Tilford Care and Nursing Home

Tilford Care and Nursing Home in Farnham, Surrey

Tilford Care Home near Farnham in Surrey is a real home for life in a beautiful, tranquil spot, providing high-quality, affordable residential, nursing, respite, palliative and dementia care.

We respect all our residents – their dignity, their space, and their right to make personal choices in care. Each resident is different, and we offer a range of activities and menu options so every person feels happy, stimulated and cared-for.

When someone arrives at Tilford, they immediately become part of the Agincare family. We care for them and help them maintain their independence, decision-making and control as much as they can.

Tilford is their home, and we support their changing physical and emotional needs so they can stay here as long as they want to.

We maintain that living with dementia is exactly that: living. We strive to help our residents have the best quality of life possible, and treat everyone as an individual.

As well as caring for our residents we care about their families too. Our door is always open for a chat, and our families’ forum gives relatives a way to support each other.

Where is Tilford Care and Nursing Home?

We’re in a peaceful and relaxing part of Surrey, yet only five miles from Farnham and the A31.

A good word to describe our location would be ‘leafy’. There are a couple of local beauty spots close to us. We are a 20 minute leisurely walk from Frensham Little Pond, and further away is the Great Pond  (dubbed “The Beach of Surrey”), which is often used for sailing. Bourne Wood is two miles away. Both of these last two locations are very popular with TV and film production companies.

Call us on 01252 792 543 to arrange a visit or for an informal chat. We would love to introduce you to the home, our staff and our residents.

Care home facilities

Tilford is fully equipped to deal with a range of needs and requirements. But because we want Tilford to feel like ‘home’, we don’t furnish our communal rooms in a clinical way. Our comfortable lounges and dining room mean there is plenty of space for group activities, or somewhere to find a quieter spot.

We are really excited about the refurbishment taking place now at Tilford. We’ll soon have been redecorated. An extension will mean we can offer places to 12 new residents.

We’ll also have free Wi-Fi throughout the home. There will be an iPad for residents to use – Skype calls will work really well – and for families to use when they visit.

Visitors will be able to bring in their own devices and use our Wi-Fi to show loved ones videos and photos, and to play games. And we’ve no doubt that the Wi-Fi will prove very popular with the children of visiting families!

The bedrooms at Tilford

We have 37 spacious bedrooms, all with ensuite bathrooms or washbasins in the room. The rooms without en-suites have accessible bathrooms or wetrooms nearby.

As part of our refurbishment, our bedrooms are being decorated to a high standard, but we encourage our residents to personalise their rooms with their own photos and furniture. Personal possessions help residents feel at home, and provide extra stimulation and time for reminiscence.

The garden at Tilford

We have a secure garden where residents can join in outdoor activities or simply enjoy being outside. Our lovely courtyard is an especially popular place to sit and chat.

Our grounds include a most beautiful aviary. We’ve hand-reared all the birds in the aviary (cockatiels and budgies) from eggs. The flock is delightful to watch. We often spot residents in the summer illegally feeding them with the odd biscuit!

Our staff

Dawn Sturt is the registered manager of Tilford Care Home in Farnham.

Dawn started training in 1977 as a psychiatric nurse and has spent 20 years working with people living with dementia.

She has been the registered manager at Tilford Care Home for the past five years, leading and encouraging the team with her experience.

Some examples of how our staff go the extra mile for our residents:

• Staff come in on their days off to help with outings and events, even bringing their children to help or join in
• After heavy work and paperwork they still manage to find time to interact with our residents and build on relationships within the home and those connected to it
• We’re always keeping an eye out for new activity ideas and possible visitors to the home for the residents’ enjoyment

Staff training

All our staff go on an intensive three-day Agincare induction before starting at Tilford.

As well as regular reviews and supervisions we carry out mandatory annual and two-year refresher training, plus specialist training including subjects such as dementia, Alzheimer’s, stroke care and Parkinson’s.

Social activities

At Tilford we’re lucky to have a great activities co-ordinator, who works with people one-to-one, and organises the group activities.

Our activity schedule is varied, from music, to book and film clubs, quizzes, arts and crafts and storytelling. Our residents get fully involved in suggesting new activities and trips, and we make the most of our minibus!

So the people we care for are connected, not isolated, we like to be part of the local community. We have strong connections with the local Church of England, Catholic and multi-denominational churches, and they visit us regularly. And we also have links with local schools.

Food and nutrition

Good, wholesome home-cooked food is essential at a care home.

Here at Tilford we’re incredibly lucky to have two amazingly talented chefs, who cook with locally-sourced ingredients as much as possible. Our ‘theme days’, such as ‘sausage day’ and ‘pie day’ are very popular!

We serve three main meals a day and mealtimes are really important. We encourage our residents to eat together as there are so many social and nutritional benefits.

However, people can choose to eat their meals in private too, if they prefer. We have picture and written menus, but we always re-offer before serving, to check our residents haven’t changed their minds about what they’d like to eat.

Our chefs always ask for feedback from our residents, including through our residents’ forum, and are more than willing to adapt menus.

Our kitchen staff have received a 5* ‘Very Good’ rating from the Food Standard Agency.

If you’d like to find out more about Tilford and how we could support you or a family member, please call us on 01252 792 543 .

Dawn Sturt, registered manager of Tilford Care and Nursing Home

Dawn is responsible for the day-to-day management of Tilford Care and Nursing Home and leading the team of staff. As registered manager she also shares the legal responsibility for meeting the requirements of the relevant regulations with Agincare. As such, Dawn is responsible for making sure the whole home operates effectively and delivers the very best quality care to her residents, meeting national care standards.

“It’s fair to say that the whole team here at Tilford was disappointed when we heard that our overall rating had been downgraded from ‘good’ to ‘requires improvement’.

“However, it is heartening that we maintained our ‘good’ ratings in the ‘Caring’, ‘Safe’ and ‘Responsive’ categories. The inspectors appreciated the positive relationships our staff have with residents and commented that we care for our residents in a kind and compassionate way.

“The inspectors appreciated the way we help people to stay connected with their families and the local community, and how we support our residents to have choice and control over their lives. We were also praised for our good links with the local GP surgery and health services.

“Before our inspection, we had already drawn up an action plan to improve areas such as staff training, communication with residents and families, and record-keeping. We are excited to bring in Nourish – an online care planning tool to give our staff immediate real-time access to residents’ likes, dislikes and care information on a handset. Our care team can easily keep track of a resident’s day, including medication, activities, hydration and how much they’ve eaten.

“The report talks about the major renovation work we’ve been through here at Tilford, and that some residents had felt unsettled by the changes and associated noise. During the building work our main focus was on keeping people safe. So we brought extra staff in to make sure that no-one was put at risk.

“Yes, we have faced challenges and learned lessons over the past few months, but we now have robust plans in place, and some amazing new facilities for all our residents, families, visitors and staff to enjoy. I’m excited about Tilford’s future, and what we can offer our residents.”

Tim Buckley, Chief Operating Officer of Agincare Homes Holdings

“The Agincare team has had a determination to make Tilford a first-class nursing and care home, evidenced by our recent £1.3 million refurbishment program. This work has had some disruption as identified by CQC during their inspection for a relatively short period, however the benefits are now being enjoyed by our residents, families and team.

I believe the renovation work has been worthwhile and sets Tilford in a superior position to enable the home to reach those first class standards we continually strive for. We will continue to support Dawn and the team as they move forward in caring for all their residents with dignity and respect.”