The Care Homes Regulations 2001

Facilities and services

16.—(1) Subject to regulation 4(3), the registered person shall provide facilities and services to service users in accordance with the statement required by regulation 4(1)(b) in respect of the care home.

(2) The registered person shall having regard to the size of the care home and the number and needs of service users—

(a)provide, so far as is necessary for the purpose of managing the care home—

(i)appropriate telephone facilities;

(ii)appropriate facilities for communication by facsimile transmission;

(b)provide telephone facilities which are suitable for the needs of service users, and make arrangements to enable service users to use such facilities in private;

(c)provide in rooms occupied by service users adequate furniture, bedding and other furnishings, including curtains and floor coverings, and equipment suitable to the needs of service users and screens where necessary;

(d)permit service users, so far as it is practicable to do so, to bring their own furniture and furnishings into the rooms they occupy;

(e)arrange for the regular laundering of linen and clothing;

(f)so far as it is practicable to do so, provide adequate facilities for service users to wash, dry and iron their own clothes if they so wish and, for that purpose, to make arrangements for their clothes to be sorted and kept separately;

(g)provide sufficient and suitable kitchen equipment, crockery, cutlery and utensils, and adequate facilities for the preparation and storage of food;

(h)provide adequate facilities for service users to prepare their own food and ensure that such facilities are safe for use by service users;

(i)provide, in adequate quantities, suitable, wholesome and nutritious food which is varied and properly prepared and available at such time as may reasonably be required by service users;

(j)after consultation with the environmental health authority, make suitable arrangements for maintaining satisfactory standards of hygiene in the care home;

(k)keep the care home free from offensive odours and make suitable arrangements for the disposal of general and clinical waste;

(l)provide a place where the money and valuables of service users may be deposited for safe keeping, and make arrangements for service users to acknowledge in writing the return to them of any money or valuables so deposited;

(m)consult service users about their social interests, and make arrangements to enable them to engage in local, social and community activities and to visit, or maintain contact or communicate with, their families and friends;

(n)consult service users about the programme of activities arranged by or on behalf of the care home, and provide facilities for recreation including, having regard to the needs of service users, activities in relation to recreation, fitness and training.

(3) The registered person shall ensure that so far as practicable service users have the opportunity to attend religious services of their choice.

(4) In this regulation “food” includes drink.