Confident of the quality of its catering and housekeeping services, Avery Healthcare Group’s Derby Heights Care Home took the unprecedented step of opening itself up to unannounced scrutiny from an industry-recognised assessment body. For the care home, based at Littleover near Derby, this bold step paid off. Derby Heights achieved the highest accolade: a pair of Gold Awards from the Continuous Advancement Programme (CAP).

The Continuous Advancement Programme (CAP) is a nationally-recognised honour. Members of the programme share a passion for raising the standards of housekeeping and catering in healthcare organisations throughout the UK and Ireland. The prestigious CAP Gold award can only be attained by establishments that commit to an unannounced visit from the CAP inspection team.

This was Derby Heights’s first engagement with the CAP Awards. In contrast to many organisations in the healthcare sector, Derby Heights elected to join the CAP programme for its housekeeping and catering services – simultaneously opening both departments up to rigorous scrutiny.

The CAP inspector noted the high quality of furnishing and the excellent facilities for residents, including a cinema, private dining salon, gardens, vegetable patch, and even chickens. He was particularly impressed with the interaction of care home staff during the protracted assessment process and the interest shown, commenting: “I quickly became aware of a focus and enthusiasm for delivering services that add real value to resident care from the entire staff, right from the Home Manager through to the housekeeping and catering teams. The attitude was exemplary.”

Having inspected the levels of cleanliness across the home in fine detail, assessed the quality of catering provision and received “very good positive feedback on both services from residents,” the CAP inspector had no hesitation in awarding the establishment the top CAP accolade of Gold Awards for both housekeeping and catering services. “It is unusual for a new CAP Programme participant in the healthcare sector to be awarded CAP Gold for both services at the very first inspection,” says the Senior CAP Assessor. “However, the pride in their services shown by the teams at Derby Heights cannot be ignored. It is a fine example of how care should be delivered and a care home managed.” CAP Assessors rarely comment publicly on individual details uncovered during the inspection process: “However, an honourable mention must go to the muffin with ham, poached eggs and cheese sauce I sampled from the supper menu. It was lovely,” reports the senior CAP inspector

Lance Bosmans, Home Manager at Derby Heights, is delighted with the twin CAP Gold awards. “We knew that our housekeeping and catering teams were special. It’s fantastic to have this confirmed by an independent external authority, and all the more rewarding for the teams to have proved exemplary in an unannounced inspection visit. That endorses that our service provisions are consistently this good,” he concludes.