Experiences of Care Homes During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Due to the pandemic and guidance around social distancing, we have been unable to conduct our regular statutory Enter and View activity since March 2020, which serves to provide much of our intelligence around care homes and is a valuable resource both for commissioners and members of the public. Being unable to visit care homes and experience them first-hand during this period means that our ability to gain the views and experiences of those who use these services has been reduced. In response to this, we co-designed two questionnaires with input from care home staff, commissioners, and relatives of people living in care homes.

The first of these questionnaires was aimed at people who live in care homes, and the second aimed at friends and relatives of people living in care homes, in order to listen to what people think of the care they have received during the pandemic. In designing these questionnaires we received input from relatives of care home residents and family members, NHS Cheshire CCG and Local Authority commissioners and Care Home managers.

This is an approach that allowed us to hear what people have to say in a non-intrusive manner without having to physically visit care homes, therefore protecting residents during the pandemic. In November 2020, with the appropriate PPE, we hand-delivered over 6,000 paper copies of surveys to 138 care homes across Cheshire, and completed versions were collected by Healthwatch Cheshire staff. These included links to online versions of the questionnaires, which Care Homes were asked to share with residents and their friends and relatives.

In total, we received 829 responses to our surveys relating to 102 care homes across Cheshire (457 responses relating to 57 Care Homes in Cheshire East), and would like to thank the care homes for their support in helping us to receive so many responses.

Each care home will receive their individual reports, and reports will also be grouped by Care Community and shared with the Integrated Care Partnership, Local Authority commissioners, Care Community leads, NHS Cheshire CCG, voluntary and community organisations, and published on our website.

An overarching report looking at the findings from across Cheshire can be viewed here.

Reports for each individual care home are included below, sorted by Care Community: