Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton has received recognition for the quality of its end of life care.

It has been awarded the coveted ‘Six Steps to Success in End of Life Care Programme for Care Homes’ after staff demonstrated great knowledge and practice of end of life care at the Home.

The Six Steps course was delivered by Princess Alice Hospice in Esher, and is endorsed by Skills for Care. It aims to enhance end of life care through facilitating a whole organisational approach and supporting and educating staff to develop their roles around their involvement in end of life care.

Lead Nurse Sylwia Pisarczyk and Lead Healthcare assistant Frency Diaz attended the workshops and successfully demonstrated the Home to be embracing and implementing the Six Steps programme.

The Six Steps programme is a holistic approach to providing care for people who are thought to have less than 12 months to live. It starts with discussions and care planning with the patients as end of life approaches, before moving on to coordination and delivery of high-quality care. It ends with care in the last days of life and care after death.

Pauline Shaw, Director of Care at the charity, said: “Supporting residents at the end of their lives is incredibly important and I know staff feel it is a real privilege to consider the residents’ well-being at this time and to work closely  with their families, providing sensitive, co-ordinated, loving care. I’m delighted our Surbiton Home has received the Six Steps award.”

Princess Alice Hospice said: “We are delighted that Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton is the first care home to successfully complete the Six Steps to Success in the End of Life Care programme at Princess Alice Hospice. The Six Steps programme is based on the National End of Life Care Strategy 2008 and has allowed Royal Star & Garter to develop training and systems to enable residents to feel supported and experience their last years, months, weeks and days in the best possible way.”

Following the successful running of the pilot project, Princess Alice Hospice will introduce its Six Steps as part of its own regular training schedule.