Bispham Gardens Spiral Health Community Interest Company, Blackpool

Added on

What is Bisham Gardens?

Bispham Gardens, formerly Bispham Hospital, is the first care home service set up by Spiral Health Community Interest Company, a recovery and rehabilitation service. Today it offers a  ‘home for life’ for people aged 55 + with a range of health and social complexity, who require nursing support. It has 28 places and four  bespoke places for people who also have dementia. Funding from the care home will come from a mix of both state and private funds.

Previously Bispham Hospital had great success in getting people home and back in their communities when it operated an ‘in patient’ rehabilitation and ‘at home’ therapy service. Following NHS restructuring Spiral Health partnered with a leader in the construction industry, to build a home design that would maintain standards with lower costs and improved outcomes.

Access to civic life

Spiral Health asked people who had used their services what was important to them in a care home.

  • vibrant community lifestyle supported by a location close to amenities and housing.
  • 'facilities’ that encourage people to come into the home such as a café open to the public and hair salon that would generate a small income.
  • an open space design to support individual and group activity
  • a mixture of ages present and not just amongst staff
  • working in co-production 
  • taking part in home routines

Staff and volunteers

Spiral Health selected their registered manager and staff based on what people told them was important i.e. creativity and strong values to support people to lead meaningful lives. 

All were selected using values based recruitment principles and were asked to evidence that they appreciate that people are co-producers of their own support. 

The local college have partnered with Bispham Gardens to place  apprentices in the home for health, social care, horticulture and catering courses.

In recognition of Spiral Health’s community offers, the CEO has recently been seconded to the Department for Culture Media and Sport to advise on the value of more public service mutuals.