The Caremark Corner March 2014
Five Minutes With Caremark (Barnsley) P.1 A Message From Karen Pennington P.2
FIVE MINUTES WITH ANDREW PEACE & MARK McKENNING CAREMARK (BARNSLEY)
Franchisee And Care Worker Of The Month P.3 Burn Out—The Unseesn Stealth Illness P.4 Implementation Of The Care Bill And MS Week P.5 Training Matters & Updates P.6 News From Around The Network P.7 More News On The Back Page P.8
What is the biggest challenge you face in your job on a day to day basis?
What do you feel are your individual strengths?
Maintaining our high quality service is our key concern and in order to achieve this part of our focus is looking to our recruitment drive. As we are very careful to select the best applicants to work as Care Workers, we can only achieve this through continuous, safe recruitment. Good people are out there, but having the volume of applicants is critical to the service and its growth.
We work well as a team as we have different abilities.
What is the most rewarding aspect of your job? Realizing that the service we provide makes a real difference to people’s lives; our staff make a difference and feel privileged to do so and we’re all incredibly proud of that.
What has been your greatest achievement since taking on your franchise? Continuing to see the service evolve and grow. When we look back to where we started in 2011, we have come a long way. It has been a lot of hard work, determination and keeping our eyes on our goals, but it is paying off now.
What key things have you done to get where you are today? We’ve built strong relationships and we’ve worked hard to spread our base and to identify other channels of opportunity. We continue to challenge ourselves to achieve the level of business growth we aspire to and of course continue to source, recruit and support our Care and Support Workers.
Andrew’s focus is on our business development, identifying opportunities in the market place, together with maintaining our financial position. Mark’s focus is on all aspects of operations— recruitment, training, staff development, HR aspects, administration through to planning and scheduling. We are fortunate in that we share the same drive for growth and good service, we have our areas of responsibility but we also bounce ideas off each other and challenge each other with different views.
What do you do to relax away from your business? We both love nothing better than getting away from it all with our respective families and enjoying great food and a decent bottle of red, or two! From left, Kevin Lewis, Caremark Ltd CEO, Directors of Caremark (Barnsley) Mark McKenning and Andrew Peace outside their new office building in Barnsley.
A MESSAGE FROM KAREN PENNINGTON NATIONAL SUPPORT MANAGER
A
s the first quarter comes to an end I thought I would review the year so far.
The Regional Support Managers commenced their first round of quarterly audits with file audits. Congratulations must go to Naz Asghar (Cheshire North East) for achieving an outstanding result of 98% compliance to the Caremark system! The next round will fall during April, May and June and will be full audits. Audits are welcomed and supported by the network but you do not have to wait for the quarterly audit, I would encourage you to self audit as well. There have been some great achievements this year so far with 36% of trading offices returning record hours during the first quarter and 17% achieving over 2000 hours per week. This reflects a trend of strong positive growth in the network. Congratulations to this month’s Franchisee of the Month—Naz Asghar! We receive great nominations and it is always difficult to just pick one and I would like to commend all the nominees. Their being nominated is testament to their hard work and commitment to the Caremark system. It is now franchise renewal time and we already have 8 franchisees who have renewed their franchise agreements after 5 years of trading. We have a young and dynamic network and during the next 2 months 6 more franchisees will be at that stage. I feel it is brilliant that we as a franchisor are maturing and exciting to see so many of the businesses are maturing with us. I look forward to another positive and productive few months as we head towards summer.
CAREMARK (COVENTRY) GO OUT AND ABOUT!
For the next three months, Caremark (Coventry) will be working in their community, supporting a local day centre, by helping them with the cost of leisure activities. Experienced care staff will be attending the local centre, helping with lunches and entertainment. Not only will this provide much needed support for those wishing to use the day centre, but it will also mean Caremark (Coventry) will have a presence in their local area. P2
Caremark (Tonbridge) attend Spadework farmers market
Caremark (Tonbridge) were at the Spadework farmer's market on Saturday 8th March from 10am to 2pm to offer advice and answer any questions about domiciliary care. A stall was set up at the market for prospective carers and clients to chat with us about our services. The aim of Spadework is to enable people with learning disabilities (Trainees) to develop their independence and personal skills through being involved in the work of Spadework. The Trainees produce the plants that are sold in the garden centre and the fruit and vegetables that are served in the café and sold in the farm shop. They help to make cakes, jams and chutneys and serve customers in the café and they also work in the farm shop. Spadework also have woodwork, craft and IT facilities. The garden centre, farm shop and café are all open each day to the general public, which enables the trainees to interact with the customers, helping to improve their social skills, which in turn can increase their confidence and self-esteem.
NEWS FROM AROUND THE NETWORK Harriet Smith, Care Manager Caremark (Wandsworth) runs the London Marathon in April 2014 Most people like to celebrate their birthdays doing something relaxing or spend the day with friends and family. Not so for Caremark (Wandsworth)’s Care Manager, Harriet Smith! This year will see Harriet run 26.5 miles in the London Marathon raising funds for her favourite charity the NSPCC. This is the 3rd year that Harriet has applied for a place in the race and in November 2013 she was offered a place to run in this year’s Marathon on April 13th. Harriet said “The NSPCC has always been a charity close to my heart and one to which I regularly donate and attempt to raise funds for. Some people have said I must be mad spending my birthday running 26.5 miles, however to me it seemed to be a huge commitment and achievement on such a memorable day. I regularly go to the gym and had done before preparations for the London Marathon, however I’ve had to add in 2 short weekday runs and a longer one on weekends. I am hoping to complete the marathon in 4.5hrs, so please keep your fingers crossed for me!” Best of luck Harriet and we hope you have a great day and find time to relax and celebrate your birthday as well!
Caremark (Oldham) had such a successful day at their Plan Ahead event at the end of January, they are holding a second event in early April. The event will be free to enter, open to everyone and cover a range of topics from cost effective care provision to financial planning and Will writing. Very well done to Caremark (Merton) who picked up their first package on the back of achieving registration with the CQC!
‘TIME FOR A CUPPA’ FOR THE ADMIRAL NURSES! Caremark (East Riding) are holding a fund raising event on the 28th March from 10am—2pm at their offices, serving tea and cakes in return for a small donation. The event is to raise awareness and resources for Admiral Nurses who work directly with family carers, caring for someone with dementia, providing a unique lifeline to thousands of people through practical and psychological support and advice. This beautiful cake was made by Suzie, their Field Care Supervisor and portrays Graham & Karen Precious and Danny, their Care Manager!
‘WORKING FEEDBACK’—AN IDEA WORTH CONSIDERING? Calum Gray, Caremark (Winchester & Eastleigh) has been using this system to monitor his service for a while now. He finds it very worthwhile, so this might be something which we would be interested to explore further at Head Office. The reviews feed into some excellent sites which could bring you valuable exposure and ultimately more business. There is a modest initial set-up fee and a small annual fee but this is hardly worth fretting about considering the possible benefits.
Working Feedback is something that I’ve signed up to recently. In essence, I send out feedback forms to customers who return them at no cost to Disc Directory who filter out then publish the good reviews, returning the bad ones to me for my attention. Working Feedback provides numerous benefits, I believe, including: ·
Feed to NHS Choices profile
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Feed to CQC Quality Risk Profile
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A star rating service that will display on Google based on their reviews through WF
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A monthly report containing a summary of feedback received
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TRAINING MATTERS E learning system Since the start of the system 18 months ago, 6,402 users have completed their mandatory training course. We have had a couple of queries recently about the order of training and the timescales. Please remember to read through CMT402 Care and Support Worker Training, which explains the process. Other courses completed on the E Learning system are: Dementia – 299 completed. This course gives a great cost effective opportunity to promote that all your Care Workers have a good knowledge of dementia. Induction for supporting children – only 360 have completed. This is lower than expected and again is a good promotional tool if you can say that all your Care Workers supporting Children & Young People complete a full induction. Mental Capacity – 644 have completed. We have recently launched the Caremark Health & Wellbeing initiative and are surprised that franchisees have not used the training courses to put themselves ahead of other providers. The focus is to promote ourselves as providers that actively promote their staff safety and well-being, as well as their customers.
Here’s what we are doing in Pulborough to promote Health & Wellbeing:
Every Care Worker and other members of staff will complete the Health & Wellbeing course
To prepare for the warmer weather:
All CSW’s will complete the Nutrition and Hydration course between now and the start of summer
Field Care Supervisors will put a Fluid Intake form into every customer’s home file in the event that fluid intake becomes a problem and a customer is at risk of dehydration
All Care Workers will be informed to contact their Field Care Supervisor if they have concerns and then implement the form immediately
We will inform all stakeholders what we are doing
UPDATES SECTION Watch this space to find out what we have been busy with here at Head Office, note dates for your diary and to find out what is being planned for the future….
HMRC This is just a reminder to ensure you are all sending your full payment submissions to HMRC each month when you run your payroll. Please note that the late filing penalties that were due to start in April 14 and have been put back to Oct 14 which gives you a little longer to ensure that you are in the habit of doing this on time each month.
PEOPLES’ PENSION There are a number of franchisees joining The Peoples’ Pension; when doing so please can I ask that you do not set this up under the name Caremark but rather your Limited Company Name. This is to avoid any confusion with each of our pension schemes and so The Peoples’ Pension can clearly identify any transactions with your scheme.
GOOGLE PLACES GUIDE Richard has recently published on the Caremark network the 'Google Places Guide', a step-by-step walkthrough on how to get your Caremark office listed in local Google results. If you haven’t already had a look, do make sure you take advantage of this useful tool and optimise your listing in search engine results. P6
Franchisee of the Month Congratulations to Naz Asghar, Caremark (Cheshire North East) for winning the award for March. Naz will be receiving her certificate and an invitation to the next Platinum Club event.
Care Worker of the Month March 2014 Congratulations to Kimberley Palmer, Caremark (Hillingdon) for winning March’s Care Worker of the Month award.
The nominations for Franchisee of the Month Kim is an experienced care worker and a for March are: valued member of our team. She is totally
dedicated to her customers and will always go the extra mile to make sure her Caremark (Wandsworth) are nominated for their customers are all happy with the service she amazing growth in hours to over 600. However, just delivers. as importantly, as a result of James’s dedicated Kim is very reliable, she always gives the networking he has secured several important office plenty of notice if she wishes to take a connections which should open more doors for him, day off and has never taken any time off including being invited to Westminster to meet sick. If there are extra calls to be covered, Norman Lamb MP. she will always pick them up at short notice Naz Asghar (Cheshire North East) which is a great help.
James McCallum (Wandsworth)
Caremark (Cheshire North East) are nominated for their amazing 98% score in her recent Caremark inspection. Naz has a real “can do” attitude and inspires her staff with her energy and her passion for delivering excellent care. Naz leads by example and has a dedicated team around her all of whom know they can turn to her at any time for support, advice or encouragement.
Charles Folkes (Redcar & Cleveland) Caremark (Redcar & Cleveland) are nominated for having successfully been re-accredited for Contractors Health & Safety Assessment Scheme demonstrating high levels of Health and Safety practice. Charles has been pro-active in the development of his team to ensure consistent delivery of a quality service, whilst also guiding his business to new levels week on week in terms of hours, to the point of achieving the fantastic benchmark of 4000 hours per week! Redcar and Cleveland are a fantastic example of a well-run, organized, positive and successful franchise.
Keeping in touch with Kim is easy because she always responds to her telephone and/ or her emails and communicates well with the office. Kim is an excellent communicator especially with customers that have dementia. Kim also works extremely well with her colleagues and is sensitive to other people’s feelings in her day to day working. Her customers speak highly of her too. “Kim is a fantastic Carer who always makes sure my husband is happy with the care she has provided to him. She is chatty and explains everything she is about to do for him. Wonderful Carer!” Mrs CB
Congratulations to Kimberley Palmer who will receive a £25.00 M & S voucher and certificate shortly! NB– for those of you who haven’t been nominating for this award, why not let us know who has won your own Care Worker of the Month award? We will then consider them for the national award. They could be a double winner! P3
BURN OUT—THE UNSEEN STEALTH ILLNESS Some of you reading this may have personal experience of this debilitating state of being, or indeed some of you may know someone who has fallen off the rails through ‘burn out’. We are all familiar with the term ‘being stressed out’. This phrase has become so much part of our daily language that it has somehow lost some of its impact. It would seem that living in a state of stress has become almost normal. However, when stress becomes a way of life, even a constant way of being, we are on the road to meet its sibling - ‘burn out’. Working in the care industry is very rewarding and requires a degree of stamina – physical, mental and emotional. So far so good. Then add in the demands and needs of a busy home life and the stresses can start to climb. Many of your staff probably have another life to manage and ‘give to’ when they walk away at the end of their Caremark day. When demands of the job match or exceed the demands of home life the danger is that one just keeps going and going until the point of no return has been reached. Depletion is the next stop. So how far down the highway of stress are your workforce? Would you recognize some of the warning signs amongst your staff, both in the office and amongst your care workers? So what exactly is this and how do we recognize it? Fatigue: This is not simply having the odd day feeling dog tired which we can all experience during very busy periods. This is more akin to a feeling of deep exhaustion which is not reversed through getting some rest. It is more than feeling tired all the time and is closer to a chronic state of weariness. Irritability: Exhaustion wears down one’s reserves and normal tolerance to people/situations. We all have days when we feel tetchy and not at our best but if you notice your staff become over sensitive to small issues, flying off the handle at the least provocation, seem to be perpetually grumpy or generally over-react to moderate situations, it may be they are experiencing high levels of irritability. Poor quality sleep: Having the odd bad night’s sleep is not the issue here. Prolonged poor quality sleep for whatever reason (and there can be various triggers) can be another indicator of someone who is chronically tired; difficulty obtaining quality and refreshing sleep will further exacerbate their fatigue and irritability. Low self-esteem: Feelings of worthlessness, hopelessness and helplessness can all be part and parcel of this syndrome. Caring is a valuable and valued profession but for some it may become a ‘job’ for which they feel under-valued, under-appreciated and a grind. When the demands become too much for that person, feelings of being trapped in a never ending cycle of ‘giving’ at work and at home can overwhelm. They may then see themselves as someone who is only good for taking care of other people with no say or control over their own lives. Self-disparaging remarks: Feelings of worthlessness and low self-esteem can promote this kind of thing along with an interior dialogue of “no-one cares what I think, I’m just a carer” or “why should I consider my needs, what I want doesn’t matter”. Carers carry out invaluable tasks and they need to see that and recognize their own self-worth. More importantly, they need to feel they are truly valued by those around them. Cynicism: This can sometimes be the flip side of worthlessness where the person feels trapped and at the same time believe they are not using their talents or feel they are actually wasting their time doing what they are doing. Weepiness: Excessive tearfulness in some is another clue that the person is not coping with daily life; this state may swing from being excessively irritable to easily tearful. There are no hard and fast rules to this state of being. Depression: This is usually the culmination of most of the above and is a warning sign that the person needs to take time out and re-look at their lifestyle. This begs the question of—how well do you know your own workforce? How are they coping? Is your Care Manager overstretched? Is your Field Care Supervisor struggling? Do you have the same Care Workers calling in sick or any staff on prolonged sick leave? Burn-out can creep up on you if not recognised in good time with positive steps put in place to change the situation. It can quickly take the best of a person’s inner strength and overall health and take twice as long to rebuild it. Burn-out can quickly become a chronic condition and the pre-cursor to other debilitating illnesses. There is much truth in the old saying “all work and no play makes Jack a dull (and burn-out) boy”. Aiming for long term work/life balance is always the desirable option, even if we have to work hard for a short, intense period in order to return to a more measured way of life. It can sometimes help to bear in mind that whatever challenges have to be faced, we are part of the solution, rather than the solution. Getting support and help is crucial whether at home or in the office; becoming a slave to life is not the best policy.
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With the launch of Caremark’s new Health & Wellbeing initiative, there was never a better time to do a few checks and see if all is well with your own team. This new wellbeing course is aimed at helping people take control of their own health and wellbeing and make sure everyone is well informed about nutrition, hydration and a balanced lifestyle. It is so easy to forget the basics when one is caught up in the daily hurly burly of life. Sometimes people just need permission from someone outside their personal circle to take their foot off the gas. Being able to say that one is not coping should not be viewed as an admission of failure but rather an honest statement which then opens the door to change. So if we remember to give to ourselves a little as well as to others, to value our gifts and our efforts, we will have so much more to offer again and life will be that much more enjoyable.
Implementation of the Care Bill Social care employers are being urged to have their say in relation to a learning and development plan designed to identify which roles will be affected by the Care Bill. The Care Bill aims to bring together existing care and support legislation into a single act. There will be a new well-being principle at its heart with major implications for the learning and development needs of the social care workforce. There is an open consultation which will help identify and plan for the learning and development needs of the adult social care workforce in England. Here is an opportunity for us to run focus groups to determine our thoughts on the proposals, but with Regional Meetings currently taking place, it will be difficult to bring everyone together again before the 11th April when the consultation ends. Therefore, please have your say by completing the online survey. Once finalised, the learning and development plan will be used to create free learning materials and resources for use across the sector, specifically aimed at delivering the skills needed to meet the Care Bill requirements. Caremark, will of course, look at what they can also add to existing inductions. To take part in the online survey and share your views on the learning and development plan visit: www.skillsforcare.org.uk/carebill Remember the closing date for the consultation is Friday 11th April 2014. Lynda Goldsmith
3RD—9TH MARCH WAS NATIONAL MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS WEEK AND CAREMARK (KINGSTON) HAD THIS STORY TO TELL…. “We have looked after a client with progressive MS for 6 years. His package was offered to us in the early years because 4 other agencies had pulled out and 2 PA’s had resigned. He was not easy and we rapidly progressed to a double handed call so that each carer could support the other in what was quite an abusive environment but also handling safety was an issue. This gentleman still has many years of life in front of him but had been bed bound in the same place for around 15 years, so it was hardly surprising that some of his behaviour was challenging; his frustration was evident. He has no family that visit, only a brother living in this country who called occasionally. He did mention to us that he had a son who had not seen for 20 years who lived in the Reigate area. He gave us his name and we managed to find him, got in touch with him and he was delighted to hear from us and pleased to get back in touch with his father. This has now developed into visits, grandchildren, photographs etc. In addition, we were able to support him with some other major issues in his life, the results of which have given him a better quality of life and certainly brightened his outlook. Improvements with his home environment also had a major impact on his overall sense of daily wellbeing and comfort. Being able to support this gentleman to have a better quality of life has been a real pleasure. It really brings home to all of us how lucky we are to have our health, our strength and our independence.” Working with our customers to identify their goals can work well when we enter into joint partnerships and apply a more integrated approach, with a common aim to support them to achieve a specific outcome. This gentleman wanted to to achieve a better lifestyle—outcome achieved I think.
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Thought for the day Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start.
Happy clients bring more clients. Here is another good testimonial from Caremark (Redcar & Cleveland)….
Caremark (Worthing & Arun) are looking to sponsor a local football club at the beginning of next season.
“Can I take this opportunity to say thank you for all the support Caremark have given us over the years. We have a lovely supportive set of carers for Mam at the minute and she is doing really well thanks to that. Please passon my sincere compliments to the girls. Your support staff are also fantastic and nothing is too much trouble for them. Gaynor in particular I know I can contact and she will understand my concerns or need for change.
The local club currently has sponsorship, but this will run out at the end of this season and all being well, Caremark (Worthing & Arun) will be in a position to take over. Watch this space for more details!
Just thought I would pass this on as people are quick to complain but never to compliment and I think my sister, Mam and I would be lost without Caremark. Kind Regards JC”
Stephanie Doherty, Managing Director of Caremark (Oldham) pictured on the stand.
Congratulations to: (Aylesbury & Wycombe) who have recently received an excellent CQC report.
Congratulations to Caremark (Merton) who have recently been been registered with the Care Quality Commission.
Awards we are entering! The Laing & Buisson Independent Healthcare Awards 2014
Excellence in Training
Extra Care Provider
The HSBC bfa Franchise of the Year Awards 2014 Caremark (Oldham) go back to school! Caremark (Oldham) had a warm welcome at Crompton House School Year 8 careers evening earlier in the month. A large group of young people attended the event and enquired about future career pathways within the home care sector. It was encouraging to have such a strong level of interest and we were delighted to be able to inform them of the possibilities available to them and the rewards such a career would bring both to themselves and to the clients receiving the home care service. The options of working part time for Caremark (Oldham) were also highlighted for those 18 years and over, enabling anyone studying in higher education to still consider work within the home care sector. All in all, the evening was a great success and everyone enjoyed the experience. P8
Franchisor Of The Year
National Business Awards 2014
The Growth Business Of The Year
Safety In Care 2014
Learning and Training Award
Company or Individual of the Year Award