Derby’s new £7.8m care home welcomes first residents

Derby’s new £7.8 million Kiwi House care home, which has everything from a cinema to a pub to ensure life in older age is full and engaging, has welcomed its first residents.

As well as Flicks cinema and the Horse and Hound pub, facilities at the home include an on-site corner shop, hair salon, a café bar, a private family dining area and landscaped sensory gardens, complete with an aviary and raised vegetable beds for green-fingered residents to ‘grow their own’.

Dave Lock, managing director of Adept Care Homes, which also owns Douglas Court care home in Derby’s Ivy Square, said: “From the design and build to the care teams we’ve employed, we’ve worked extremely hard to create a home that takes care to a new level. Our first residents are settling in and we hope they enjoy the facilities and the lively social programme we have here.”

With large bedrooms and spacious communal areas, the home has six separate care suites, each one having its own lounge, dining facilities and lifestyle kitchen, where residents can roll up their sleeves and get involved with the cooking and baking, as well as a dedicated team of carers. Up to 13 residents will be cared for in each suite, benefitting from a more intimate service and being looked after by the same, familiar faces every day. All bedrooms have an en-suite with wet floor showers.

Dave said having smaller, individual suites meant residents had more of their own personal space, plus access to their very own small and sensitive care team. “We want to ensure residents see the same team members every day, which is a very reassuring and intimate care approach,” he said.

Home cooking and an extensive social calendar led by full-time activity co-ordinators are also benefits of life at the home, which will be officially opened at a special ceremony in September and provides approximately 80 jobs for the local economy.

Family-run Adept Care Homes owns seven care homes across the Midlands – all of which have a ‘good’ rating with the Care Quality Commission. The group, which is celebrating its 30th anniversary, was this year named one of London Stock Exchange’s Top 1,000 Companies to Inspire Britain.