Oakwood Court care home, Haywards Heath

We are delighted to welcome family and friends to our care homes.  

We recognise that spending quality time with your loved one is important and here at Sussex Housing & Care we do everything we can to make your visits to our care homes in Battle, Haywards Heath and Crowborough as friendly, relaxed and sociable as possible. After all, it’s home to our residents and they will look forward to welcoming you. 

What can I do when I visit? 

The choice is yours. There are several things you can do whilst spending time with your loved one in our care home. These could include: 

• Having a private chat in their bedroom.  

• Spending time with them and others in our lounge. 

• Relaxing in our day room or activities room. 

• Taking part in one to one or group activities. 

• Making the most of our outside spaces by enjoying the views from our garden patios or a walk together around the garden. 

• Having coffee or lunch together. Please pre book lunch if you’d like a meal with us. 

We also have an array of special events throughout the year from BBQs and garden parties to themed days and entertainment. Keep an eye out for these on our Facebook page or on our website. 

We love a party! We also support small private parties such as birthdays, these can be arranged with the team at the care home. 

Residents are welcome to go out with their friends and relatives. 

What time of day can I visit the care home? 

You can visit any time of day as we operate a 24/7 service, although we all respect our residents’ wishes and welcome visitors at times that are convenient and suitable for them. Many visitors enjoy coming in the morning or afternoon and some visit after work in the early evening. 

Do I need to wear PPE? 

You do not need to wear a mask or PPE when visiting our care homes. However, if there is a local need for you to wear a mask, then we will provide you with PPE. It’s important that you please do not come into the home if you have been feeling unwell recently or have had any symptoms of Covid, even if you have tested negative and had your vaccine and boosters. 

Can I bring a pet into the home to visit? 

We encourage visits from small pets into the care home.  It’s always best to check with the care home before you come to check there isn’t anyone allergic to pet hair. We also ask you please to keep dogs on leads.  

Can I bring a child to visit? 

We encourage visits from anyone under 18 into our care homes. Please we ask that they are accompanied and supervised at all times by an adult.  

We have a ‘Better Together’ programme. 

Engaging and involving our residents is important to us. We constantly seek ideas, feedback and suggestions from our residents and their family in order to continuously improve our service. Here are some of the ways we gain feedback: 

Resident meeting  - Residents meet regularly with our care home manager, they share feedback, staff updates and plan events.

Catering meeting - Our Chef Manager arranges catering meetings so you can give feedback about our dishes and recipes, and make suggestions for the menu.

Resident satisfaction survey - Every year we formally ask residents for their feedback in a questionnaire. This is anonymous feedback about all areas of our service.

Relative satisfaction survey - It’s important that your relatives or close friends have the opportunity to share their feedback too so we share a questionnaire with them every year.

Click here to see the results and action plan from our last residents and relatives survey.

We are very proud to have received a platinum award from the RSPCA for our pet friendly policy and we embrace the difference pets can make to our residents.

We are in our fifth consecutive year of winning a Housing Footprints award. This accolade shows that the RSPCA recognise our approach to promoting responsible pet ownership and how we acknowledge the positive difference animals can make to our residents. We have 109 pets living among our 800 residents, the majority of which live with residents who occupy our rented sheltered housing and leasehold properties. 

Pets are welcome to live with residents in our care homes, but we will need to firstly complete a risk assessment to make sure our care home is an appropriate home for the animal, and that the owner is able to look after their pet, for example, they are able to feed, groom and, if required, exercise it. 

We have pet policy which is available for you to read.Pet Policy v3 2021[pdf] 270KB

"I had just lost my husband when I needed to move home so it was really important for me to find a housing association that was dog friendly so I could bring Lizzie, my west highland terrier, with me. I couldn’t bear to lose another member of my family.

Having Lizzie gives me a purpose to life, I go out walking with her everyday which helps me to keep physically and mentally fit. It means I have something in common with other residents and we have a good chat. Sussex Housing & Care’s pet policy is clear and I know my responsibilities as a pet owner.”

Resident from Nevill Court, Crowborough.

 

This means that any surplus we make in income is invested back into our properties to improve the quality of life of our residents. Sussex Housing & Care has been supporting older people to live brighter lives since 1946.