Russell Churcher Court information for residents and relatives

Each large bed sitting room is en-suite and is fully double glazed with a small kitchen area with space for a small under-counter fridge. If you are able to make your own hot drinks we encourage you to continue – we value your independence and we will regularly assess your abilities to keep you safe.

Some of our rooms also have air-conditioning/heating and all rooms are refreshed or refurbished before you move in. Telephone points and TV sockets are provided, and connections to cable TV are also available if you wish to pay for this service.

All rooms have a call button for urgent assistance and, for your added safety, we use sensor technology which is a real bonus for those with mobility issues and means staff know if you are up and about without having to disturb you.

Rooms are cleaned daily with your permission and we have a schedule for deep cleans. When you move in, our housekeeping manager will come and introduce herself so that she and her team can get to know your preferences and create a routine you’re comfortable with.

Yes of course. Residents are welcome to furnish their room with their own furniture and belongings to help  ease the transition from their old home to their new one.

Please bring a selection of comfortable clothes with you. We recommend you also bring several sets of bedding and towels with you. These items will be familiar to you and help you feel right at home.

We have our own laundry on site which will take care of your clothes, bedding and linens. As you’ll appreciate, with 44 rooms we wash a lot of laundry and so we ask that all items are labelled in order that we can return them to you freshly laundered. If you have any delicate items, please let the team know which items need washing separately. Unfortunately we are unable to provide handwashing or dry cleaning services.

Our Housekeeping Manager will come and introduce herself to you when you move in so that the team can get to know your laundry preferences.

Our laundry team will do its very best to ensure that all clothes are handled properly however we cannot be held responsible for damage to clothing or unnamed items.

We have a good range of communal spaces for everyone to enjoy. The light and spacious lounge has doors opening onto the garden and the large dining room is used for many of the social activities as is the conservatory, where we open the Churcher Arms for pub lunches and quizzes from time to time.

The gardens at Melrose Gardens are a relaxing comfortable space for residents and their guests to enjoy.

We pride ourselves on providing a wide range of activities and entertainment to engage our residents, and we often find that visitors and staff members love to join in too! Activities include quizzes, visiting animals and an aquarium, magicians, singers, and regular visits from schools and toddler groups.

Your care plan is integral to your wellbeing and safety. At Russell Churcher Court, your care plan is your personal guide to daily life here, built around your preferences, routines, health needs, and the things that matter most.

No two care plans are the same, because no two people are. We take the time to learn your story, your choices, and what matters most to you, so we can design care that truly fits you. We believe great care is personal. Whether it is your favourite meal, a morning routine, or music that lifts your spirits, we include the details that make life feel like yours. That is what person-centred care means to us.

It all begins with a warm, friendly conversation between you and a member of our team. If you would like, your family can be involved too. They are welcome to join review meeting and view your care plan at any time.

We review your plan regularly, or sooner if anything changes, like after a doctor’s appointment or hospital visit, so it always reflects where you are right now.

Your care plan is created and managed using a secure, modern digital system. This keeps everything accurate, up to date, and easy to access when needed. Our Data & Compliance Manager ensures your plan meets all relevant standards including CQC, GDPR, and the Mental Capacity Act, and that your information stays private and protected.

Your personalised care plan helps you feel safe, supported, and truly at home. And for your loved ones, it brings reassurance that your care is tailored to your needs, your lifestyle, and your values.

Our professional catering staff are here to provide tasty, healthy meals. The catering team in our modern kitchen aims to give our residents a home-made cuisine experience, serving a range of tasty, healthy meals made from the best fresh ingredients, sourced locally as much as possible. We offer five week rolling menus based on seasonal produce.

Each resident’s nutritional needs and appetite may be different, and the catering team ensures that meals are nutritious, produced to the highest standards, and that portions are correctly sized for residents’ wellbeing.

Daily menus are displayed in the comfortable dining room and we find that meal times are a social activity. If a resident wishes to have meals served in their room, we are happy to do this for them.

We are constantly developing our menus and choices to ensure that residents have a varied diet which they enjoy. We welcome any dishes or recipe ideas, especially family favourites.

Your food preferences will be discussed with our catering team when you arrive to ensure we know what you like and we will always do our very best to accommodate all tastes.

The team also caters for special diets for residents who have food intolerances, or those who need enriched or fortified food choices.

Russell Churcher Court’s kitchen staff like to get into the spirit of special occasions. We often have themed evenings and have had a pop-up restaurant where families are welcome to join you for a three-course meal with wine, with table service.

Christmas and New Year are special times of year and the catering team ensure that these are well catered and enjoyed by all.

Breakfast

Breakfast officially starts at 8am, though our chef is always available to get breakfast underway for the early risers if required. We offer a wide selection of items such as fruit, cereals, toast and cooked breakfast. Special requests can be made in advance or upon arrival of tray/to dining room.

Lunch

This tends to be a hot meal of the day with a choice of dishes including a vegetarian option, served around midday. We also offer a wide selection of hot and cold desserts ranging from crumbles to ice cream and jellies. Your menu choice will be taken in the morning, but if you change your mind we will always try to be flexible.

Dinner

A lighter meal is offered for dinner time at around 4.30pm, but again we like to give our residents plenty of choice. Dishes could be something on toast, homemade soup and a selection of sandwiches, an omelette, or jacket potato with a variety of fillings. Other snacks are also always available and we are able to cater for any special requests for off-menu meals.

Tea trolley

This is available throughout the day and is well stocked with tea, coffee, juice, squash, milkshakes and smoothies, together with fruit, cakes, biscuits, crisps and any additional delights our chefs send out. There is also a supper trolley that is offered to residents at around 8pm, where we add Hot chocolate, Ovaltine and Horlicks to the usual tea trolley selection.

Our kitchen motto is: ‘If we have it, you can have it!’

We actively encourage family and friends to visit and there is no restriction on times although we do ask for consideration late at night.

We view our home as your home and we want you to live as independently as possible. This means that your family and friends are welcome to visit you anytime, to come and take you out, or to join in with our activities.

We regularly review our procedures and the latest government guidelines on infection prevention and control, implementing recommendations subject to the home manager’s discretion to maintain high levels of safety for our residents. This means that guests are asked a series of questions on our electronic check in system on arrival.

Please rest assured that everything in place is to protect our residents – we follow guidelines relating to virus outbreaks and will inform visitors if they need to take special measures, such as wearing masks.

We love seeing our residents get out and about! You are always welcome to take your loved one out for a few hours or for appointments.

We’re happy to provide a list of local wheelchair-friendly taxis if that’s helpful.

Yes we do. We have guest rooms in our housing schemes which are available to book for those travelling longer distances.

Jewellery

Beyond a wedding ring or simple items worn everyday, it is best to keep treasured or valuable jewellery safely at home. We do have an on-site safe if something needs to be locked away temporarily.

Cash

A small amount of ‘pocket money’ for daily bits and pieces is fine, but larger amounts of cash are much safer in a pocket money account. Please ask if you’d like to know more about this.

Sharp items

For everyone’s safety, any sort of knives should not be kept in bedrooms. We always provide these securely during supervised activities when needed.

Your safety and wellbeing are our top priorities.

There are a range of different measures in place to ensure that we can maintain a safe environment for our residents, staff and visitors at all times.

When you arrive at Russell Churcher Court, you’ll note we have an electronic gate before you reach the front doors. These operate on a system operated by the staff at the front desk and can only be opened by members of staff. Some of our residents live with dementia and might enjoy a wander or get forgetful at times, and the secure door system means we can ensure no one leaves or enters the home without staff knowledge.

We also use an electronic sign in system for all visitors to the home, to monitor who is in the building and also to gather feedback on their experiences as they leave.

You may notice, as you move around Russell Churcher Court, that our staff use electronic devices during their work. These handheld computers are used to monitor care in real time, so that we have an accurate record of all interactions, meals, drinks, care given, medications and requests for assistance. This enables early intervention when residents need additional help and means we can analyse trends in care activity.

For residents who might have a risk of falling, we can provide motion sensors in their rooms that will alerts us to any unusual movement, as well as pendant alarms that residents can use to call for help. All rooms are also fitted with call bells.

As part of our commitment to maintaining a safe environment, we also test our fire bell every week.

We want to hear from you, your family and friends.

It’s important to us to know what you think about life at Russell Churcher Court; what we’re doing well, where we could do better, and anything in between!

There are many ways to give us feedback on how our service is doing.

Feedback from our residents

You can speak to any member of the team at any time to indicate you wish to raise a concern or issue, or to tell them when something is going well for you. You can also ask them if you’d like to speak to a manager or a senior member of staff.

We also hold monthly meetings in the lounge, which your loved ones are welcome to join, where we talk about suggestions and feedback we’ve had. At this meeting, our head chef, housekeeping manager, head of activities, and the registered manager join us to listen to your views and points you wish to raise. We note any action points and tell you what we’ve done at the next meeting, so we can talk about how issues have been resolved.

We also have formal processes to monitor our own performance (as well as statutory inspections).

Feedback from your family and friends

At our reception desk, we have a visitor signing in console where visitors sign in, and when they leave they are asked to mark us out of five. If we receive a low score we will investigate why, so this is another form of feedback that is very important, and every three months we send your loved ones a short survey to ask for their thoughts.

We love to hear your compliments and if you want to acknowledge something exceptional or make a suggestion about something we can do differently, we would love it if you could write to the registered manager to let them know your thoughts.

You can also leave a review on www.carehome.co.uk (an independent care home website), which will automatically notify our managers and directors so we can share or learn from your experience.

Many people are reluctant to complain. We aim to provide a great home and professional, compassionate, caring service through our own determination to follow best practice. Sometimes we may miss something, or you might be able to think of how we could do something better.

Perhaps we may have fallen short of your expectations. Should this happen, please speak up, so that we can resolve any issues and improve the service we offer, as quickly as possible.

If you have a concern about any aspect of our service, whether inside or outside of the home, please speak first to the registered manager, who will try to put things right immediately for you. If for any reason you’re not satisfied with the outcome, or if you think the matter is so serious that it needs a higher level of attention, please contact us.

A complaint can be made by using our online form, telephone, in writing, by email or in person. The Trust will respond in writing, usually via email.

While we take complaints very seriously and have a robust process for handling them, we understand that sometimes you may want additional advice. You can contact the Hampshire County Council Safeguarding Team on 0300 555 1386.

We are regulated by the Care Quality Commission, which carries out regular inspections of our services and we report any issues to them. They are contactable on 03000 616161 or enquiries@cqc.org.uk

Your wellbeing and safety are of paramount importance. We value open communication with you and we want you to feel confident and well supported at all times.

Assisted administration

If your loved one needs help to understand or manage their medications, our trained team will take care of storing and administering them. This applies to existing prescribed medications and old prescribed medications.

GP medications approval

To follow strict care guidelines, we can only administer medications, creams, eye or ear drop that have been directly prescribed by their GP or a hospital consultant (for example, after a hospital stay).

Bringing over-the-counter medication into the home

If your relative asks you to bring in any over-the-counter remedies or supplements, please chat with us first before buying or bringing them in. If we administer medications to your loved one, we will be unable to administer over-the-counter medications that are not prescribed by the GP.

In this case we would liaise with the GP for the medication to be prescribed if the GP feels the resident needs this specific medication.

We are more than happy for residents to enjoy an alcoholic drink. We’re keen to support their choices, although of course your loved one’s health comes first.

Before they have an alcoholic beverage we need to check with their GP or pharmacist to ensure it won’t interact badly with their medication. Please let us know ahead of time if you’d like to bring some alcohol in and we will happily do that quick check for you before you arrive.

We would also suggest considering alcohol-free alternatives.