Caring Times – May 2023

The Care Managers Show will attract over 4,000 managers, employers and sector specialists to NEC Birmingham on 30 June - 01 July – and is completely FREE to attend.

Join

FreeCPD

Attend sessions by ex-CQC inspectors to learn about the regulator’s priorities for 2023 and hear tips to get that elusive ‘outstanding’ rating. Then visit the CQC’s stand to ask all your trickiest questions!

HomeCare

Visit the home care stream to discuss rostering tips, as well as leadership strategies to improve recruitment and retention in your remote team.

The Care Managers Show is located in Hall 11 of the NEC and runs from 10am to 4pm on both Friday 30 June and Saturday 01 July. The agenda is repeated on both days, so you can choose which day to attend or come for both days to make the most of our free content!

The largest show in the UK dedicated to care managers NEC

FREE TICKETS

Submissions now open

24 November 2023

Platinum Suite, London

Not only are the Awards a fantastic opportunity to catch up with your colleagues, you could make the night even better by taking home a trophy! Submissions are now open and if shortlisted your entry will be assessed by our illustrious panel of judges.

Award sponsors Silver sponsor

Photobooth

Chief executive officer

Alex Dampier

Chief operating officer

Sarah Hyman

Executive assistant

Kirsty Parks

Editor-in-chief

Lee Peart

Features editor

Charlotte Goddard

Subeditor

Charles Wheeldon

Advertising & event sales director

Caroline Bowern 0797 4643292 caroline.bowern@nexusgroup.co.uk

Event operations manager

Carly McGowan

Operations executive

Sophia Chimonas

Senior conference producer

Teresa Zargouni

Head of digital content

Alice Jones

Marketing design manager

Craig Williams

Marketing campaign manager

Sean Sutton

CRM database manager

Annalisa La Manna

Lead developer

Jason Hobbs

Web developer

Michael Reeves

Final call for your Care Heroes 2023

This month is your final chance to nominate your unsung Care Home Heroes for 2023.

We have once again teamed up with international personal hygiene group Ontex to reward those working in care homes who are always ready to go that extra mile.

We’re looking for those who go beyond the job description. For example, it could the gardener who brings a resident their favourite biscuits, or a housekeeper who helps a resident to rediscover their hobbies – we’re searching for those who bring a little bit of extra joy into the care world. Your unsung hero may be a colleague or someone else you know, and now is the time to reward those individuals who have made a genuine impact on their particular place of work.

Last year, we received more than 350 entries and it took a panel of five to decide the finalists. The eventual worthy winner, Nicola Mould, home manager at Orchard Mews, HC-One, was nominated by community nurse Jennifer Dodds for the amazing palliative care she gave her mother and the all-hours support she provided for her family during such a sad and traumatic time.

This year’s winner will be presented with their award at the inaugural Caring Times Care Managers Show on Friday 30 June, which will be hosted by TV celebrity Davina McCall and will feature a special performance by Boyzlife.

The overall winner will receive a £500 Love2Shop voucher or similar gift card. The three runners-up winners will feature in the September, October and November issues of Caring Times and the overall winner will feature in a special feature in the December issue.

To nominate your unsung hero tell us in 400 words or less, why you think your nominated person deserves to win and make sure to include an example of when they have gone the extra distance to make a difference.

If you know of anyone who fits the bill, entries can be made online at: caringtimes.co.uk/care-home-heroes/

The deadline for entries closes on Friday 19 May with winners will notified by 1 June.

Good luck!

Lee Peart Editor-in-chief Caring Times

News in brief

POLICY & LEGISLATION

Care providers and stakeholders responded with dismay following the government’s announcement that social care workforce funding is being halved. In its “refreshed plan to bolster the social care workforce”, the Department of Health and Social Care said £250 million was being invested in workforce training over three years, compared to £500 million previously pledged in the government White Paper in December 2021.

Over 40 MPs and peers have warned that rampant inflation and post-Brexit regulatory transition are putting medical supplies at risk. In a letter co-ordinated by the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA), the Parliamentarians warn that without greater support and regulatory certainty, unprecedented operational and regulatory pressures will result in the withdrawal of medical supplies and investment being moved out of the UK.

A major review of integrated care systems called for a complementary social care workforce strategy to support the interdependence of health and social care. Health and social care secretary Steve Barclay commissioned former health secretary Patricia Hewitt to lead the independent review last November, asking her to consider how the oversight and governance of these systems can best enable them to succeed.

PROVIDER NEWS

Four Seasons Health Care reported “significant market interest” in its sale of 111 freehold care homes in England,

PROPERTY SOLD

Region/County: East Midlands

Name of Property Sold: Adbolton Hall

Town where property is situated: Nottingham

Registration: 45 bed former care home

Name of purchaser: Undisclosed

Name of Vendor: Undisclosed

Asking Price: Undisclosed

Business Transfer Agent: NGA Care

Contact Person & Telephone number: Nick Greaves, 07943 107 887

Scotland and Jersey. In an investor update, the care home provider said the sale process, which is being conducted by Christie & Co, should be completed in the second half of this year.

Unison accused Shaw healthcare of “bullying” behaviour after it launched a consultation on a change to workforce contracts. The company is consulting workers on ending payment for a 30-minute lunch break and snack. To replace this, the company proposes paying employees for a 30-minute shift handover and asking them to contribute to a heavily subsidised cooked meal.

million to increase staff wages. The new pay rates, applicable immediately, mean a 10% increase in basic pay for workers on the lowest band with similar rises across more senior roles.

Care home provider HC-One announced it has earmarked £32.5

Arcadia Care Homes increased its pay for all staff by 30% to a minimum hourly rate of £13. The company, which operates the Aria Care Home in Newport, stated that it has made the increase to recognise that the role of care worker is significantly more skilled than the current market suggests.

A Glasgow care home was forced to close due to staff recruitment and retention difficulties and rising costs. The management of Balmanno House said they were closing due to the “unsustainable costs and challenges affecting the care sector in Scotland”.

Community care provider Lifeways Group became a founder patron of Championing Social Care. The charity will bring a wealth of expertise and financial support to all its flagship programmes including Care Sector’s Got Talent; Care Home Open Week; Care Sector Fundraising Ball and #SparkleForSocialCare and provide unique insight into working with some of society’s most vulnerable people.

Ali Al-Mufti managing director of Arcadia Care Homes

HC-One chief executive James Tugendhat

LEGAL & REGULATORY

Care Quality Commission staff, including care home inspectors, began work to rule action last month in a dispute over pay. The action followed a ballot of 700 Unison members in March which resulted in 73% voting to strike and 92% supporting action short of a strike.

A Cambridgeshire care home which is under a council embargo was rated Good in all categories by the CQC. HC-One’s The Gables near Peterborough was one of three care homes placed under embargo by Cambridgeshire County Council last year when the local authority cancelled a £64 million block contract with the provider following the closure of The Elms care home in Whittlesey.

A care home support worker was struck off for borrowing £90 from a resident. A Scottish Social Services Council hearing found evidence Brenda Gilliland had borrowed money from a service user and failed to repay the full amount while employed by Abbotsford Care last July.

Not-for-provider care home provider Methodist Homes pledged to bring a Northamptonshire care home up to standard after it was rated Inadequate

by the CQC. The 65-bed Rushden Park care home, which offers nursing care, was inspected in early February and placed in special measures.

Rapport Housing and Care was issued with a regulatory notice for breaching the governance and financial viability standard. The Regulator of Social Housing

said it had found a “series of failures” in Rapport’s governance and financial management, which had led to “significant liquidity issues”.

SUPPLIER NEWS

apetito launched a free guide on how care homes can take control of rising costs in the kitchen while maintaining highquality, delicious meals that meet bespoke resident needs. The guide is packed with useful information and guidance and shows how by making a few simple changes, care homes can make a big difference to the bottom line.

ESG & OTHER NEWS

A new Social Care Sustainability Alliance was established to help social care providers across the UK make changes to support their ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) objectives. The Alliance, founded by Jonathan Freeman, group sustainability director at CareTech with the support of Steven Fergus, head of healthcare at Barclays Corporate, Bhavna Keane-Rao, managing director at BKR Care Consultancy, and Tom Speirs, partner at Addleshaw Goddard, will provide support to providers of all sizes in building strategies to reduce their environmental footprint while strengthening social and governance infrastructures.

Staff at a Nottinghamshire care home were praised by the fire service for the way they handled a fire. Fire crews from Nottinghamshire Fire and Rescue Service were called to a significant blaze in a room at Hatzfeld Care Home in Blidworth on 21 February.

Rapport Housing and Care chief executive Leon Steer

Jonathan Freeman, chief executive, CareTech Foundation

apetito launched a guide on cost effective catering

MHA's Rushden Park in Northamptonshire

Labour’s social care vision

In an exclusive interview with Caring Times editor-in-chief Lee Peart and Townsend Communications’ managing director William Walter, shadow social care minister Liz Kendall sets out Labour’s plans for social care

Speaking to us at her office in Portcullis House in the heart of Westminster, Kendall was predictably scathing in her assessment of the government’s record on social care.

“We have had a decade of the government failing to deliver on funding with the rest of the system falling apart,” Kendall says. “One of the biggest problems we have seen is this very short-term, sticking plaster approach.”

The shadow minster for care and older people cites the example of the government’s £750 million Delayed Discharge Fund this winter as a glaring example of short termism.

“There are currently 130 fewer people in hospital because it came too late through the winter, Kendall says: “It didn’t tackle the root cause of the problem, which is staff shortages, and it failed to put the reforms in that we need to prevent people from going into hospital in the first place.

“More than half a million older and disabled people waiting to have their needs assessed in the first place – not even on a waiting list. They are going to end up in hospital because we have no long-term planning. When we were in government and I worked for the health secretary, our winter plans were

done in September. They weren’t being announced in December. It’s a joke and it’s negligent.”

The shadow minister says tackling the 165,000 vacancies in social care is her “absolute priority”.

“We have said we will have a new deal for care workers so that they get fair pay, training, terms and conditions, and career progression,” she notes.

The shadow minister says the sector needs to come together to negotiate a fair deal for its workers. She would not be drawn on a figure for a minimum care wage, however, commenting: “We have said on the Minimum Wage that we would change the remit of the Low Pay Commission so that it actually takes into consideration the Living Wage and we have said that social care is the priority in these new sectoral agreements. We will not make a commitment unless we can show how we will pay for it.”

The shadow care minister calls for a “much more joined up approach with the NHS” on recruitment and retention. “The Health Foundation has shown using Skills for Care data that one in ten people who leave care go to hospitality and retail, and one in three go and work for the NHS,” she says. “So it’s absolutely crazy to be treating the NHS workforce as totally separate from the care workforce.”

When asked if there should be pay parity with the NHS, Kendall says the two sectors need to be looked at together.

“If you have a situation where we are struggling to get people to work in social care and the NHS is struggling to get people out of hospital but a third of social care workers are going to work there, the days of looking at them separately are long gone,” Kendall comments. “It’s not going to be the same because you are not employed by the NHS and you are not on Agenda for Change NHS grading and pay system, but I do think we have got

“If you have a situation where we are struggling to get people to work in social care and the NHS is struggling to get people out of hospital but a third of social care workers are going to work there, the days of looking at them separately are long gone.”

to start looking at the two systems together.”

Taking pay out of the equation, we ask Kendall if the NHS and social care should be given parity in terms and conditions. “I understand why you want me to say that but I am saying there is a negotiation to take place,” she counters.

“That isn’t a way of avoiding the question, it’s a way of answering the question because that is the only way we are going to make progress. I believe many providers want to see a different approach. The good ones feel undermined by the poor providers. They are desperate to hold onto staff that the NHS can pay more to.”

Kendall says social care needs a 10year plan with a National Care Service among the key reforms being explored by Labour.

Shadow health minister Wes Streeting last year commissioned the Fabian Society to launch a review of how a National Care Service would work.

Plans for a National Care Service in Scotland have faced widespread opposition with the SNP being accused of a “power grab” and implementing a

“We have had a decade of the government failing to deliver on funding with the rest of the system falling apart. One of the biggest problems we have seen is this very short-term, sticking plaster approach.”

“People want control over their lives,” Kendall argues.

“The council may say ’we can put you in touch with a befriending service’ but they want to see their friends.

They need a personal assistant who can help them get out the house to see their actual friends.”

“nanny state”, so what would Labour’s reform look like?

“If what you mean by a National Care Service is something nationally

run by a man in Whitehall, as that’s who it usually is, or by the NHS, that’s not what we want,” Kendall explains. “What we want is clearer national pay and conditions for staff, national eligibility criteria rights for users and families, and for it not to be run centrally because it won’t work.”

Kendall is a devout devolutionist when it comes to social care reform. She says the devolution of powers on social care had to go even further than the local council and be dictated by the individual service user and their families.

“People want control over their lives,” Kendall argues. “The council may say 'we can put you in touch with a befriending service' but they want to see their friends. They need a personal assistant who can help them get out the house to see their actual friends.”

Kendall says she was a “big champion of direct and personal budgets when they are run properly”.

“The people who use care and support are the ones who know best how to reform it,” Kendall argues. “My job as a politician is to say how do I give them more power and control? How do I win power in order to give it away?”

The shadow minister says she’s not in favour of means-tested budgets for individuals stressing the idea should be about giving people “power and control over the money and how to best meet their needs”.

“Direct payments and personal budgets already exist but ended up being a tick-box exercise where people say this is what’s on offer what do you want?” Kendall says. “How do you reshape what’s on offer locally?

Liz Kendall

Can we expand services? Can we make them more effective?”

Kendall also wants to see more devolution to service users in regulation, commissioning and even social care staff training.

“I’d like to see users and families having a far greater say over the regulatory process to make sure that their views are actively sought out and taken into account,” the shadow minister says. “Families are the eyes and ears of the system. It’s been a real problem during Covid. I still hear terrible things. I have done a lot of work with Rights for Residents and The Residents & Relatives Association and we are still having situations where families are being prevented from seeing their loved ones. We had one case where a lady had gone into a home and found her dad’s hair had all been shaved off. Why? I want to look at how users and families views are fed much more directly into the system.”

On training, Kendall says one of

the best examples of service user empowerment she’s ever seen was a university that involved people living with dementia and their families in nurse training.

“The nurses had never seen anyone with really bad dementia,” Kendall explains. “They didn’t know what the families wanted. “How do we change commissioning and training so that people who use care and support are more in the driving seat of change? That’s real reform and that’s what I hope we will deliver.”

While Streeting has said a National Care Service should be inspired by the model of the NHS, Kendall is quick to scotch any idea of free universal social care. “It’s not about saying it’s free at the point of use and it’s all nationalised and centrally run,” she emphasises.

“This is about a vision where people know what they are entitled to, the standards of care that they get, and the staff know they have fair pay terms and conditions. My adult social care

“The nurses had never seen anyone with really bad dementia. They didn’t know what the families wanted. How do we change commissioning and training so that people who use care and support are more in the driving seat of change?"

director in Leicester is telling me I don’t need to buy care home beds, what I need is care in the community at home. You have got to have locally determined care by your local council which is developed by local users and families. I believe that care and support has to be determined locally. The health needs of my population are

Liz Kendall speaks at the first national care careers conference

different from Surrey and Sussex.”

Labour has also said it would give a National Care Service powers to crack down on private equity providers failing to provide good standards of care. “Providers that are providing poor standards of care have got to change,”

Kendall says. “We also want to see requirements in terms of open book accounting for some of the very large private equity firms. We want there to be greater transparency there in terms of public funding that’s going into the system. We have seen difficulties with providers collapsing. We need to relook at that to make sure where public funds are going and for self-funders to make sure that patients and families get what they want, as well as ensuring the taxpayer gets good value for money.”

Kendall refuses to be drawn on where the money will come from to fund Labour’s 10-year vision.

“I’m not going to make any pledge that I can’t guarantee I can deliver,” she says. “As a politician, I have had 10 years of a promise of a cap on

“I don’t think that people should have to see their whole life’s savings wiped out because they are unlucky enough to need substantial amounts of care for dementia. That isn’t what happens if they are unlucky enough to get a terrible disease like cancer."

care costs by government that’s not been delivered. We will only make a commitment if we can show how we pay for it.”

The shadow minister says she doesn’t want to see people lose their saving to pay for their care, but isn’t more specific on a long-term sustainable funding system for the sector, while at the same time ruling out insurance payments.

“I don’t think that people should have to see their whole life’s savings wiped out because they are unlucky enough to need substantial amounts of care for dementia,” the shadow minster stresses. “That isn’t what happens if they are unlucky enough to get a terrible disease like cancer.

“We understand that people want to see where the investment is coming from,” Kendall adds. “Any commitments we make, we will show how we pay for them just as we have done on the NHS workforce where we’ve said we will pay for it by scrapping non-dom tax status. I understand that people want extra investment into social care and we will set out more plans as we get closer to the next election. I think my job at the moment is to make the argument for a different way of doing reform because quite frankly the government of the last 10 years has not delivered. I think it’s about time for something different.”

It appears we will just have to be patient for more details on what that “something different” is.

“This is about a vision where people know what they are entitled to, the standards of care that they get, and the staff know they have fair pay terms and conditions."

Kendall with Rights for Residents co-founders

Jenny Morrison (left) and Diane Mayhew (right)

Care with creativity

Lee Peart asks Sanjay Dhrona, managing director of Outstanding-rated The Close Care Home in Oxfordshire, for his recipe for success

Led and inspired by Dhrona, The Close Care Home is one of a handful of care homes in England with Outstanding in all five key lines of enquiry.

Coming from an events background, Dhrona took on the family-run home in 2015.

“Our family bought the home in 1989 as a joint venture with Bupa after a deal with Dr Chai Patel,” Dhrona says. “It was an old mock Tudor mansion that had grown and grown. We had added purpose-built units and conversion units. In 1992 a team came on board and ran the home really beautifully. They left to focus on their own project in 2012 and the team that we brought on board then didn’t understand The Close Way which was its core as a family-run home.”

When asked to define The Close Way, Dhrona answers: “We know what we need to do and we look at it – and then we look at how we can do it. It’s essentially to understand our people and to do things with a streak of independence and creativity and knowing that you can absolutely try something new. There’s no harm in trying something totally crazy if it goes wrong because we would have made sure that it can’t go too wrong.

“That sense of empowerment we give to our team facilitates that creative culture. It’s care and creativity mixed together. It’s about how we take

situations and improve the outcomes and support people. Sometimes it’s about how we can respond immediately to their change of needs.

“It’s super inclusive. Our team has a gay brown leader in a very white part of the country in rural Oxfordshire. I speak informally to the residents – I don’t sir/ma’am them. It’s about an authentic experience. We remember to be respectful but it’s authentic.

“Part of our belief system is that everyone is really equal here. People have a voice. They are included from residents to stakeholders and especially the team who are very much empowered. We can get the ball rolling but it’s their job to deliver this amazing thing. It’s not about credit or reward because everyone then has ownership of it.”

Dhrona explains that The Close is one of the few English care homes to have an Outstanding in Safe because of, and not despite of, its positive risktaking approach which allows residents to live happier, more fulfilled and ultimately healthier lives.

“One resident who moved here two years ago was in hospital every month for a week to 10 days and has not been

in hospital since she moved here,” Dhrona observes. “That’s because of the way we care for her and the knowledge and practice that we have put in place around her.”

Having a single home to look after has enabled Dhrona to develop a unique family culture at The Close through being a present and hyperengaged owner and director.

“I am in the office at least four or five days a week including weekends and late nights,” Dhrona says. “I know our residents and I know our team.”

Add to this, The Close’s agility through being a single home and completely independent operator, and you have a powerful formula for success.

“What makes us really different is our complete agility,” Dhrona explains. “We are a complete independent; we have no back office system. If you don’t see it here in my office, it doesn’t exist.

“The minute we see something, whether it’s my team or me, we can act on it really quickly which sometimes larger groups will struggle to do because they have to process across everyone.”

Although The Close is larger than today’s typical 60-bed purpose-built

“That sense of empowerment we give to our team facilitates that creative culture. It’s care and creativity mixed together. It’s about how we take situations and improve the outcomes and support people.”

Sanjay Dhrona

home, at 90 beds, Dhrona is still able to get to know his team and every resident and be “as agile as we need to be to suit that resident”.

The person-centred approach begins even before a resident is admitted to the home.

“We have three people who go out and do admission assessments,” the managing director explains. “We have residents who have taken four months to bring on board. That’s not a sales process, it’s the safety mechanism that we trigger. We want to make sure that our team are trained up and ready and the resident is comfortable with the team who are coming on board.

“We have a very holistic way of sharing information so that everything goes across the board because everyone is trained and understands their responsibilities when it comes to GDPR and data privacy and information privacy and respect for our residents.

“Because everyone has access to the right care planning system and understands it, they become really knowledgeable on the resident before they move in. Our assessment process is very tailored to us. It’s not just a standard one. We know so much about them before they arrive so that we can flex and really develop something that is person-centred and personal to them.”

The managing director explains that developing the right care plan is key to laying the foundation for exceptional care.

“The CQC has a big focus around making sure that people’s fingerprints are all over their care plans,” Dhrona observes. “We make sure the residents are involved and they really know what the home is before they come so that when we meet them and get to know them in those first few weeks of settling in we can really turn on a dime very quickly.”

“We have a very holistic way of sharing information so that everything goes across the board because everyone is trained and understands their responsibilities when it comes to GDPR and data privacy and information privacy, and respect for our residents.”

Dhrona said The Close was able to meet the individual needs of residents through constantly listening to them and acting on their feedback.

“We do our resident meetings every month rather than the requirement of once a year,” he explains. “We found that one of the residents had a >

passion for Japan and so thought ‘why don’t we serve sushi across the home?’ But then we realised that not everyone would like that so we gave him a whole day where he could have a sushi lunch with a few residents who also wanted to have it, with everyone else having a Japanese influenced lunch.

“We developed the idea into a whole day of Japanese-related activities to include everyone. In the morning the residents made origami and in the afternoon they watched Memoirs of a Geisha in our cinema. That one resident got to set the tone for the whole day in the home as you would in your house if you were having visitors in your home.

“You can also spread the feeling that a resident has ownership of everyone in the home. Next week it will be somebody else’s day. That’s just something that came up in a home meeting because the chef was there and the activities person was there and I was there, so we made a decision and we rolled with it.”

Through avoiding team silos, The Close takes a ‘super connected’ approach to care and innovation.

“In our bistro which is utilised 9 to 5 Monday to Sunday our chefs make beautiful biscuits and cakes,” Dhrona explains. “We bought a packaging machine so we package everything

here and put the chefs’ faces on it. Our chefs are around the building and not siloed to just the kitchen; they take the trolleys up and plate a few meals and see the residents and hold the chefs’ club. It feels nice for a resident to get a biscuit in a little package. They get to open it or it’s opened for them and they see the person who has cooked their food so there’s a connection to it. That’s the difference in the innovation that we have.

“A lot of people assume that innovation is just technology,” Dhrona continues. “A graph telling you something is not going to be meaningful in any shape or form until you can use it to adapt your practice in your home. A lot of providers are rightly digitising. The digital software that they are producing gives them so much information back. That information only has value if you look at it, think about it, work out what it’s actually telling you, and then change your practice and your service offering based on that information. The

“A lot of people assume that innovation is just technology. A graph telling you something is not going to be meaningful in any shape or form until you can use it to adapt your practice in your home.”

problem at the moment is that people feel that just going digital is innovative enough when actually innovation is mixed with creativity. That’s the bit that we really excel in because we have a culture that stimulates and encourages creativity with our residents and our team members.”

In a further innovation, The Close has developed a creative and fun way of gathering feedback from residents.

Residents, staff and families are asked each week what the home can do better. They vote by placing foam balls in Perspex tubes in the home’s reception.

“We set a question every week which means we can listen,” Dhrona explains. “We can immediately look into that and ask the resident, staff and families and then form an opinion. We can

discuss it the next week at the heads of department meeting and look at what we are going to do to fix it and then we can ask the same question and see if we have acted on what we’ve heard. We get to learn very quickly and that’s innovative.

“It’s a different interactive way for residents to have a say in their care, which also provides some exercise. People feel like they are voting and it’s very empowering.”

The care home leader explains how he takes the same listening and responsive approach in meeting the needs of staff.

“We used the same voting system to find out what staff’s preferred pay day was. I have worked in an environment where you get paid the week before Christmas, but we realised that January is a long month and everyone is poor in that month. So we asked the question and they told us they didn’t want to be paid the day before Christmas and wanted to get paid as normal on the 28th and so we changed our practice.

“Now every year to make 100% sure in November we ask the team when they would like to be paid – before during or after Christmas. If somebody says they need an advance to help them buy presents that’s fine as well.”

The Close provides further financial support to staff through loans which they are allowed to pay back in instalments.

Through his role as a board member of The Outstanding Society, Dhrona actively pioneers innovation and shares best practice across the care home sector.

“It’s now open to every single provider where previously it wasn’t,” Dhrona says. “Our board decided we wanted it to be an absolutely inclusive space. You don’t have to be Outstanding to be a member. It’s for the improvement of the whole sector.”

The managing director says being open to learning from others was key to his home’s success.

“We are not stupid to think that we are the best,” Dhrona explains. “We might be up there, but we spend a considerable amount of team learning from others. Being Outstanding is one thing, but remaining it is another. We don’t think that we are number one, we are happy to learn and adapt and steal ideas and then put our spin on it.”

It’s this open and all-inclusive approach that makes The Close one of the very best care homes in the country as well as a beacon of excellence for others to follow.

“We don’t think that we are number one, we are happy to learn and adapt and steal ideas and then put our spin on it.”

Government failed to plan for Covid impact

The government failed to plan for the economic shock which hit the care home sector due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a major report has found

The ‘Bailed out and burned out?’ report analyses the financial impacts of the pandemic on UK care homes for older people and their staff. The report is the result of a collaboration between Warwick Business School, University College London and think tank Centre for Health and the Public Interest, and was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council,

The study finds that although 60% of care homes for older people were at risk of insolvency in the event of a mild economic shock, the government had failed to make any contingency plans for the pandemic that hit the sector in March 2020.

Around £2.1 billion in financial support was provided by government to care homes as part of the pandemic response.

Care homes, meanwhile, suffered an 8% reduction in occupancy during the first year of the pandemic.

“Four-fifths (80%) of staff worked more hours during the pandemic than previously. And more than two in five (42%) care workers reported financial problems related to working in care homes during the pandemic.”

REPORT RECOMMENDATIONS

• Improved contingency planning for the financial effect of future pandemics and their consequences for staffing, including creating a standby emergency social care workforce

• Sustained government support for care homes coping with the lasting effect of pandemics

• Public funding for care, including emergency support during pandemics, should take account of evidence showing varying outcomes by ownership type and should seek to promote forms of provision that offer both good care and good jobs

• Government and employers should improve pay and conditions for care staff in general and especially during pandemics (including recognition payments, enhanced sick pay and overtime rates)

• Government should work with employers to promote a better understanding of how care staff experience their working lives, for example through an annual national workforce survey, and to ensure adequate personal, professional and clinical support is accessible to social care staff, particularly during a pandemic.

Four-fifths (80%) of staff worked more hours during the pandemic than previously. And more than two in five (42%) care workers reported financial problems related to working in care homes during the pandemic.

Half of care workers said their ability to meet residents’ needs worsened during the pandemic.

Staff vacancy rates almost doubled in percentage terms between April 2021 and January 2022 rising from 6% to 11%.

The report found the financial effect on staff varied by ownership type and size. Compared to not-for-profit homes, staff in homes owned by for-profit companies

were more dissatisfied with their sick pay and reported higher increases in their hours and amount of work. Staff in not-for-profit care homes were also more satisfied with support from their manager than those in care homes owned by for-profit companies. Homes that were part of bigger chains fared worse in staff satisfaction with workloads, pay (including sick pay), ability to offer good care, and support from their managers and organisations cited as concerns.

Dividends from 122 out of the 460 companies assessed rose by 11% or £11.7 million on the previous year to £120 million. Insurance costs were predicted to

Table 1 Revenue change for care home companies during the first year of the pandemic

rise by 300% as a result of the pandemic.

Marianna Fotaki, professor of business ethics at Warwick Business School and co-author of the study, said: “The decision by government to end financial support for care home companies after the peak of the pandemic had passed, even though the financial impact of the pandemic was clearly not over, has likely contributed to the current financial and operational difficulties experienced by the sector. A pandemic does not end when government says that it does.”

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: “This report graphically illustrates the impact that Covid has had on both staff and the sustainability of care services. What comes across is that the government's approach is very piecemeal, and whilst helpful at some points, it does not give us what we need, which is a long-term vision for social care, underpinned

by the funding to make organisations sustainable, and to significantly invest in the pay, conditions and training of staff.”

Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, said: “Whilst we got some help during the worst of Covid-19, that stopped far too quickly. Since then, the extra costs associated with the pandemic, combined with huge increases in energy and utility costs and the ongoing staffing challenges, have all pushed the sector deeper into the abyss.”

Nadra Ahmed, executive chairman of the National Care Association and chair of the Care Provider Alliance, commented: “Nothing in this report will come as a major surprise to social care providers and their dedicated workforce. Much of the monies announced did not reach the front line, although what did made a huge difference to providers

enabling them to support those in their services and their workforce.

“The findings are clear that there was no plan for social care and the limited time grants did not all reach the front line. Our workforce was tireless throughout the pandemic delivering services. There was no funding available to recognise their dedication in England, whilst the other devolved nations made at least one payment to mark their contribution.

“The government’s announcement of ‘business as usual’ made little difference to the operational stance for providers, as Covid restrictions remained in place for care homes. There was no additional funding to support our workforce for time off if they contracted Covid. Precedents were set up but not sustainable for an already underfunded and fragile sector with additional pressures post Covid.”

Table 2 Staffing numbers during year one of the pandemic compared to the previous year

Figure 1 Change in ability to meet residents’ needs

Transformational care

Chief executive John Godden shares how Salutem Care has turned around previously failing services providing complex care to 56 people in Cornwall

In September 2022 Cornwall Council asked Salutem to take over the running of the majority of services previously run by Spectrum Care after care had deteriorated due to staffing and management problems.

The specialist care provider had previously been asked to step in by the council to run two Achieve Together services in September 2021.

“The council had seen our success in dealing with the two services in the year before they asked if we would step in and take over the care provision of all 56 complex people,” Godden told us.

“They had an array of issues that had led to some pretty negative ratings from the CQC. A lot of the problems could be traced back to staffing issues. It’s an issue the whole sector has had for the past 18 months but they hadn’t handled it properly and they were understaffed and the staff they had were potentially undertrained.”

With its strong presence in the Southwest, Salutem was asked to take over the Spectrum services under its local subsidiary, Modus Care.

“We had enough boots on the ground locally and infrastructure and leadership

Janet Hurley, interim managerMultisite Rosehill and East Wheal Rose, said: “I feel overjoyed and privileged to have become part of the Salutem Family. The support has been amazing from day one. Everyone in the Salutem teams I have interacted with have been very supportive, there is always someone either on the end of the phone, email or teams to support with information and advice when needed. We have had numerous visits from John, Martyn, the compliance and estates team, A ‘Buddy Manager’, training managers etc supporting us with implementing the new systems and paperwork, everyone I have met has been extremely helpful and supportive.”

locally to feel that we could do it,” Godden explained.

“We didn’t want to step into it unless we could be pretty certain that we could do what the council and CQC needed us to do to maintain and improve those important services. We have been very successful in bringing in people who have worked for Spectrum in the past and who had fallen out of love with it. We have added to the team and have stabilized what is going on and it’s in a much better place. There’s a lot more to do and working with the council and CQC we have been pretty effective.”

The 13 former Spectrum services, five of which were rated Inadequate, six Requires Improvement and two Good, range from single person units for individuals requiring very specific care up to 16 person homes.

The homes are now awaiting reinspection under Salutem with Godden confident of a significant improvement in ratings.

“We communicate with the CQC very regularly,” Godden told us. “They are very aware of what we are doing. We expect them to come in and inspect soon. We are

ready for that. It’s a proper collaboration between us as a care provider, the council as care commissioner and the CQC. I would expect all of the services to be uprated on reinspection and would be delighted.”

Salutem has taken over the running of the council services on a leasehold basis which Godden said the provider would probably end up buying.

A few remaining services are being leased from independent landlords.

Godden cited underinvestment in the properties and insufficient staffing as the biggest challenges.

“There were insufficient staff rather than bad staff,” Godden observed. “The staff who stayed were the ones who had a sense of duty for the people they were looking after. Despite working for an organization that was not necessarily supporting them they still stayed because they cared so much about the people they were looking after. So you take that on and you have got to change that culture and make the staff feel supported, appreciated and give the right training and the right tools and give them more hands. We stopped them having to work

John Godden

85 hours a week because they didn’t have anyone else to provide the care. The frontline care was pretty good. There was some good stuff happening against all the odds. It was the management that was letting them down and we fixed that.”

Godden told us Salutem had addressed staffing shortages at the services by recruiting a further 40 staff while acknowledging more carers were still required.

“We have managed to increase the staff numbers whereas they had been decreasing month on month over the last few years,” Godden told us. “We do need to carry on increasing numbers and are doing that week by week as fast as we can. We have over 300 staff now.”

The chief executive said virtually all of the Spectrum staff had stayed at the services while acknowledging some had been encouraged to leave.

Support for staff has been increased with workers also being given a 10% pay rise.

Despite the services’ troubled recent history, Godden said lifting staff morale had been “quite easy”.

“When you are the new people it gives you an advantage because any problems were with the old guys. Being a new provider does give some advantages,” Godden said. “The thing that we did that made the most difference was that we all went there and met with them and listened to them. A couple of the homes commented that they had seen more of me in a couple of weeks than they had seen the old chief exec in the last 10 years.

“A lot of our colleagues went in and we also have internal communication across the whole business where everybody can share with everybody and that was very important that everyone else can see what else is happening across all of the other homes and schools we have across the country and can feel a part of what we do and we are also able to reach out and ask

what they needed. If you work in one of those homes that’s transformational.”

The provision of greater staffing resources and support has also had a transformational effect on on service users’ care.

“One of the guys who was living in a senior person’s unit had not been out and not done a lot of the things he used to do,” Godden noted. “We turned that around very quickly and enabled him to do the things he wants to do like go swimming. The care he was receiving wasn’t bad. The staff were doing an incredible job in the circumstances. He was safe but he wasn’t living a fulfilled life.”

Under Salutem’s capable guidance the former Spectrum services look set for a brighter future.

“The families are very happy with what’s happening,” Godden concluded. “The staff are happy too and hopefully all of the people they are supporting are happy and fulfilled which is the point of the whole exercise.”

Godden cares for a service user at Oakleigh Lodge in Nottingham

Camelot Care opens dementia care home in Somerset

Dementia care specialist Camelot Care officially opened new home Chestnut Lodge in Yeovil, Somerset last month

The former Acacia Lodge was purpose-built as a care home in 2010 but has been empty for a number of years. It has been extensively re-fitted by Camelot Care.

Yeovil’s mayor, councillor Evie PottsJones, officially opened the care home on 12 April.

Chestnut Lodge manager Graham Oakes, currently serving as leader of the town council, said: “We’ve already welcomed our first few residents, and are operating a limited admissions process in the early stages so that the team can give every new lady or gent all the individual time and attention they deserve. That way we can get to know them and their loved ones really well, which means they will settle more quickly and confidently.”

Chestnut Lodge is initially offering nursing care for up to 24 people living

with dementia, with more single en suite rooms due to become available later in the year. The home will be running a varied programme of activities, starting off with some Greek dancing and with regular features such as quizzes, bingo, chair exercises, music therapy and gardening in the home’s secure courtyard area.

Chestnut Lodge aims to support carers in the community, and will also offer respite care. It has already launched a monthly community coffee morning to enable carers to chat and meet new people over drinks and cake.

“Now we have our staff team in place,

we’d love to hear from local people who’d like to volunteer with us to help our residents live their best lives, either by engaging with small groups of residents or spending time with a sole resident,” said Oakes.

Danforth unveils energy saving care home in Derby

An energy saving care home on the path to zero carbon consumption has been unveiled in Derby

Danforth Care Homes’ Heatherton House is equipped with solar panels and is 100% electric powered.

The luxury care home provides residential, dementia and respite care for 66 residents with fees charged on an all-inclusive basis. Facilities include a beauty and hair salon, cinema, library and landscaped garden, as well as coffee bar, restaurant and sweet shop. Individual facilities include wet rooms, smart TVs and mini fridges.

Home manager Amanda Jelbert said: “We’ve designed the home to be a safe and comfortable space for residents to live their lives to the full, enjoying everyday activities with tailored care and support. Heatherton House will be a true asset to the Derby community.

“It is important for us that the residents always feel supported and valued. Through person-centred care, we will recognise each individuals' ambitions and respect who they are, and the life they lived before joining us.

“The space should feel like a home, which is why we will work hard to uphold an inclusive, safe environment where family can visit and enjoy their lifestyle with them, from coffee bar trips to joining in with daily activities."

The home created 60 jobs.

Chestnut Lodge

The ribbon cutting ceremony at Danforth Care Home

Liaise acquires eight new homes in Norfolk

Liaise, a provider of specialist care services for adults with learning disabilities, mental health and other complex needs, has acquired eight new homes in Norfolk from Jeesal Residential Care Services Group, a provider of complex care services

The eight homes provide a range of personalised residential care services with tailored support to promote independence and involvement in community activities. The homes also offer a range of facilities with large communal areas and gardens for in-house activities.

The acquisition adds 49 people to support, 54 beds and 140 members of staff to Liaise, which now has 45 care homes across the Southeast of England.

Liaise stated it has a strategic ambition to expand its presence in the East Anglia region.

David Petrie, chief executive at Liaise, said: “We are pleased to welcome to Liaise these well-established homes. We also want to welcome our new colleagues to the Liaise team and we look forward to working together to deliver a great service to the people we support by creating environments which help them flourish.”

Shropshire care home on the market for £1.95m

Rylands Nursing and Residential Care Home in Newport, Shropshire is on the market with an asking price of £1,950,000 for the freehold

Rylands is a converted and extended three-storey 19th century building with 39 bedrooms including two companion rooms. It is a Good-rated business registered to care for up to 44 residents.

It is currently operated with a management company in place and the owners in the background. The business has been owned by Lynn and Mark Cowling since 2005 and was brought to market to allow the pair to retire.

The Cowling’s commented: “During our period of ownership we have extended the home and modernised many of the facilities.”

Business property advisor Christie & Co is facilitating the sale.

Paul Reilly, director, healthcare at Christie & Co, said: “The home has been wellestablished for many years and enjoys good occupancy levels. We believe a hands-on owner-operator would increase profitability by reducing some of the management and staffing costs.”

Rylands Nursing and Residential Care Home

Luxury care home opens in Whitby

A 66-bed luxury care home has officially opened its doors to residents in Whitby

The mayor of Whitby, councillor Linda Wild, cut the ribbon to mark the official opening of The Mayfield Care Home, a purpose-built luxury care home offering residential, dementia and respite care, operated by Cromwell Care.

Mayfield offers all-inclusive living, with a single weekly fee covering everything from hair styling and manicures at the on-site salon, physiotherapy, chiropody and accompanied healthcare visits, to trips to the beach and movie screenings at the on-site cinema.

Adam Kane, general manager of The Mayfield, said: “We’re so excited to be opening The Mayfield in Whitby. The town is incredible, and we can’t wait to get our new residents out and about to enjoy the area, whilst providing the highest level of care at our fantastic new home.”

Tobyn Dickinson, chief executive of Cromwell Care, added: “Setting up and running a care home has been a dream of mine for many years, so to do it here in Whitby, where I used to come on holiday as a boy, is a dream come true. It’s a wonderful place, and everyone has been incredibly welcoming and supportive.”

Construction begins at Exemplar care home

Specialist care provider Exemplar Health Care has begun construction of a £5.8 million care home in Knowsley, Merseyside

Fernwood will be Exemplar’s seventh care home in the Liverpool area and will support 28 adults living with dementia, acquired brain injuries, complex mental health needs and physical disabilities, across two units.

Set to open at the end of the year, the home will feature 28 rooms with an en suite wetroom, spacious communal spaces, sensory and therapy rooms, and landscaped gardens.

Northeast-based contractor Walter Thompson has been appointed to develop the existing building. Tony Thompson, site manager at Walter Thompson, said: “It’s fantastic to see our team on site and starting work to create a care home which will be an important asset for the local community. We look forward to working in partnership with Exemplar Health Care ahead of completion towards the

end of this year.”

Charlotte Lloyd, director of commissioning at Exemplar Health Care, said: “Our newest specialist care home in Merseyside, Fernwood, will bring over 100 jobs to the local area. We are so looking forward to working closely with

the Knowsley community and integrating with local establishments.”

Exemplar Health Care provides specialist nursing care, at more than 40 care homes across Yorkshire, the Midlands, and Northeast and Northwest England.

Mayor of Whitby, councillor Linda Wild opens the home

Artist's impression of Fernwood care home

Care UK launches Shrewsbury home with community event

Care UK marked the launch of its newest care home with community activities, a charitable donation and a ribbon-cutting ceremony

Oxbow Manor’s first resident Sheila Moffat cut the ribbon to mark the official opening of the Shrewsbury home, along with town mayor, councillor Elisabeth Roberts, and Shrewsbury rotarian Margaret Thrower.

The event included entertainment from an acoustic duo, chocolate decorating using homemade chocolates prepared by the home’s head chef, flower arranging demonstrations, and arts and crafts sessions. There was also the opportunity to pet alpacas from Admirals View Alpacas in the home’s garden.

The opening ceremony included a £500 donation to the Shrewsbury Town Foundation, a charity which encourages locals to stay active through inclusive activities, including dementia-friendly football matches. Guests included Shrewsbury Town Football Club players Kade Craig and Josh Barlow.

Lindsey Quegan, home manager at Oxbow Manor, said: “Our neighbours have been so warm and welcoming, and

we loved meeting so many local people during the event; we feel like we are already part of the community.”

Athena Care Homes refurbishes 42-bed community at Ashlynn Grange

Family-run Athena Care Homes has invested more than £1 million in refurbishing a 42-bed community at Ashlynn Grange Care Home in Peterborough

Aribbon was cut at the refurbished Milton Lodge by the deputy mayor and mayoress of Peterborough, Nick Sandford and Bella Saltmarsh, on 21 March during an open afternoon attended by residents, relatives and team members.

Ashlynn Grange can now cater to 153 residents, offering residential, nursing and dementia care.

Mala Agarwal, managing director of Athena Care Homes, said: “I am really proud of this unit; it is a fantastic, bright and modern environment which allows our team to provide tailored care to our

residents, accommodating their needs and their wishes. I am absolutely sure the residents making Milton Lodge their home, are going to love living here.”

Desiree Jooste, registered home manager at Ashlynn Grange Care Home, added: “We are proud to be able to offer this newly-refurbished community for our residents and their relatives. We are also excited to be able to open it up to the wider community in Peterborough when we host awareness sessions and open days. We want everyone to be able to enjoy this welcoming space here at Ashlynn Grange.”

Oxbow's first resident Sheila Moffat cuts the ribbon to open the home

The ribbon cutting ceremony at Milton Lodge

Home care company Ashridge Home Care appointed Louise Joslin as managing director. Joslin has 18 years’ experience in the care sector working across a variety of areas, from elderly care with complex conditions to learning disabilities. Most recently she worked at Oxford Aunts and before that at The Good Care Group. Joslin is also a trustee at two Buckinghamshire charities, The South Bucks Downs Syndrome Group and Talkback UK, which helps those with autism and learning difficulties to understand their skills and how to make the most of them within their communities.

care and integrated care, a role she held since she joined the regulator in 2019.

worked for the organisation for 17 years, is now the manager of Elm Tree Court, also a Hull-based home that provides specialist dementia care. In Withernsea, Ruth Mountain is the new manager of residential and dementia care home Tamarix Lodge after starting as a carer in the home 21 years ago. Michaela McGlynn joins The Wolds Care Centre, in Louth.

Later-living developer and operator

Untold Living appointed Amy Herbert as director of operations to oversee the management and operation of its pipeline of retirement communities across the UK. Herbert has experience across the health and care sectors and is the former director of nursing homes at the St Monica Trust, where she was responsible for driving financial performance, quality of care and occupancy targets at the retirement living charity.

The Care Quality Commission appointed Kate Terroni as deputy chief executive. Terroni, a former social worker and director of social services, was previously the CQC’s chief inspector of adult social

Care UK appointed Susanne Stevens as home manager of its latest home, Oat Hill Mews in Market Harborough, which is opening in September and will provide residential, nursing and dementia care for up to 76 people. Beginning her career as a care assistant in a nursing home, Stevens completed her degree in adult nursing and become qualified as a registered general nurse. She worked for the NHS in gastroenterology before returning to a care home environment as a nurse and working her way up to deputy manager. Stevens moved into home management within a few years with another care provider.

Athena Care Homes, a family-run care home company based in East Anglia, has appointed Ben Wright as finance director. Wright has 15 years’ experience within the health and social care sector, working in finance and operations roles.

Not-for-profit care home organisation

HICA Group, which cares for more than 1,800 people, has appointed new managers at homes across Yorkshire. At specialist dementia home Albermarle in Hull, Jessica Costa becomes manager following four years as deputy manager. Kerry Moss, who

Tina Blake and Chris Critchley have been appointed registered manager and deputy manager respectively at New Care’s Bridgewater Manor in Worsley, Greater Manchester, which provides residential, dementia and 24-hour nursing care services. Blake was a registered nurse for 25 years and is responsible for the operation of the home, including all areas of compliance for the Care Quality Commission, the local authority and the clinical commissioning group. Critchley is a registered nurse responsible for the management of the clinical team and the provision of care by ensuring effective supervision, assessment, planning, implementation and evaluation.

Louise Joslin

Kate Terroni

Susanne Stevens

From left: Kerry Moss, Michaela McGlynn, Ruth Mountain, Jessica Costa

Amy Herbert

Ben Wright

Tina Blake and Chris Critchley

How laundry technology is helping streamline operations in care homes

JLA’s chief technology officer Robert Ackland discusses how digital laundry solutions are helping care providers improve efficiencies in laundry rooms

First, what do we mean by ‘digital laundry solutions’?

A suite of cloud-based/online systems that allow you to get valuable insights into how laundry equipment is performing from day to day.

This could mean saving energy, reducing environmental impact, or making sure that laundry rooms are operating in line with CQC compliance standards.

Are these systems already in use?

Yes, and have been especially useful for care providers that want to optimise their laundry processes.

At JLA, we’re also using this technology to monitor our customers’ equipment remotely, so essentially monitoring on their behalf, meaning we can identify potential issues before they cause issues or disruption. It also helps us to ensure our customers are getting the very best returns from JLA equipment. We offer these connected laundry features through Total Care, which is our all-inclusive equipment and support package. Compatible Total Care equipment includes remote monitoring as standard, while all Total Care customers can manage their JLA account 24/7 through our free MyJLA portal – another technology available to care homes working with JLA. This portal allows you to see all equipment in one place, view equipment insights and access all key documents in one place – and even purchase detergents direct.

Why is improving laundry processes important right now?

With a core focus on person-centred care and a high compliance burden to manage, most homes are happy if their laundry equipment just works. But left unchecked, a poorly operated laundry can significantly increase energy costs, damage the environment, and, in the worst cases, become a vector for infection.

This is why it’s so important to take a closer look at your laundry room’s performance. And how, with digital laundry solutions, it’s now simpler than ever to understand how well your equipment is doing – often at a glance.

At JLA, we’ve made it possible to monitor the cycles you run, view energy and water consumption, and even see live estimates of your carbon emissions. Plus, if you operate multiple locations, you can see everything in one place through the MyJLA portal, and even give your local managers the ability to see, monitor and improve performance at their own sites.

Alongside this, our laundry experts will continually check for potential issues. If we spot a problem, we’ll have an engineer with you within Total Care’s industryleading SLA.

Can you tell us more about how these digital solutions feed into sustainability and energy usage?

While the industry’s move to greener equipment gathers pace, digital laundry solutions such as JLA’s are making the transition as simple as possible. Another benefit of our digital solutions is that we can check in on the cycles running in your laundry to make sure everything matches your expected usage profile.

After all, too many hot washes could be costing you in wasted energy and unnecessarily increasing your carbon footprint, while too few hot washes or large numbers of incomplete hot washes could be putting your residents at risk of infection. Armed with insights like these, we can help you tune your laundry room to the exact needs of your business, and make sure your equipment remains wellsuited.

Plus, when you need to quickly demonstrate infection compliance or

environmental compliance, it’s infinitely easier because all your records are safely stored online on MyJLA.

What’s next for digital innovation in care home laundries?

The last year has marked only the start of digital laundry solutions, and thanks to a growing focus on energy and moneysaving, innovation is moving quickly in this sector.

Here at JLA, we’re planning not only to make compliance more visible to our customers, but also to offer organisations more tools to demonstrate their excellence in infection control compliance. We’re also developing ways to offer real-time suggestions designed to help you make the best of your equipment.

We’ll also continue to develop our digital laundry solutions so that they remain easy access and intuitive to use, so that none of our customers will need specialist knowledge, training or equipment to take advantage. We’re dedicated to removing hassle and obstacles so that there’s nothing to stop you taking the performance of your laundry to the next level.

To learn more about JLA Connect and MyJLA with Total Care, call 0808 239 0647.

Robert Ackland

Go wild outside

In our ongoing series, Aaron White, head of business services and sustainability at Oakland Care, outlines small but effective changes care homes can implement to promote sustainability, here focusing on boosting biodiversity

Sustainability is not just about the headline journey to net zero, which can be a long and complicated project. Businesses have a responsibility to look at their impact on the local environment as well as their global impact, and there are some easy and lowcost actions that can be taken right now.

Any recently constructed building will often have a negative impact on biodiversity, compared to the undeveloped areas that were there before, but there are a number of quick wins which can also benefit your business and the wellbeing of staff and residents.

Look at ‘rewilding’ an area of the garden by planting wild flowers to encourage bees and butterflies. You could plant seeds in pots on a patio, or maybe you are brave enough to take up a dozen paving slabs to create an area for wild seeding.

Alternatively you could dig a few square metres in a corner of the garden that’s not being used for anything else, and leave it as a natural area for wildlife to thrive.

Residents can get involved in developing the space as well as enjoying the benefits. When a resident sees a new bird or butterfly from their window that they have not seen before, it can be really rewarding.

You can introduce log piles and bug hotels. People often forget bugs need to eat as well as somewhere to live, so don’t put it somewhere where there are no flowers or plants. If insects are thriving,

that will attract more birds and other animals to the garden. Think about making holes in your fencing to create a hedgehog highway, allowing hedgehogs to travel freely in search of food and mates, and installing simple bird tables. Anything you can do to make your garden less formal will encourage wildlife.

Care homes are often concerned about putting in a pond because of the risk, but you could have something as simple as a selection of small water containers, half-buried in the ground. Animals need food, shelter and water – and as long as you provide all three things in any simple way you choose, your space will become increasingly biodiverse.

Look at introducing a composting area, or adding rainwater collection water butts – simple and low cost but they add greatly to the ‘sustainable’ nature of your outside space.

Local wildlife trusts can be a good and free source of advice and expertise. If

you reach out they may come and have a look at your space and share ideas on how you could develop it. At the same time you will be building important links with the local community, often with the very demographic that might become a customer further down the line. At Oakland we partnered with Kent Wildlife Trust which helped us develop our flagship wild garden at Maplewood Court. We are fortunate to have a large space for this dedicated biodiversity project, but really any space will do.

When it comes to sustainability, each individual small action might not seem that impressive or exciting. What is groundbreaking is actually getting on and doing it. It’s always better to do something small than not to do anything at all.

Enjoy the journey of making your outside space more sustainable, wildlife friendly, and engaging for residents and visitors alike.

Aaron White

is for social sustainability matters

Jonathan

The rather ‘flavour of the month’ term ‘ESG’ and sustainability are not synonymous but perhaps better understood as looking at the same issues from different perspectives.

An ESG – environment, social and governance – approach is a set of standards measuring a business's impact on society, the environment and its transparency and accountability. ESG comes very much from the investment community perspective. According to the CBI, two-thirds of investors take ESG factors into account when investing in a company.

My favourite definition of sustainability is that of the United Nations Brundtland Commission which defined it as: “meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”

But both ‘ESG’ and ‘sustainability’ are addressing the same core principle: organisational success must embrace a broader range of factors than simply that of bottom-line profit. Long-term success requires all of us to develop new business models, which respect the planet’s natural resources and that places ethical, responsible behaviour at the heart of our decision-making.

Most talk about ESG and sustainability, very understandably, focuses on the environmental element –the ‘E’. As a highly-regulated sector, most care providers are also very good at the

‘G’ – governance – of ESG. The ‘S’ in ESG, however, is often overlooked but is critical to the social care sector.

Social care delivers a huge benefit to society, but just being a social care provider doesn’t mean that you tick the ‘S’ box (if box ticking is your thing).

While I would argue the social aspects of ESG are simply the right thing to do, for the more hard-nosed it’s clear that a well thought-out social strategy can address at least three of the key challenges being faced by the sector, namely:

• The workforce recruitment crisis

• The workforce retention issue

• The poor public perception of social care. The key elements of the social element of ESG are how organisations look after their people and how they support the local communities of which they are a part.

At CareTech Group, we are proud to donate 2.5% of pre-tax profit to the independent CareTech Foundation, which is doing great work to champion and support the social care sector, care professionals and those living in care. Providing a charitable donation to the Foundation, however, is in no way the end of the story on our community agenda.

Other key elements of our strategy include:

• Each service developing its own community engagement plan

• Supporting volunteers from our staff to serve as enterprise advisors in a local school

• Sourcing as much as possible from small local businesses

• Our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion

• Our alternative recruitment strategy, enabling refugees, care-experienced young people, those with disabilities, and young people from disadvantaged communities to gain employment in the sector.

Another important element of our work has been our support of Championing Social Care programmes:

• 68 services participated in Care Home Open Week last year

• The company has been joint headline partner of the Care Sector Fundraising Ball from the outset, an event that has now raised £750,000 for social care charities

• We encourage our staff and those for whom we care to show off their talents through Care Sector’s Got Talent.

Through all of this, we support our people, provide an opportunity for them to give back to charitable causes and local communities, and provide an opportunity to shine a light on the fantastic work of the sector.

Research makes it very clear that companies that support and empower their people and are active participants in their local communities do better. Staff are more loyal, more productive and deliver higher quality.

Organisations that are visibly connecting with and supporting their local communities will attract more local talent, are less likely to trigger concerns about having a care service in the community, and will promote a more positive view of the social care sector.

And there’s no doubt that commissioners and regulators are increasingly looking to providers to demonstrate their social value credentials and their commitment to supporting the communities in which they operate.

In delivering sustainable growth, therefore, let’s make sure that social care puts the social at the centre of its ESG approach.

Freeman, group sustainability director at CareTech, highlights the importance of sustainability in the social care sector

Jonathan Freeman

A regulator with clout

In recent months we’ve received multiple reports from providers that have received communications from the CQC enforcement team informing them they are investigating potential prosecutions.

Prosecution is one of the multiple options the CQC lists in its enforcement policy and falls at the more serious end of action it can take. Prosecutions can be brought against registered providers, individual directors and/or registered managers and can result in significant fines if found guilty.

There are a number of different reasons the CQC can pursue a prosecution such as (but not limited to):

• Failure to comply with prosecutable fundamental standards

• Failing to comply with conditions of registration

• Making false or misleading statements on registration applications

• Carrying out regulated activities without the appropriate registration. The vast majority of prosecutions against registered persons have been in relation to breaches of Regulation 12 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. In relation to registered persons, the CQC can pursue direct prosecution under Regulations 12, 13(1) to (4) and 14 if a breach has resulted in avoidable

“Some of the offences listed attract unlimited fines through the courts. We’ve seen significant fines imposed recently, including a fine of more than £200,000 for an NHS trust for breaches of Regulation 12 related to the death of a patient who absconded for the third time from hospital.”

harm to a service user, they have been exposed to a significant risk of harm, or a service user has experienced loss of money or property (in a case of theft, misuse or misappropriation of money or property) and it is considered in the public interest to do so.

It is a defence for a registered person to prove that they took all reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence to prevent the breach.

Not all of the investigations undertaken by the CQC will result in it pursuing prosecution, but providers should take any indication of an investigation very seriously.

The CQC has brought three successful prosecutions so far this year, each relating to events that occurred between 2019 and 2021 linked to breaches of Regulation 12. The CQC is eager to publish details of its successful prosecutions on its website and data it has published indicates that it’s successfully attained a guilty verdict in all relevant cases it’s pursued through the courts. It should be noted that in the vast majority of these cases the accused party

has itself pleaded guilty.

Some of the offences listed above attract unlimited fines through the courts. We’ve seen significant fines imposed recently, including a fine of more than £200,000 for an NHS trust for breaches of Regulation 12 related to the death of a patient who absconded for the third time from hospital. A registered manager was also recently ordered to pay over £55,000 for failing in her duty to protect two service users from an avoidable risk of harm who both died following separate incidents at the care home.

It is recommended that providers and managers take legal advice at an early stage when facing a potential CQC prosecution. Setting the groundwork early on can help support a case in the long run. Plea considerations are not straightforward and, if found guilty, the courts consider matters of conduct throughout the course of investigations when deciding on the level of fines and important points for mitigation (which can lead to reductions in fines) could be missed without legal support.

Ridouts senior associate solicitor Samantha Burges warns about the Care Quality Commission’s tough prosecution powers

Samantha Burges

care contents

31 CPD IN FOCUS

HC-One on the importance of retention

32 C T ON THE ROAD

Intergenerational care at Nightingale Hammerson

36 WORKFORCE EVENT

Professor Irene Gray previews a major NHS and social care event this month that will discuss workforce sustainability and integrated care systems

38 CHEF OF THE MONTH

Kim Bond, chef at Excelcare’s Abbot Care Home

39 10 QUESTIONS WITH Ula Jakoniuk, Amberley Hall, Athena Care Homes

40 NORRMS’ BLOG

Columnist Norrms McNamara on the daily challenges of living with dementia

41 CARE SECTOR'S GOT TALENT

Sector struts its stuff at annual talent extravaganza

43 CARE FOR TOMORROW DHS offers guidance on funding for tech innovation

44 CREATIVE CARING

Carers demonstrate their creativity through fun and innovative activities

Train to retain

As the UK’s population ages, more of us will develop complex care needs that require specialist support, not least those relating to dementia, which now affects more than 70% of all care home residents. Against this backdrop, social care workforce shortages are well documented, and ever growing.

However, our focus as a sector is on attracting more people to a career in care should not mean we lose sight of the abundance of skills, passion and commitment to learning that exists in our current workforce.

Investing in the skills and training of the care workforce supports meaningful personal development and career pathways for carers, which is an attractive offer to those considering a move into the sector. It’s also critically essential for society more broadly that the sector has both the capacity and expertise to support people in later life as dementia care needs become increasingly complex and require more specialist support. It therefore matters more than ever that care providers have an open-minded approach to ways they can support staff in developing and diversifying their skills –whether that be carers, chefs, managers or housekeepers.

Across the sector we practise valuesbased recruitment, but this approach shouldn’t stop once you enter the front door – values-based learning, growth and development is also really important when it comes to readying colleagues for leadership roles. We have seen through our Aspiring Home Managers

Programme how much giving somebody the confidence in their skills and abilities can develop them into great leaders.

The training is open to anybody working at HC-One who shares our core values, and current participants have come from a range of backgrounds, including nursing, administration, care, and deputy management. We’ve seen some great success stories with several of our alumni going on to secure permanent leadership roles within our homes.

By opening up development pathways to a wider, more diverse audience, we’re moving away from traditional career trajectories and discovering fantastic new talent among our existing workforce. Providing a demonstrable, clear progression opportunity not only helps to attract new starters, but also helps to retain existing colleagues. Moreover, it builds sustainability as it dials up a level of readiness in our aspiring home manager community, which supports succession planning and can expediate filling vacancies more quickly – a positive move for the sector which struggles to attract and retain people with the right skillset for this complex role.

Widening access to learning and development opportunities doesn’t need to be limited to those looking to become managers and people leaders. We’re proud to be able to offer non-registered care colleagues the chance to gain a registered nursing associate qualification via the apprenticeship route. The two-year programme combines theoretical and practical learning, enabling individuals to perform more complex tasks than a non-registered colleague and diversifying their skillset.

This is not just training for training’s sake. The most important factor in any learning and development offer is that it has a meaningful impact in equipping

the care workforce to best meet the needs of people using social care services. That means that across the sector there’s no time to delay the upskilling of care staff, at all levels, in specialist dementia care. Our new dementia care learning and development offer is rolling out to all our homes this year. Having the right people with the right skills in the right place is crucial for delivering person-centred care. The tiered training approach takes colleagues on a journey of increased learning as they progress with HC-One, but always has residents at its heart –seeing them for who they are, not their condition.

Those of us working in the sector know all too well the misrepresentation that care is an unskilled profession, with little opportunity for development. It’s up to us as providers and sector leaders to counter this myth and to foster a culture of learning and professional advancement however we can. Investing in such a culture pays out – it supports succession planning and workforce development, not to mention ultimately reducing high recruitment and productivity costs.

More importantly, when we focus on valuing and developing the skills that already exist in the care sector, we better equip individuals and organisations to meet the increasingly complex needs of those we care for. This will raise parity of esteem with other sectors, and help to future-proof ourselves against being faced with the same, or worsening, workforce pressures again and again in the next few years.

Sarah Bullock, head of leadership and organisational development and Buffy Sparks, head of operational learning and development at HC-One explain why care home providers can’t lose sight of retention

“It therefore matters more than ever that care providers have an open-minded approach to ways they can support staff in developing and diversifying their skills"

Generation game

South London’s Nightingale House shares space with on-site nursery Apples and Honey. Charlotte Goddard finds out how high-quality intergenerational practice benefits both residents and children

It’s unusual for a care home to feature a tree house, sandpit and mud kitchen, but the gardens of Outstanding-rated Nightingale House cater to children as well as older people. One of two homes run by charity Nightingale Hammerson, Nightingale House has shared its grounds with social enterprise nursery Apples and Honey Nightingale since 2017. A fifth of the nursery places are subsidised and reserved for care home staff, with a positive effect on recruitment and retention.

On the day that Caring Times visited, Apples and Honey co-founder Judith Ish-Horowicz was setting up the sunny lounge area for a baby and toddler group, attended by local parents and children as well as children from the onsite nursery and residents of the home, known as ‘grandfriends’. The home’s residents are Jewish, and the nursery is centred on the values and traditions of Judaism while accepting children of all faiths or none.

Toddlers pulled out toys from a bag and handed them to their grandfriends, while everybody sang the relevant song – Teddy Bears’ Picnic for a bear, Baa Baa Black Sheep for a fluffy lamb. Fay Garcia, 95, was one of the residents at the session. “It seems incongruous to have tiny tots in with old people like me, but they amaze me how bright they are

and how quickly they learn,” she said. “Not having any children of my own, it is a new experience for me.”

Garcia, who has lived at Nightingale House for eight years, has kept in touch with families she met through the nursery. During the pandemic, activities took place over Zoom, in the garden or with children behind glass screens. “During lockdown we had a session called We Can Still Bee Together; we made bee hives and candles,” she said. While many care homes welcome one-off visits from schools and nurseries, intergenerational practice is embedded within the daily life of Nightingale House. Careful planning and delivery is essential to ensure both parties benefit,

with activities including music, pottery, cooking, exercise classes, cultural activities and gardening. Children pay visits to grandfriends who can’t attend activities, and play in the gardens and communal areas. Of course, residents are not obliged to interact with the children; intergenerational activities are just part of the home’s wider programme, which includes a book club, French conversation and tea dancing.

“Intergenerational work is much more complex than people think, if you are ensuring it is purposeful and that one group is not simply acting as a tool for the benefit of the other group,” explained Ish-Horowicz. “It must be valuable, appropriate and relevant to the people participating, and aim to build relationships.”

A 2019 study of Nightingale’s intergenerational programme found residents benefited from improved mental health and decreased social isolation. When children joined residents’ exercise classes, improvements were seen in the older people’s core strength. “People regained their motivation when children joined for the last 20 minutes – they thought to themselves ‘we’re not going to be beaten by the little ones!’” related Ish-Horowicz.

Registered manager Clemence Muchingaguyo, who has worked for

Nightingale since 2011, has noticed changes in the residents since the nursery opened. “When the children are around residents who are nonverbal, or get distressed a lot, are either quiet, or smiling and enjoying what is happening,” he said. “Other residents are able to interact with and teach the children, which they find valuable.”

The intergenerational team works closely with the home’s therapists to develop activities which will best support the needs of residents and children. Nightingale House has one of the largest in-house therapy departments in the UK, including physiotherapists, occupational therapists, a moving and handling advisor, and dietitian.

In 2021 Nightingale House and Apples and Honey set up an education and training centre, Apples and Honey Training. The centre has developed a set of quality standards, as well as the UK’s

first Level 3 accredited intergenerational qualifications. The qualifications, accredited by awards body Cache, can be taken by care workers or early years practitioners.

Among the first cohort of 12 students is Nightingale House’s own Marilia Pavlou, who joined the organisation as intergenerational officer earlier this year. “I think there is a need to insinuate these intergenerational experiences into care homes. The kids get to see what getting older means and the mental health of the people in the care home improves,” said Pavlou.

Nightingale House, which dates back to 1906, comprises six separate households, each with its own communal and dining areas. Two ‘general residential’ households are for older people who require minimal support, and a third is for people with mild to moderate dementia. Three more households provide specialist nursing care, two for people living with advanced dementia and one for those with physical issues such as cancer, heart disease or kidney failure. An on-site GP is available throughout the week.

The home’s concert hall hosts musical and theatrical events, and a massive activities room is well stocked with arts and crafts resources, including a pottery kiln. A terrace café looks out on the tranquil gardens complete with fish pond, aviary and bee hives. Evidence of the children’s and residents’ creativity is everywhere, including pottery fish and

birds and a honeycomb sculpture. Those living with dementia have their own secure garden, which includes nostalgic objects such as a bus stop and even an old-fashioned car.

The home currently supports 110 residents, although it’s registered to care for 215. Occupancy has been affected by the pandemic and by the opening of Nightingale Hammerson’s North London home in 2021, with some residents moving to be closer to their families. Half of the residents are self-funding and the remaining costs are covered by local authorities, family support or through fundraising.

In the afternoon of Caring Times’ visit, residents and children came together again for the weekly Havdalah ceremony, to mark the symbolic end of Shabbat, the day of rest. The multisensory ceremony saw children pouring grape juice into silver cups, passing round fragrant spices, lighting and extinguishing a multi-wicked candle and sharing news with their grandfriends, developing their language skills.

Building on the knowledge and expertise gained at Nightingale House, the intergeneration programme will be extended to new home Hammerson House. Nightingale Hammerson hopes that its trailblazing approach will soon become common across the sector. “Our aim is that every care setting will employ someone with responsibility for intergenerational practice,” concluded Ish-Horowicz.

Do you know or work with someone who is an unsung hero in a care home?

Ontex has teamed up with Caring Times once again to reward those working in care homes who are always ready to go that extra mile.

There are thousands of people working in UK care homes that make a real difference, whether it’s behind the scenes in the laundry room, preparing meals in the kitchen, or direct personal care of the residents. We’re looking for those that go beyond the job description. For example, it could the gardener who brings a resident their favourite cookies, or a housekeeper who helps a resident to rediscover their hobbies – we’re searching for those who bring a little bit of extra joy into the care world. Your unsung hero may be a colleague or someone else you know, and now is the time to reward those individuals that have made a genuine impact on their particular place of work!

If you know of anyone that fits the bill, entries can be made online at: caring-times.co.uk/care-home-heroes

So go to this link and tell us, in 400 words or less, why you think your nominated person deserves to win. Make sure to include an example of when they have gone the extra distance to make a difference.

All winners will be announced in June and will be presented with their certificate and Love2Shop vouchers or similar gift card on Friday 30 June at the Care

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

Managers Show at the NEC.

Three runner-up winners will each receive £250 Love2Shop vouchers or similar gift card, and the Overall Winner will receive a £500 Love2Shop voucher or similar gift card.

The three runner-up winners will feature in the September, October and November issues of Caring Times magazine, and the Overall Winner will feature in a special feature in the December issue of Caring Times

This prize draw is organised by Ontex, Weldon House, CorbyGate Business Park, Priors Haw Road, Corby, NN17 5JG. It is governed by the laws of England and Wales and it is subject to the following conditions:

• The prize draw is not open to employees or contractors of Ontex or any person directly or indirectly involved in the organisation and running of the competition or their direct family members.

• No purchase is necessary to take part in the prize draw.

• The prize draw is open to UK residents only who are aged 18 or over.

• Closing date for entry is Friday 19th May . Winners will be notified by 1st June 2023

• All winners will be presented with their Award at the Care Managers Show if they are able to attend on Friday 30th June .- otherwise they will be sent a certificate

• Permission will be required for Ontex to contact the winners and visit them to hand deliver the prizes when possible.

• If the winners do not confirm acceptance of his/her prize within 7 days he/she will automatically forfeit the rights to claim for the prize. In the event of the prize not being claimed, Ontex reserves the right to select an alternative winner via any means that Ontex feel appropriate.

• By participating in the prize draw, you declare that you accept these terms and conditions unconditionally. There is no cash alternative.

Care Homes Heroes 2023 offers a unique chance to celebrate the dedication of all those who go above and beyond to keep care homes running. It’s a brilliant way to shine the spotlight on people who get on with their jobs unseen and unheard, but make a real difference.

“This is the fifth year we’ve worked with Caring Times for the Care Home Heroes and we absolutely love it because it’s important to shine a light on those who go above and beyond for their residents,” commented Angela Gillespie, distributor channel manager at Ontex. “And it doesn’t have to be a grand gesture - it’s the little, consistent things that really have an impact on someone’s life.”

Last year, we received over 350 entries and it took a panel of five to decide the finalists. Gillespie continued: “It’s a difficult competition to judge because each person is so deserving. My top tip when nominating somebody is to use a particular example with lots of detail for how they have made a difference and how this impacted others – good luck to all nominees!”

Overall Winner 2022: Nicola Mould, home manager, Orchard Mews, HC-One Care Home Heroes 2022 Overall Winner was Nicola Mould. Nicola was nominated by community nurse, Jennifer Dodds, whose mum was a resident at Orchard Mews. “My Mum suffered from Alzheimer’s and was discharged from hospital post-Covid with deteriorated condition for palliative care,” says Jennifer. “Nicola made every effort to support my Mam, myself and my siblings during such a traumatic and sad time. She went above and beyond her role to support and help us all, often staying at work hours past her shift ending when mum deteriorated to wait for the GP to review and implement a plan and ensure Mam was comfortable and pain free.”

“The Care Home Heroes competition is a great opportunity for us to recognise and reward those working in our care homes who are always ready to go that extra mile and have made a real impact to the lives of residents,” says James Tugendhat,

LAST CHANCE TO ENTER

chief executive at HC-One. “We are always on the lookout for opportunities to celebrate our colleagues’ achievements. We were delighted that Nikki Mould, home manager at HCOne’s Orchard Mews Care Home, was selected as the overall winner of the Care Home Heroes competition in 2022,” he continues. “Nikki was nominated for being professional, empathetic and knowledgeable, and in recognition of how she delivers high quality nursing care and excels in the management of her amazing care team whose care philosophy is completely person-centred.”

Runner-up 2022: Karen Jones, domestic, Park House Care Home, Eastgate Care Karen Jones has been with Park House Care Home for just under 10 years, and her standards have never slipped. “Nothing is too much trouble for this lady who always clocks up to 50 hours a week making sure our home is extremely clean,” says Park House. “No speck of dirt escapes her.” During the pandemic Karen was fastidious in ensuring all recommended measures were put in place and the home received a glowing CQC Infection Prevention and Control report. Karen spends her spare time with the people who live at Park House, singing, playing board games and chatting.

Runner-up 2022: Paul Bond, housekeeper, Fremantle Trust

As housekeeper, Paul gets involved with most of the residents. After noticing a fishing magazine in the room of one resident, “RS”, Paul decided to make his wish to go fishing again come true. Along with RS’ daughter Tracey, he arranged everything from obtaining a fishing licence, sorting out a suitable venue, carrying out a risk assessment and organising a carer to accompany the two of them. Paul ensured that RS had an amazing day out, and took a photograph of the fish he caught and landed. “We were so pleased that we could fulfil RS’ dream,” says Fremantle Trust. “He has been to fish three times now and further plans have been made.”

Starting a movement

Professor Irene Gray previews a major event this month where senior NHS and care home leaders will come together to challenge artificial boundaries and explore innovation for the sustainability of the health and social care workforce

Held at Kings Place in King’s Cross, London on 18 May

‘Health and Social Care Workforce: Wellbeing, Integration and Sustainability’, which is co-funded by Care England and Talent for Care will bring together senior leaders from the NHS and social care to discuss workforce sustainability and integrated care systems.

Event organiser Professor Irene Gray tells Caring Times: “We had a few webinars last year and moved towards thinking we really need to be trying to get senior NHS, care home people and social care people in the same room discussing their joint problems and challenges.”

Gray says one of the drivers behind the programme had come from a recent training programme launched by Nicola Ranger, director of nursing at the Royal College of Nursing.

“She had started to share her training programmes with the local care home sector so that they could get to know each other and recognise that they have the same skillset,” Gray says. “That contributed to our idea for an event about the wellbeing of staff, sustainability of staff for the future and how we achieve that integration, and how we can only really get that integration by getting people together at the table to accept and acknowledge that

health and social care is one system.”

Andrew Whelan, chair of event co-funder Future Care Capital, adds: “The Future Care Capital philosophy of change is to facilitate bringing together all the right people in the room. People often try to do that, but they sit in their own silos and look at problems and solutions separately. What we are saying is it doesn’t really matter where you sit, we are all part of the solution and the system should be seen as a whole. It’s a health and care system whereas the public just think of the NHS.

“When you introduce nurses from the NHS into a care home they are quite surprised at what they are being asked to do and what responsibilities they have that they hadn’t had before. This event is to begin that process of opening people’s eyes and having some of the policymakers in the room to get them thinking about what we need to do to make a lasting change.”

Keynote speakers on the event’s three strands of wellbeing, sustainability and the workforce will be followed by round table discussions led by industry experts. The effective inclusion of the care home sector into integrated care systems will be one of the key topics under debate.

“We are hoping to get something where we can put a marker in the sand and say we can do something different,” Gray notes. “I don’t believe for one minute we’re going to change the world on the day, but I’d like to think we’ve started a movement which is in the interests of patient care. We are there for one reason and that is excellence in patient care. If we can stop people languishing in hospital for long periods of time unnecessarily, many of whom pass away unnecessarily, then we should be able to do that.”

Gray lists representation of care homes at integrated care board level, joint training across the sectors, regulation of care staff training, and care staff professional recognition by the Nursing

“We should facilitate people and not create ‘us and them’ situations, and respect the fact that that people are doing wonderful jobs whether they happen to work for a private care home or in an NHS hospital. They are all trying to do better things and provide better care.”

Midwifery Council as among the event’s key long-term goals.

Whelan adds: “What I would like to see is that this is a start of a movement where the debate in the UK around health and care is about the outcomes and the provision that meets the needs that people have and that the debate is not about how much money is going into the NHS which is where it is stuck at the moment. It’s about reframing those questions so that social care

“What we are saying is it doesn’t really matter where you sit, we are all part of the solution and the system should be seen as a whole. It’s a health and care system whereas the public just think of the NHS.”

Professor Irene Gray

“We have a great opportunity now with integrated care systems. The high-level intention is to make this happen, but the devil is in the detail and implementation”

becomes much more important to people and therefore influences policy.

The sense that we have is that people receive the care they receive in spite of the system not because of it. Our vision is that they will be able to get the care that they need because of the system, and that is by breaking down the barriers between what is perceived as more than one system currently, so that you have a truly integrated system.

“We should facilitate people and not create ‘us and them’ situations, and respect the fact that that people are doing wonderful jobs whether they happen to work for a private care home or in an NHS hospital. They are all trying to do better things and provide better care.

“We have a great opportunity now with integrated care systems. The high-level intention is to make this happen, but the devil is in the detail and implementation, and there’s a danger it goes the way of all these other integration exercises where they are not implemented properly and people are left off the table and therefore don’t have a voice – and it just becomes another silo talking to itself.”

To learn more about the event and book your tickets, visit: bit. ly/414h2jR. If you would like to discuss being involved as a sponsor, contact Daren Thomas at Care England at: dthomas@careengland.org.uk

Event keynote speakers

Sir David Nicholson, chairman of Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust

Liz Kendall MP, shadow minister for health and social care

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England

Joanne Balmer, chief executive of Oakland Care

Oonagh Smyth, chief executive of Skills for Care

Professor Deborah Sturdy, chief nurse for adult social care

Alessandro Alagna, director of Talent for Care.

Chef of the month

What does your typical weekly menu look like?

It’s mainly made up of traditional, wholesome foods that people enjoy. It is collaborative and subject to change based on the needs of the people who live here, but some firm favourites include scampi, lemon and parsley baked cod and lamb ragu.

How do you meet residents’ nutritional and health needs?

We do this by serving fresh, homecooked meals that are nutritionally balanced and tasty. We cater for people with allergies and preferences by taking their menu choices and making the recipe in a different way to meet their needs.

How do you cater for residents living with dementia?

Our person-centred approach informs everything we do. We start by getting to know the people who live here and work collaboratively with the care team to make sure their likes and preferences are met. This involves where they choose to dine, the cutlery they use, or do not use, and what type of dish their food is served on.

Tell us about your background and how you joined Excelcare

My background is actually in banking, but after having my children I fell in love with cooking. I started my career as a chef working in schools, then started here at Abbot Care Home nine years ago. I haven’t looked back since.

What’s special about working at Excelcare?

I am always encouraged to learn and develop my skills. When I started at Abbot it was owned by another company and I was serving frozen ready meals. These were simple to serve and included lots of nutritional ingredients, but they weren’t getting much positive feedback from residents. When Excelcare took over, I was encouraged to serve

homecooked meals and it was clear people enjoyed it much more. I always say the first taste of your food is with your eyes, so I have been been learning about presenting food as it might be presented in a high-end restaurant, and that has made me feel more engaged with the food I serve. Hearing positive comments from residents makes it all worth it.

How do you vary your menu to provide choice for residents?

We have a menu that rotates every four weeks to ensure there’s lots of variety, as well an alternative menu that people can choose from if they don’t want the choices on the main menu. However, if a person requests something that isn’t included on any of the menus, we strive to make it for them.

What is your most popular dish?

Shepherd’s pie is a firm favourite. I think this is down to my secret ingredient, Marmite.

What is your own favourite dish?

I love a traditional Sunday roast. My top tip is to cook your roast potatoes in the fat from the beef joint to give them a nice crisp and flavour.

How do you make the dining experience special for residents and their families?

Relatives are invited to dine with their loved one in a setting they choose, from our formal and informal dining rooms to our gardens or the privacy of their loved one’s room. We make our dining spaces warm and inviting so families feel welcome at any time.

Kim Bond, chef at Excelcare’s Abbot Care Home in Harlow, Essex, shares her secrets to providing a great dining experience for her residents

Kim Bond

10 questions with…

What do you do when life all gets a bit too much?

Recently I have discovered spinning classes, they are a very good stress reliever. I have the music on, lights down and fully concentrate on the pedalling. Nothing else matters. For those 45 minutes, it’s just me and the bike. That quiet time is really important.

What advice would you give your younger self?

Keep going and don’t be afraid of taking leaps to progress your career. You need to be independent, and you need to be prepared. You have to prepare for a time in life when your mum and dad are not there to support you – you have to stand on your own. Otherwise, you will have massive unclosed chapters in your life.

Why did you join the social care sector?

For me the question is ‘why did I choose to become a nurse?’ I was born into it. It’s a family tradition. My mum is a nurse and growing up I had the feel of nursing at home and shared her love of caring for people. When I reached that stage in my life where I needed to decide what to do, it was always going to be nursing. I left Poland 11 years ago because I wanted a change. I wanted to feel I was making a difference and in the UK as a nurse you can do that. There are different pathways here. In Poland I was working in an acute setting and I didn’t get to see that patient journey. I didn’t get to do the after-care and see them recover. I am interested more in people and a care home community gives you that opportunity to get to know our residents in depth, which is something really special.

What do you enjoy most about your job?

I like the people; I like the hands-on side and I like being with the residents. At one time I didn’t think a management job would give me that satisfaction. However, it has given me that pleasure;

I enjoy working with people and helping them develop. I like being a part of their progress. It feels like the dream job.

Who is your social care hero and why?

It is my mum, she is my hero. Quite often I reflect on how she worked in different periods of her life, while bringing up four children. She saw dramatic changes in the sector, so many advances. When she first started, they used glass syringes and I can’t even imagine that. I could always see she loved her job and you should do in life what makes you happy.

What is the one thing you would change about social care?

Paperwork. That takes away time that we could spend with our residents. I know why we have to do it, I’m sure most of us would rather be spending the time with our residents.

What, in your opinion, makes a great care worker?

You have to have that passion. Everything else you can learn. But if you don’t have that passion, then it won’t work. You must want to make a difference.

Which famous people would you have to dinner and why?

Fame isn’t hugely important for me. I would rather have dinner with someone I am interested in. Maybe a politician, but I would want them to directly answer the questions I ask. If I had to name someone, probably Meryl Streep as I am quite interested in her. She is strong, independent and works on women’s rights. She has strong views.

What three items would you bring with you on a desert island?

This question seems to come up quite often in my house, and I ask my husband what he would take. He always says me! I would take coffee. The question is how would I make it, and I would probably need more items. I would take my favourite book, Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. I read that from time to time. I’m also quite sentimental, so a photo album – although that’s not really practical, it wouldn’t get me far.

What’s your secret talent?

I have quite recently started cooking and baking, I think I am quite good at making power (energy) balls.

Ula Jakoniuk

Ula Jakoniuk has been manager of Amberley Hall Care Home in King’s Lynn since December and previously ran Goodwins Hall Care Home, also part of the Athena Care Homes group

Sands of time

Our columnist Norrms McNamara reflects on what it’s like to live with dementia

If you can imagine the tide coming in, wave by wave, and watch the sands shift every time this happens, you will see different shapes, hear different sounds, and the scene in front of you is so very different almost every time. Well, if someone said to me: “what’s it like to live with dementia every day?”, then this would be a good way of explaining it. Some would say that might apply to everyone at some point in their lives, which is true, but there are certain differences, and what I mean is this.

Dementia really is unlike any other illness, and just like the tide, it comes in waves. What I mean is that sometimes people living with dementia can present themselves (as they say) as being just like anybody else, talking, walking and acting just like the next person, but then, sadly, things can change very quickly and with no warning.

When I was little, I was always told the seventh wave was always the biggest. Is this true or urban legend? Probably the latter, but I believed every world of it when my gran told me, and it does remind me of how everything can be quite okay, the waves lapping quietly on the beach, and then suddenly as in a crashing of a bigger wave, dementia arrives and mixes everything up in the swim, not unlike becoming suddenly confused with no warning.

As the biggest wave crashes and recedes, the pebbles that were there, the seaweed or sandcastles, are then washed away, just like having all your memories there one minute and then gone the next. As the waves continue to

come and go, so do the memories of a person with dementia, but we have to remember, the memories are still there, somewhere, as sure as the tides will continue to come and go as seasons pass, somewhere in every wave is a memory that can come back at any time.

Here at the Purple Angel dementia charity which I founded in Torbay, Devon in January 2012, our motto is ‘Engagement and Inclusion’ and we’re very proud of that, because if you engage and include people with dementia those memories will come flooding back and you wouldn’t believe how many interesting stories they have to tell.

We are all unique and have walked a different path doing different things along the path of life. We have all given so much to others and if you hear what people with dementia have to say, you might be surprised.

At our memory café here in Torquay, we have had people attend who have dementia who are professional football managers, eminent scientists, artists, singers, dancers, and a person who was

responsible for designing the CAT scans we have today in the UK hospitals, so you can only imagine the stories the volunteers and I have been told, just wonderful!

In my own time of campaigning about dementia I have met many people up and down the UK, including royalty, pop stars, prime ministers and lords, but I have to say my biggest honour was actually meeting the incredible Stephen Hawkins before he passed, and having a face-to-face 15-minute conversation with him at a Pride of Britain event I was invited to one year, as I won the Southwest of UK volunteer award for my work in dementia.

What did we talk about? Dementia? Himself? Is there really life out there in space? Sorry, but what was actually said between myself and Stephen will always stay between us out of sheer respect

Till next time…

To find out more about Purple Angel visit: purpleangel-global.com

Purple Angel is providing free bespoke MP3 players for people living with dementia at:

purpleangel-global.com/mp3-players/

Norrms McNamara

Sector celebrates singing stars

Care Sector’s Got Talent 2023 was a joyous celebration of an incredible sector – but there had to be a winner. Caring Times was there to find out who took the crown

Singing duo Michael & Charlene have been crowned winners of the third Care Sector’s Got Talent competition, after a closely-fought grand finale performed in front of a live audience.

The judging panel chose Charlene Reeves and Michael Gallagher, senior care assistant and wellbeing co-ordinator at Hill View Care Home in Glasgow, as the winners of the event after they performed Lady Gaga song Shallow on stage at Derby Arena.

“I had to hold back the tears, especially when you hit those high notes so well,” judge Rob Martin, managing director of care services at care provider Anchor, told the pair. Fellow judge Natalie Ravenscroft, wellbeing support manager at the National Activity Providers Association, said: “Care is about connections and being together and supporting each other, and you have shared that with everyone who is watching.” Judges Sarah Hyman, chief operating officer at Caring Times, and Sanjay Dhrona, managing director of The Close Care Home, praised the duo’s onstage chemistry and harmonising skills.

Gallagher has worked at the home for three years, while Reeves has worked in care for around 10 years. “It is a job I absolutely love. It is very challenging but so rewarding,” she said.

Care Sector’s Got Talent is run by Championing Social Care to give care staff, or those who receive care, the opportunity to showcase their talents and is an important way of celebrating people who work in the care sector. “It’s good to

get people together to show appreciation for what they do,” said Gallagher.

The 2023 finale, which took place on 20 April, was hosted by Majesticare chief executive Angela Boxall, and was live streamed to care homes across the UK, with Adam Parnell and Mark Topps of The Caring View podcast providing backstage interviews.

Second place in the competition was awarded to Kayleigh Morgan, lifestyles co-ordinator at Greenhill Manor Care Home in Merthyr Tydfil, who sang On My Own from Les Miserables. “I’ve loved singing since I was a young child, but unfortunately I had two operations on my vocal chords which knocked my confidence,” she said. “I’m so glad I applied – I’d advise other people not to dither, just find something you are good at and enter!”

Joint third place in the competition

was shared by Helena Maskell, senior care assistant at Hartwell Lodge care home in Fareham, and Robert Speker, who works in the activities and life enrichment sector. Maskell gave a heartfelt performance of Billie Eilish song Idontwannabeyouanymore, and Speker played a medley of piano pieces, backed by images from his innovative #CareHomeAlbumCovers project, which recreates classic album covers with care home residents.

Also taking part in the final were singers Frances Gray and Craig Smith, pianist and singer Paul Bekamba, and dance troupe Dost, Mahesh, Dhiya, and Angeca. Vice-chair of Championing Social Care Jonathan Freeman said: “Huge congratulations to all of our incredible finalists who came from far and wide across England, Scotland and Wales.”

The worthy winners Charlene & Michael. Credit: Alex Freeman Photography/Championing Social Care

Finalist Helena Maskell channels Billie Eilish. Credit: Alex Freeman Photography/Championing Social Care Care Sector’s Got Talent’s amazing finalists. Credit: Alex Freeman Photography/Championing Social Care

Building better care businesses through digital transformation

By Fiona Hale, managing director of CoolCare.

While the rise in the cost of living has impacted all sectors and businesses in their own way, there is strong evidence to suggest that within the care sector, digital transformation has strengthened businesses and given them greater resilience to changing times.

Care homes using care home administration software have seen benefits, from increased business performance to major reductions both in the number of administrative tasks and the time taken to complete them.

Occupancy and enquiries

A challenge for many homes is the effective management of enquiries and the stabilising of occupancy and fees – a steady stream of enquiries and an efficient process of handling them are both fundamental to continued business success. Care homes utilising digital enquiry management have reported achieving between 29-62% above the national average for weekly fees, as well as an average of 82% occupancy for those managing resident records using software also.

Furthermore, the reliable and effective enquiry management within care home administration software has allowed care homes to report an average of 20 days to convert an enquiry to an admission, helping to keep empty beds to a minimum.

Fee management and invoicing

On average, care homes make around 15 fee adjustments per month as care needs evolve and funding situations change, with some making over 100 adjustments when needed. As the decision for an older person to go into care is often deeply personal for an individual and their family, invoice accuracy is incredibly important for care homes where fee errors can create distress.

Using care home management software to support invoice processing

and generation both reduces the time taken and simplifies the process. A manual fee change takes an estimated 15 minutes on average. Care home administration software brings this down to just a few clicks, saving care homes around 2.5 hours in an average month and much more in months with greater volumes of changes.

People processes

There are also opportunities for time savings across staff processes too. With some 696,000 care home staff in the UK, the number of times staff clockin and out is easily in the millions. Care home management software can automatically add clock-in times to timesheets and ‘snap’ to the appropriate shift time, saving time for staff daily and also for payroll teams at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, the average care home receives an average of 21 holiday requests each month. Where a manual holiday request takes a total of around 15 minutes, a digital process reduces this to an estimated five minutes. By digitalising this process, care homes stand to save around 3.5 hours each month – that’s a full working week each year.

Overall, the data suggests that undergoing digital transformation and adopting care home administration

software has the power to make care homes stronger and more resilient as businesses, by reducing costs through automation and improving accuracy. Meanwhile, the same software can benefit care home staff hugely, reducing the workload and easing the weight of the administrative burden in a tightly regulated sector. However, the UK financial situation changes in the coming months – taking steps to improve business processes now will help the care sector to face the challenges head on.

Fiona Hale, is the managing director of CoolCare. Centred on admin made easy, its services are aimed at making operating care homes easier, more efficient and more profitable.

Following three decades of care home administration software development, CoolCare knows what good looks like –and it seeks to help care homes love their admin by making it simple. Its intuitive design drives higher staff confidence and increases the impact of digital adoption, while CoolCare’s user-friendliness is legendary, making it the software of choice for some of the UK’s leading care home operators.

Funding for your tech

Most of us now use digital technology in some way in our day-to-day lives. Whether it’s doing our weekly food shop via a phone app, wearing a watch to track how many steps we take each day, or a using a smart speaker to remind us to take the roast out of the oven on time.

It’s no different in the adult social care sector, and often the same technologies and gadgets that we use at home can also be used to support how we care for people. But when this everyday tech is packaged up as ‘care technology’ it can feel a bit intimidating and technical.

In our work to support the digital transformation of the adult social care sector we want to make sure that we keep the focus on the difference technology can make to people’s lives and how care is delivered. Using technology to support care shouldn’t be daunting. And you definitely don’t need to be a tech-whizz to be able to use it. If you are using a smartphone in your day-to-day life, then using technology to support care is no different.

How can technology support care?

Going back to the devices we may already be using at home; mobile phones and tablets have already found their place as invaluable tools to support people in remaining connected with families and loved ones. They can also be used to set medication or hydration reminders or to manage repeat prescriptions.

There are also now many apps which can be used to support communication, including the more sophisticated eye-gaze and touchscreen technologies that can enable people to express their wants and needs and be in control of how they are supported.

Digital solutions to support reminiscence, as well as art-based solutions such as music therapy, are helpful in supporting people with learning disabilities or who are living with dementia. Even just playing simple games on a tablet is a way in which technology

can help incorporate therapeutic approaches into care routines. There are many ways that embedding everyday technology into care planning can play a part in supporting people. These approaches to using technology in a care setting can deliver big results, but what about care tech solutions that might require a bigger investment in time or finances to put in place?

Specialist solutions which can support the delivery of care include vital signs monitoring, as well as falls prevention and detection technologies. We’re seeing strong evidence around the role these technologies play in keeping people safe and in preventing hospital admissions, but there’s a lot to think through for providers.

With this in mind we want to support Care Quality Commission-registered providers in making decisions about which care technology solutions in which they might choose to invest.

Last month we announced the launch of our technology fund. Each pilot will be funded up to a maximum of £600,000 to be spent in the financial year 2023/24. The funding will be allocated in up to three waves over the course of the financial year. For the first wave we are inviting Expressions of Interest to be submitted by 26 May 2023.

The funding will support providers to test and adopt care technologies that address local priorities, by providing implementation and evaluation support to develop an evidence base to prioritise which technologies have proven benefits for the sector.

We’re working with local integrated care systems to manage applications to our Adult Social Care Technology Fund which will focus on the following priorities:

• Care quality and safety (including safe discharge from hospital)

• Avoidable admission/readmissions to hospital

• Support for people to live independently.

We know that technology is increasingly playing a significant role in how care is delivered. Get it right and care technology can help enable outstanding quality and personalised care, empowering individuals, their families and carers.

To find out more about how our care technology funding support could help you please email:

england.adultsocialcare@nhs.net

The DHSC’s Social Care Programme deputy director Alice Ainsworth says technology can support improved care – and invites providers to apply for funding to implement their solutions.

Creative Caring

As always, carers have demonstrated their creativity through fun and innovative events for their residents

Home to help celebrate St David’s Day. Musical sheep farmer John Hughes, a regular visitor to the home, was joined by Jess the therapy dog and a group of local schoolchildren.

Starter for ten

Residents from Signature Senior Lifestyle’s family of 38 care homes had their fingers on buzzers as they took part in the care home provider’s take on University Challenge. Teams of four residents pitted their wits against each other, answering 60 questions covering current affairs, film, history, world geography and a picture round.

Story time

Pre-schoolers from Back to the Garden Childcare visited residents at New Care’s Statham Manor Care Centre to mark World Book Day. Dressed as characters from their favourite stories, the children read books with residents in the care home lounge.

Ice dream

When residents at Excelcare’s Sherrell House were asked which activities they had always dreamed of doing, they came up with the idea of ice skating. Staff organised an inclusive session with a trained leisure centre team at Romford’s Sapphire Ice and Leisure Centre, and residents were able to glide on the ice from the comfort of their wheelchairs.

Life of Pie

Four Seasons Care Homes celebrated British Pie Week with a range of pastry delights. Shankly Pie, named in honour of famed Liverpool FC manager Bill Shankly, was top pick at the Merseyside homes, while Cumbrian residents tucked into Cumberland Pie and Lancashire homes served Manchester Tart. Residents got involved by making pastry and reminiscing about favourite local pies.

Comfort dolls

MHA Mapplewell Manor has introduced three HUG dolls to help residents living with cognitive impairment and dementia, and those in end-of-life care. The weighted dolls, which have beating hearts in soft bodies, aim to comfort residents and replicate the feelings they would get from hugging a loved one.

Pen pals

Residents of two Colten Care homes in Dorset, Fernhill and The Aldbury, have exchanged letters as part of a new pen pal exchange scheme. Fernhill plans to invite The Aldbury residents for lunch so pen pals can meet and chat in person. Companionship team member Melissa Siat said writing skills improve memory, help with dexterity and emotional wellbeing and keep residents sociable.

Singing sensation

Internet star The Singing Farmer joined residents at Newtown’s The Oaks Care

Speedy Sally

85-year-old Sally Webster, a resident at Care UK’s Deewater Grange, soared over Penrhyn Slate Quarry at 100mph on a 1.5km zipline – the fastest in the world – from 500 feet high. Sally, who paraglided over Morzine ski resort in the French Alps in her mid-sixties, added her wish to the home’s Wishing Tree, and the team made it come true.

Bunny business

Two Puddington care homes enjoyed visits from real Easter bunnies. Peter, Sally and Rosie, named by residents, moved into the grounds of the Chapel House Nursing Home and Plessington Court Residential Home just in time for Easter.

Beautiful butterflies

Residents at Barchester’s Falmouth Court care home teamed up to create a beautiful display of paper butterflies for the window of their local Sue Ryder charity shop. Staff members report that residents are thrilled to see their work on display and are eager to start on their next creative project.

hit songs while residents guessed which familiar face was behind the display. Residents enjoyed six songs by nine team members before a big reveal showed the faces behind the act.

Hat trick

Boutique Care Homes’ Easter bonnet design competition was won by Sheila at The Burlington for her ‘eggstravagant’ Easter chick bonnet. Judges were impressed with the attention to detail and the creativity that went into the design. The organisation also ran a Spring poems competition, with winning entries published on its website.

Egg-citing gifts

Children from Little Hoole Primary School in Walmer Bridge visited residents at Ribble Court Care Home to sing songs and deliver Easter gifts. The children, some of whom had relatives in the home, presented residents with mini Easter eggs in beautifully made packaging which they had created as part of a design technology class project.

Scarecrow parade

Around 60 Basildon schoolchildren took to the streets dressed as scarecrows as part of a collaborative project with care home Mundy House. The Archie Project aims to connect local primary schools with older people, especially those in care homes, to dispel the fear and stigma often associated with dementia and create more dementiafriendly communities. Children have been taking part in arts and crafts sessions with residents.

Home comforts

Staff at MHA Hillside supported resident Joao Lima to visit Portugal, the country of his birth. The admin team helped arrange a citizen card and passport for Joao who had always dreamt of revisiting his home country. He spent seven days in Portugal, staying with family and visiting the places where he spent his childhood.

Behind the Mask

Staff from Care South’s Dorset House care home in Poole treated residents and their families to a ‘masked singer’ event. Hidden behind masks made by children from Muddy Boots Nursery and a glittery gold screen, team members from Dorset House care home covered

Easter extravaganza

Easter activities at Colten Care’s 21 homes included a visit from the Easter Bunny, egg hunts, bonnet making and singing. At Abbotts Barton in Winchester, children from Harestock Primary School joined residents for an Easter crafting session, while 11 local children took part in an Easter egg hunt. At Fernhill in Longham, there was an Easter parade complete with bonnets and bunnies along with songs performed by entertainer Paul Hammond.

Join workshops on topics including compassionate leadership, creating a ‘safety culture’, and digital transformation

Leave each session with a CPD-accredited certificate

Learn about opportunities including the Level 5 Diploma through to a Level 7 Senior Leader Apprenticeship qualifications

Look out for the ‘CT Training Accredited’ badge (see right) on care groups’ stands

FREE CPD, FREE TICKETS

Submissions close 26 May

03 October 2023

Not only are the Awards a fantastic opportunity to catch up with your colleagues, you could make the night even better by taking home a trophy! Submissions are now open and if shortlisted your entry will be assessed by our illustrious panel of judges.

seniorshousingawards.com/enter | #SHAwards23

Hilton London Bankside

Main sponsor Silver sponsor

Award sponsors

Drinks reception sponsor

CHRISTIE FINANCE BENEFITS FROM THE SUPPORT AND EXPERTISE OF OUR SISTER COMPANY, CHRISTIE & CO

As specialists in finance for care homes, we are able to support existing care home-owners with their day-to-day finance needs whether for purchases, refurbishment, expansion or tax and cashflow.

SOLD BY CHRISTIE & CO

CASE STUDY

Kent based care group, RBC Healthcare Group successfully purchased two ‘Good’ rated care homes with the support of Christie Finance. Based on the same street in Dartford, Kent – the purchase added 177 beds to the group – making them one of the largest groups in the local area.

Throughout the transaction Jimmy remained a constant source of support and guidance. His expertise and knowledge of both the care sector and financial market gave me every confidence. Despite the many challenges we faced sourcing the finance, Jimmy remained steady sourcing several offers of funding. His continued enthusiasm and desire to drive the transaction forward, overcoming further obstacles and difficult parties all the way to the day of completion.

Bal Sanghera RCB Healthcare Group

For further information about how Christie Finance can support your business. SPEAK TO THE EXPERTS:

Jimmy Johns Director

T: 07711 767 593

E: Jimmy.johns@christiefinance.com

Tony Howard Associate Director – Unsecured Lending

T: 07736 621 020

E: Tony.howard@christiefinance.com

christiefinance.com

FOR SALE

The Lawns, Devon

Freehold £650,000

• Registered for 12, MH & LD

• Well positioned town centre location

3270388

T: 07764 241 310

LOOKING TO SELL? TALK TO THE EXPERTS. We have a large pool of buyers ready to invest in the UK social care sector.

The Rylands, Shropshire

Freehold £1,950,000

• Nursing & Dementia Care Home

• Registered for 44

5873244

Development Opportunity, Rocester/Uttoxeter

Freehold £695,000

• Former Bed & Breakfast with planning for C2 use

• Supported Living / Children’s Home

5873252

T: 07791 979 041

T: 07791 979 041

Nursing Home, North Lanarkshire

Freehold Offers Invited

• Group of two homes

• Combined registration for 69

Project Loch

T: 07764 241 280

Confidential Property

Care Home, East Sussex

Freehold £1,050,000

• Registered for 27

• Bay fronted detached two-storey property

8877738

T: 07764 241 296

Confidential Property

Confidential Property

Care Home, East Midlands

Freehold £1,800,000

• Registered for 43

• Rated ‘Good’ with CQC

5770975

T: 07703 716 156

Malvern House, Cornwall

Freehold £1,350,000

• Detached & extended care home

• Registered for 22

3270341

T: 07764 241 310

Confidential Property

Nursing Home, North Ayrshire

Freehold Offers Invited

• Registered for 113 (increasing to 125)

• 35-year family run established home

6870567

T: 07764 241 280

Contact

Submissions now open

24 November 2023

Platinum Suite, London

Not only are the Awards a fantastic opportunity to catch up with your colleagues, you could make the night even better by taking home a trophy! Submissions are now open and if shortlisted your entry will be assessed by our illustrious panel of judges.

Award sponsors Silver sponsor

Photobooth sponsor

Shop

Agenda

Why should you attend the Care Managers Show?

Leaders in everything from HR to creative thinking, from managing a team to coping with grief, will feature in a packed agenda of interactive panels and workshops.

caremanagersshow.co.uk/agenda

• Free entry to 46 workshops across CPD, Operational Excellence, Home Care and Technology theatres

• Leave with a minimum of three practical takeaways that will improve the operational efficiency of your organisation

• Listen to industry experts including ex-CQC inspectors and care leaders, to get new ideas and overcome challenges in your work

• Attend wellbeing and professional development sessions to maximise your personal contribution and effectiveness

• See new products and services that could be the answer to an operational issue in your business

The largest show in the UK dedicated to care managers

FREE TICKETS

Excellence

Exhibition

Hosted by everyone’s favourite TV personality, Davina McCall, the show will include a central entertainment stage as well as five core streams of content: Operational Excellence, Wellbeing, Home Care, Free CPD, and Technology.

Managers will leave the show having broadened their horizons, gained valuable CPD credits, and most importantly, had fun.

30 June - 01 July | NEC Birmingham

FREE TO ATTEND