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Macc Care’s new home set to blossom in Solihull

Last month, Midlands-based luxury care home provider Macc Care opened its 14th registered service, Blossomfield Rose, at the multimillion pound Blossomfield Park – a new multi-generational development in Solihull. Caring Times was there to find out more.

Set in five acres, Blossomfield Park comprises Lovekin Gate, offering 12 luxury apartments specifically designed for people living with physical disability, Alfred Place, a bespoke development of one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments aimed at young professionals, families and those downsizing, Tudor Grange House, offering high-specification residential apartments in a unique Grade II listed building, and the newly registered, 80bed Bloomfield Rose Care home.

Operated by its three divisions – Macc Care, Macc Living and Macc Retirement – the ambitious project included Macc Group’s first ever historic build with the conversion of Tudor Grange, the former family home of Sir Alfred Bird of Bird’s Custard fame. Two years in the making, the project was not without its challenges.

Sharen Guise, director of operations at Macc Care, commented: “It’s been a difficult time to build with the Covid-19 pandemic, but despite this the project has been completed on target and has been welcomed by the community as a triumphant coming together of old and new, within an established community.”

The build was carried out by Macc Care’s long-term partner, DC Construction.

“We have a very strong working partnership and relationship and have been working together for more than 10 years,” Guise told us.

Blossomfield Rose provides residential, dementia and nursing care with all services available over four floors.

“This is our flagship home and our first multi-generational living project with a community village feel,” Guise said.

“We have an inspirational and brilliant registered manager in Sonia Tenniswood and a full staff team already employed, trained and ready to welcome new residents to live with us at Blossomfield Rose. We have had lots of enquiries already and great feedback regarding the environment of the home.

“You will see families with younger children and potentially even their grandparents all living here.”

Blossomfield Park offers a multigenerational lifestyle in a beautifully landscaped residential setting. It is in the centre of Solihull, a town much loved by its residents and on a site probably remembered, in its various guises including a family home and a college, by everyone who visits.

“It wouldn’t work in all geographical locations, but here in Solihull the development has been welcomed – especially after the Covid pandemic when people have a different vision of how they want to plan their lives,” Guise said.

Blossomfield Park has a vibrant multi-generational atmosphere with residents living alongside students at the Solihull College Campus and High School. Residents at Blossomfield Rose benefit from its unique location as they are able to look out their windows at a variety of animals, including goats, birds, sheep, donkeys and llamas, on the neighbouring land that is home to the Blue Cross and where students from the college gain hands on experience in animal husbandry.

“We plan to work in partnership with Blue Cross and the college, having adopted them as our local charity,” Guise told us.

“We are extremely experienced and skilled at building the right property in the right place. Our homes sit nicely in the community. It’s a skill finding the right thing for the right geographic area.”

Blossomfield Rose is located near Macc Care’s Blyth Rose care home in Blythe Valley, which offers care for those living with dementia in unique ‘lodge communities’.

“Our homes are all very closely located to each other,” Guise noted. “As a senior management team, we are all very involved in the homes. We are still at the size and geographic location that we can visit each of our sites often and I think that matters to ensure the quality of care delivery.”

While noting the challenging recruitment climate, Guise noted how Blossomfield Rose had benefited from its close proximity to Birmingham city centre, Solihull’s good public transport links and its local NHS teaching hospitals, and commended Macc Care’s proactive recruitment of overseas staff.

“As we grow we need to recruit nurses in a very competitive and challenging sector, but we believe we offer the best prospects to our new staff and that is evidenced by us being able to recruit

“This is our flagship home and our first

multi-generational living project with a community village feel”

fully to Blossomfield Rose ahead of registration – we believe we consistently offer only the highest standards of care,” Guise said.

“If you are recruiting well, offering something different alongside a safe and beautiful place to work, staff will want to work with you, and people will want to come.”

Guise highlighted Macc Care’s focus on values rather than qualifications when recruiting.

“Our staff must demonstrate that they care,” she said. “Qualifications are not a priority; our values-based recruitment ensures that the right people are recruited. We have our own training department that ensures training is more person-centred and staff focus on key areas.

“Qualifications are not the most important thing when recruiting; people don’t need to have an NVQ, for example, they need to care and want to care for people, and we can teach them the practical skills.

“We have really strong values, a long induction process and very stringently monitored career development pathways, with great succession planning. We have deputies who are coming through as managers and nurses who are becoming deputies.

“I believe you have to look after your staff. We are a family at Macc Care and offer clear and strong leadership, with some great team members.”

Bloomfield Park boasts a wide range of amenities, including the Coach House Café, Stable Salon, an art room, cinema, gym and wellness suite, a glass house bar and drawing room, a library and a retreat with a number of facilities shared with the other sites on the development.

Bloomfield Rose residents are welcomed with a lifestyle collection box containing a wide range of events and experiences ranging from a birthday bouquet to theatre tickets and pamper experiences.

“It’s all about future planning so you are coming in already thinking ‘what are we going to do in the next year?’ Guise told us. “It’s not an end. It’s a beginning. It’s about future planning.”

Each day residents will be provided with a schedule of activities they can choose to take part in at destination points with members of the other communities, which could include a history talk in the library, yoga in the gym, or floristry rose pruning and planting in The Folley.

Activities and events are included in a weekly fee paid by residents that ranges from £1,350 to 1,600.

“We are not, by far, the most expensive luxury provider but we certainly offer great value for money,” Guise told us.

Integrated technology is also provided throughout the home to help deliver high-quality care, including acoustic monitoring, digital care planning and nurse call systems. Bedrooms also include safety monitoring technology to support fall prevention.

Looking ahead, Guise said Macc Care planned further growth with two to three new builds a year over the next five years. With its expertise in mixed use development, the Macc Group looks well positioned to capitalise as multigenerational care increasingly becomes the norm in the years to come.

“If you are recruiting well, offering something different alongside a safe and beautiful place to work, staff will want to work with

you, and people will want to come.”