A residential home in Sherborne has received a national award recognising their end of life care.

The Hayes Residential Home was given 'Commend' status as part of the Gold Standards Framework (GSF) in Care homes Quality Hallmark Awards.

The home cares for 50 people, and has spent over a year compiling evidence that it has met over 20 standards required for the award.

Ann Aylott, Manager of The Hayes said: "We are delighted to have gained this prestigious award. It demonstrates that the whole staff team implement the necessary gold level standards, something which provides great satisfaction to residents and their family members.

"We pride ourselves on the excellent end of life care we provide for our residents. GSF has helped us formulate this and take our care to a better level, ensuring that residents enjoy their lives, receiving the highest standards of care, in their chosen place right up to the end of their life.

"Our success is ultimately down to the staff at The Hayes. We couldn't have achieved this without their hard work."

In order to qualify for accreditation, homes must have undertaken the full GSF care homes training programme over nine months, embedded this into their homes for at least six months and also undertaken a rigorous accreditation process called 'Going for Gold.'

Professor Keri Thomas, GSF National Clinical Lead, said: "Those care homes that have received the GSF Quality Hallmark Award have demonstrated a real improvement in the quality of care they provide and halving of hospital deaths and crisis admissions, leading to greater satisfaction for families, residents and staff and significant cost savings for the NHS."

Homes receiving the award must also show consistency in reducing inappropriate hospital admissions and deaths in hospital, and also a considerable rise in the number of patients dying in the preferred place of their care home.

Andrew Cattaway, Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care at Dorset County Council, said: "It's a credit to the commitment and dedication of the staff at The Hayes to achieve this award.

"It demonstrates the high quality of care and support provided to the residents at the home.

"GSF has become recognised as the kite-marked model of best practice for end of life care in care homes. This helps individuals and their families to identify homes delivering high quality care for all their residents as they come to the last stage of their life."