Representatives from care homes, the county council, borough council, Musgrove Park and volunteer groups joined with Rebecca Pow MP and Healthwatch Somerset to celebrate the launch of a series of guides outlining good practice in care homes last week. The guides have been developed by Healthwatch volunteers and staff in partnership with care homes staff. Volunteers carry out ‘enter and view’ visits to see how a care home is running and talk to the residents, carers and staff. These guides highlight the good practice they have found and make a series of recommendations that all good homes should follow. The six guides were launched on Friday at Taunton’s Albemarle Centre. Morgan Daly, Interim Chief Executive of The Care Forum who run Healthwatch Somerset, chaired the event. He said: “Our enter and view teams carry out really important work. By spending time in the care homes and listening to residents and staff they have identified the excellent practice that everyone should follow. These guides will make a difference as we help care homes across the county to pool and share their knowledge.” Rebecca Pow. MP for Taunton Deane, said “The volunteers who have developed these excellent guides do a fantastic job. I have visited a lot of care homes across my constituency and know that the staff work really hard to provide a high quality service. These guides concentrate on praise and highlighting the many good things that happen every day rather than finding fault. By sharing good ideas and best practice we can all keep improving.”