing Home, Barnoldswick, win significant Partnership Working award

As part of East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group Excellence Awards held on 28 June, St Andrew’s House Nursing Home in Barnoldswick won the NHS CCG Excellence Award for Constructive Partnership Working.

The nomination, by the Regulated Care Sector Programme Manager, stated: “Credit should be given in recognition of the wonderful work which St. Andrew’s House Nursing Home is doing to drive up standards and provide quality person-centred nursing care. This is an excellent example of how partnership working between provider and commissioning organisations can achieve mutual benefits in strengthening provider viability, and the impact on supporting the wider health and social care system, as well as improving the quality of care for patients.”

Established for 31 years, by Dr. Paul and Mrs. Ann Miller, St. Andrew’s has been a leader in the North West of England in care of disabled residents with significant medical and nursing needs. After a very difficult transitional period in August last year when the CQC declared several areas of the home inadequate, they appointed a new, very experienced manager, in Ms. Meena Patel, who herself was nominated last month for an award for “Transformational Woman of the Year” by Inspire Women. Within seven months, together with the whole staff team, many of whom have worked at St Andrew’s for over 20 years, Dr and Mrs Miller, under the strong leadership of Meena Patel, worked in close partnership with the NHS East Lancashire Clinical Commissioning Group to reshape the service into one which takes the highest standards of health and social care demands into the next decade.

The nomination also stated: “St. Andrew’s House Nursing Home has given absolutely everything to turn around this care home so that it can be proud of the excellent care provided and look forward to a positive future…. the main achievements of this public and regulated care sector partnership working have truly benefitted the residents we serve, residents in need.”

Amongst the innovations of quality care, has been the expansion from their original remit of care for younger disabled residents, to adults of all ages with complex medical and nursing needs, including end of life care. As the only nursing home in the West Craven area, this will clearly be a real benefit to local people as well as those from further afield who have such complex needs. St. Andrew’s House has been part of NHS England, (EHCH) vanguards scheme, working to improve the quality of life, healthcare and health planning for people living in care homes. The types of developments that St Andrews House Nursing Home have actively implemented is the introduction of “the Red Bag Scheme” enabling more seamless interchange of care between hospital and nursing homes, “Discharge to assess” which allows patients to return to the broader community from hospital whilst their future is better planned and the ground-breaking Telemedicine, live, interactive, consultation programme for urgent advice which is run from Airedale General Hospital,

The most recent good news has been the co-working with the University of Central Lancashire Mentorship Educational Programme with the awarding of three placements of our most experienced care staff on the newly established pre-degree course in Associate Nursing, an joint initiative with NHS Lancashire Care NHS Foundation Trust to train new nurses.

St. Andrew’s House Nursing Home, a small, family run home, was a pioneer in the 1980’s in establishing an integrated community service right in the centre of a friendly town where residents could really remain a part of daily life and not become isolated from the rest of society. Barnoldwsick council were inspirational at that time in installing many lowered kerbs, which still allow many of the residents, though having complex problems, to remain an active, visible and integrated part of the town.

Mrs Miller explained working so closely with the East Lancs CCG had initially been a challenge for both sides, but one where strong working friendships, trust and respect, had been quickly established and that it is clearly a wonderful way to move forward to the future in care delivery in the community for the wellbeing and life quality of residents. The involvement of the outstanding staff team has transformed St. Andrew’s House Nursing Home back to its previous prominent place. A place where residents can really live their lives to the best of their individual capabilities. She said:“As a small independent enterprise, we are humbled and very proud, both care staff and the family of residents, to have been recognized by this wonderful public accolade for this strong and beneficial partnership working. The relationship, especially through the Vanguard programme, has been a privilege to be a part of, and we hope to build on, and further develop, the partnership into new, innovative areas of local community care in the future”.