Caring Weekly July 12

Boss steps up his challenge to ministers

A CARE home boss has stepped up calls for the Scottish Government to intervene in the “crisis” in social care.

Ron Taylor, managing director of Parklands Care Homes, has urged Social Care Minister Maree Todd to work with COSLA and the social care sector to end the stalemate surrounding the National Care Home Contract and deliver a fairer deal for care homes.

Despite months of discussion there has been no agreement on a sustainable form of funding for social care.

In a recent blog Ron said the NCHC, which sets out Scotland-wide rates for residential and nursing care, had “failed to keep pace with rising costs and now falls far short of what is needed to deliver high-quality care and support for older people.”

In a statement last month

Scottish Care said current funding levels were “equivalent to less than £5 per hour for complex care and support.”

Ron has returned to the subject in a new video in which he discusses the “frightening” pace of care home closures, and warns more will likely follow unless an agreement is reached on future funding, further fuelling the NHS bed blocking crisis.

He said: “The fees that we get at the moment are just

not enough. To get a six per cent increase, which is on the table at the moment, doesn’t even scratch the surface. The National Care Home contract was introduced roughly 15 years ago and really it’s not fit for purpose.

“Over the last 30 years I’ve never ever experienced the state of the industry as it is now. The number of closures and the accelerated number of closures is frightening, particularly in the Highlands with numerous homes closing, and I think it’s undoubtedly going to get worse.

“We know there is a huge amount of bed blocking within Raigmore and Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, so surely the social care sector should be part of the solution, not the problem.

“It’s quite clear that COSLA don’t have any funds to take this any further. The Scottish Government need to intervene to help us out of this crisis. We are suffering crippling cost increases, crippling agency costs and we need financial assistance.

“We look after people who are blessed with old age. These people have given their lives to the community and now I feel we’re letting them down.”

Parklands recently revealed that its agency costs alone had soared by more than 800 per cent in two years.

Residents from St Ives House and Alexandra House, two Care South care homes, exchanged words at an inter-home jumbo Scrabble competition. St Ives House, a purpose-built home for residential and dementia care situated near Ringwood, welcomed a handful of residents from sister care home, Alexandra House in Poole, for some light-hearted, friendly competition over a game of Scrabble. Residents started off the visit with fish and chips for lunch in the bistro before trading tiles on the Scrabble board. The two teams played on a standing jumbo-sized board, measuring over 2m tall, which was crafted by the St Ives House activities team. After all the 100 tiles had been used, the visiting residents from Alexandra House emerged as the winning team.

Time to get your nominations in

OPERATORS wanting to put themselves forward for recognition have been urged to enter the Caring UK Awards in partnership with Virgin Money.

Nominations for this year’s event are now open at www.caringukawards.co.uk

The awards, organised by Script Events in partnership with Caring UK, recognise excellence and achievement in all corners of the care industry.

And with more than 20 categories up for grabs, there’s something to suit every type of care business.

These include everything from Quality in Housekeeping and Catering Team of the Year to Best Outdoor Environment and End of Life Team of the Year.

Event director Dominic Musgrave said: “We are really excited to be introducing the sixth Caring UK Awards – nominations are

coming in and our events team is already busy ensuring that this year’s event is bigger and better than ever.

“Obviously, our main aim is to recognise and honour the best in our wonderful care sector and showcase the innovation and dedication that goes on every day so please share your successes and tell us about your hard work and initiatives by sending in your nominations … it’s a real privilege to read them.”

A shortlist in each category will then be drawn up, with winners chosen by an expert industry panel.

Trophies will be handed out at a glittering ceremony at the Athena in Leicester on Thursday, December 7 presented by television personality Emma Jesson.

Closing date for nominations is August 28th.

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Brownies bridge generation gap with flowers

FLOWER power was the theme of the evening as girls aged seven to 10 shared their enthusiasm for being Brownies on a visit to a Chichester care home’s garden.

Residents at Colten Care’s Wellington Grange welcomed 10 young visitors, plus three leaders, from the 10th Chichester Brownies.

The focus of the occasion was flower arranging, but it wasn’t long before residents shared happy memories of being Brownies and Girl Guides themselves, and young and not-soyoung struck up lively conversations.

Companionship team leader Heather Pearce said: “As a Brownie leader myself in Hampshire, I was very keen to get a Brownie unit in as I knew they would enjoy it as much as our residents.

“Working at the tables together gave everyone a chance to get to know each other, with the focus on flower arranging to talk about.

“It was lovely to see our residents and the Brownies chatting and interacting while they produced their floral displays.

“There was lots of chatter, stories and questions asked.”

The arranging involved flowers grown specially in the home’s garden along with other wildflowers and foliage gathered by Colten Care gardener Emily Trueman.

Emily started the evening with some advice for the Brownies on best practice for flower arranging, as well as a few safety tips.

The Brownies then spread

Boost for Yorkshire and Humber care providers through new alliance

themselves around the tables between their hosts, so they could work together, with the residents offering advice and information on the flowers and plants being used.

Heather added: “Our residents loved the opportunity to pass on their knowledge about the flowers to the Brownies.

“We hope this will be the start of a great relationship between Wellington Grange and 10th Chichester Brownies.

“The Brownies took their flower arrangements home with them, while the ones the residents made are on display in the dining rooms at Wellington Grange for all to enjoy.”

Home welcomes furry friends

OAKE Meadows care home in Taunton welcomed some very special visitors to the home to interact with residents and staff.

A trio of alpacas – Jed, Cuddy and Coco – from Stoke Wood Alpacas, were the talk of the home when they arrived to mingle.

Michelle May, activities co-ordinator at Oake Meadows, said: “It was wonderful to see the smiles on the faces of everyone.

“The alpacas were incredibly friendly and seemed to enjoy the visit as much as the residents and staff.

“It is so important to find things that are fun, varied and sometimes unusual for our activities programme and there’s no doubt that animal visits are very popular.

“Thanks to Stoke Wood Alpacas for bringing the three beautiful alpacas and making our day.”

Originally from Peru, alpacas are known for their charming temperament and the calming affect they can have on people.

Residents and staff enjoyed petting and feeding the alpacas and learning a bit more about the popular animals.

CARE providers across the Yorkshire and Humber region are joining forces to support one another and fight for better care for the area’s oldest and most vulnerable people.

The Yorkshire and Humber Care Association Alliance brings together bodies representing hundreds of care providers across the area.

It began two years ago as an informal forum for organisations to work together as a solution-led organisation to improve social care.

Now its members are signing up to a Memorandum of Understanding, formalising the group’s structure and committing to work together to improve care.

The Alliance comprises Barnsley Independent Care Home Providers Association, Bradford Care Association, Hull and East Riding Care Association, The Independent Care Group (North Yorkshire and York), Kirklees Care Association, Leeds Care Association, Sheffield Care Association and Wakefield (Independent Sector Leadership Group).

Each represents dozens of individual care providers, from the private and not-for-profit sectors, looking after adults with physical, sensory or learning disabilities, people with mental ill-health, and older people.

This includes care and nursing homes, home care services, shared lives schemes and retirement communities, extra care facilities and day care.

The YHCAA is on the national Care Association Alliance, an umbrella body for care associations across the country.

Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, chaired the latest meeting of the Alliance.

He said: “This is a really exciting moment for the Alliance as we move forward together and strive to improve care for many hundreds of thousands of people in our region and beyond. Unity in our sector is key.

“We are at a pivotal moment for social care in this country and it is important that the voice of care providers in Yorkshire and the

Humber is heard more strongly than ever before.

“The YHCAA will be the pre-eminent collective, regional voice for social care. It will speak up for hundreds of care providers across the region and fight for reform and improvement to the lives of many thousands of people who rely on social care for their quality of life.

“We need to present a strong, united voice and I passionately believe that bringing all our individual organisations to the table of a single forum is a great way to progress the case for social care in our region.”

The Alliance’s overall aim is to provide leadership, help, support and advice to its membership, share best practice and work with care commissioners, including local authorities and NHS bodies and other partners to improve the quality of life of those living with a care need.

It will work on things like improving fees for providers, helping providers get access to training for staff, informing regional and national care policy by sharing information and trends and building greater awareness of social care and care providers.

James Creegan, CEO and chair of Kirklees Care Association, added: “As the challenges facing care providers grow and become more complex, the need for greater, more informed and more relevant support grows too.

“By coming together as an Alliance, our associations can pool resources, gain vital insights, produce and share guidance and help provide advice and solutions to the benefit of those providers.

“Our greatest strength will be in our ability to link local knowledge and local relationships with regional and national partners to help us all work together to improve care for people across our region. We will also work with other organisations and networks that can feed into our aims.

“Our new alliance will provide a stronger, louder, unified voice, campaigning locally, regionally and nationally for better care for people and fairer treatment of those who provide it.”

Resident Valerie Woodall is all smiles as she discusses flower arranging with one of the visitors from 10th Chichester Brownies.

Resident takes trip down memory lane

WHEN Edward “Ted” Potter told staff at Brendoncare Stildon care home in East Grinstead about his biggest wish they decided they wanted to help him make it come true.

Ted, 87, a resident at Brendoncare Stildon, has been a member of the YMCA Club in London for more than 20 years so the team arranged for him to return to visit his old gym where he reunited with his friends who attend and work there.

Home’s portrait competition is ‘first of its kind’

A HEREFORD care home recently hosted a ‘Portrait Artist of the Year” competition – a collaboration which brought together its residents and aspiring young artists from local colleges.

The event, believed to be the first of its kind held by a care home in the UK, was hosted by Brockington House.

The home, which is part of Dormy Care Communities, invited a dozen students from two local colleges –Hereford College of Arts and Hereford Sixth Form College – to spend the day at Brockington to create their portraits.

The residents acted as models and the artists used a variety of different mediums including charcoal, paints, ink and digital to create the portraits. They were considered by a judging panel which included local artist Mark Stewart of Sunrise Giants, home director Shann Thomas, the home’s activities co-ordinator and organiser of the competition, Tara Chatterley-Russell and Dormy Care Communities chief executive Helen Davies-Parsons.

Shann said: “It was an absolute pleasure to welcome the students in

to Brockington House. The ladies and gentlemen loved meeting them and very much enjoyed acting as models for the day. We would very much like to thank both colleges for being so enthusiastic and for getting involved.

“It is a great opportunity for the different generations to mix and we hope this will now lead to more collaborations and an annual competition. We think, from our research, that this is the first competition of its kind to be held by a care home in the UK.

“It was incredibly difficult to choose our winners as they all captured the likenesses of our ladies and gentlemen so well.

“We plan to hold an exhibition of the portraits so all of the ladies and gentlemen at Brockington, and their families, have a chance to view them and enjoy them as much as we have. ”

After much deliberation and careful consideration, the title of Portrait Artist of the Year, and a Hobbycraft voucher worth £150, was awarded to 17-year-old Darcy Eccleston from Hereford College of Art for his charcoal portrait of Yvonne.

The runners-up were also presented with vouchers.

A Hampshire care home has raised nearly £1,000 for children’s hospice charity Julia’s House by staging a bohemian-style garden fete. Residents, friends and staff at Kingfishers in New Milton created the hippy vibe by making more than 100 pom poms along with tassels and macramé hanging art. As well as decorating the garden, they wore floral dresses, tops and resident-made wreaths, sold handcrafted gifts and held a raffle of donated goods. The upshot was a total of £910.44 for Julia’s House, the home’s main nominated charity for support this year. “It all looked so colourful and joyful when you entered the gardens,” said companionship team member Christina Holliday. “Our residents loved having their families and friends with them on this special summer’s day.”

He became a club member after he settled in London, his early life being spent travelling the world.

His father was in the Army so he and his mother followed him after he was posted to ports around South Africa such as Port Elizabeth.

They returned to England when he was about 13 just as the bombs were falling in London during World War II.

Ted left school when he was 18, thought about going into the law, but instead, he decided he wanted to travel more so started working for oil company Esso.

He then joined the Royal Navy for 10 years as a purser on passenger ships, before returning to Esso.

While working in London, Ted joined the YMCA in Great Russell Street, just off Tottenham Court Road.

He went there almost every day, playing badminton and squash and making many friends with whom he played.

He has been a member of the club for so long now, the organisers decided to make him an honorary member.

“I always had a good time there mixing with everyone and being social. It became half the reason I went there, the other half being to exercise,” Ted said.

After he joined, the female

equivalent club was located opposite, so dances were arranged where the women could join them. In the end, the clubs amalgamated to become one club, which Ted thought was an excellent idea.

After the visit, Ted said: “It’s been a really good day. Everyone has had enough time for me to talk to them and I’ve really enjoyed my day.”

Betty Wood, Brendoncare Stildon’s wellbeing coordinator, added: “It was a pleasure to take Ted back to a place which holds so many memories for him.

“It was a beautiful sunny day and we are so grateful to everyone at the YMCA for making Ted feel so welcome.”

Operator continues to expand its network

HOME Instead has welcomed two new franchisees to join its network of more than 255 franchise offices.

Munish Bhardwaj, owner of Home Instead Lowestoft, has spent many years in various senior roles in the maritime industry, travelling across the world.

During the pandemic he started thinking about what he really wanted to do and caring for others was always at the forefront of his mind.

This desire to care for others led him to Home Instead and the opportunity provided for him to set up his own business.

Munish said: “I loved working across the world with my career, but my heart has always been in caring and my local community. I have a huge respect for older people, they deserve only the very best in their later years.”

Nick Moran has also recently launched his new business in Lincoln. He was inspired by his personal experience trying to find care for his mother.

He is keen to get people talking to

their ageing parents about their care, before they find themselves in a crisis situation, not knowing where to turn for support.

Nick added: “I know the feeling. Your parents aren’t as fit as they once were and they need some support, but we don’t want to talk about it.

“Home care is becoming increasingly important as we age, more and more people want to remain living independently in their own homes for as long as possible. I’m so proud to know that we are able to provide real peace of mind to so many families and their loved ones.”

Tara Chatterley-Russell, Mark Stewart, Darcy Eccleston, Helen Davies-Parsons and Shann Thomas.

Ted on his visit to the YMCA Club in London with Betty Wood, Brendoncare Stildon’s wellbeing coordinator.

Inseparable siblings land dream careers working together

A PAIR of Macclesfield sisters have found the perfect job that rewards them with fulfilling livelihoods whilst meeting the demands of their busy lifestyles: working alongside one another, caring for the town’s older community.

Rachel Smith, 53, and Traci Herbert, 58, have found their vocation with Belong at Home, offering a helping hand supporting people to live independently in their homes.

They joined the home care service as part of its ongoing recruitment drive, as their personal circumstances necessitated a career move - both for very different reasons.

Safeguarding expert Rachel, then head of college student support services, sought a switch that aligned more closely with her emotional needs.

She said: “Dealing with complaints all day really took its toll; I needed a job that was more positive, where I could still have an impact on the lives of others.”

It was after caring for her uncle in the final stages of his life, Rachel felt ready to embark on her new venture.

“I’d known for a few years my next step would be in care,” she added. “People are called to do it and I could wait forever and a day to be

financially ready and it would never come.”

Meanwhile, older sister Traci was battling to keep afloat the family pub within a hospitality sector up against increased costs and decreased patronage. Having heard of the flexibility that care afforded her sister, she drew upon her previous experience to re-enter the profession.

An Air Force veteran has celebrated her 101st birthday at Royal Star & Garter in Surbiton. Phyllis Hales was visited by her children, grandchildren and friends, and later enjoyed a tea party with other residents at the care home, on Friday 30 June. Phyllis has been a resident at Royal Star & Garter since 2017. She was born in London in 1922 and did clerical work at a bookbinders before joining the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force in 1942 at the age of 19. She continued doing clerical work while serving in the military and, following the war, was stationed for six months in Belgium and Germany. She demobbed in 1946 before working for British European Airways, and later as a headmaster’s secretary.

She added: “I needed a supplementary income that would allow me to work around my business. Rachel was really enthusiastic about Belong at Home and I’ve worked in care before, so it was the perfect opportunity.

“Growing up, we were always together; I took her everywhere. Our family’s very close, so it’s a joy to be

able spend more time together and it’s not uncommon for us to meet in Tesco car park to share lunch and have a catch-up.”

Just six months into the job, Rachel has earned a newcomer award nomination at the Stars of Social Care Awards for Home Care.

Rachel added: “I’m thrilled to be nominated for a job that I love. I wasn’t sure if I could apply without care experience, but as long as you’re a people person, happy to look after others and make them comfortable, Belong at Home teaches you how to care for someone with dementia.

“The main things you need are confidence, approachability and empathy.

“My advice to anyone thinking about it is to just go for it.”

Traci added: “For me the flexibility is perfect. I do around 25 hours per week which gives me time to complete all the pub admin in the day and then carry out care appointments in the evening or take full day shifts when it suits.

“We also get to spend more time with our parents; just recently, we celebrated mum’s 80th after being able to swap some shifts around with the colleagues. It’s been ideal for the whole family.”

A resident at a Bridlington care home recently celebrating her 100th birthday. Joan O’Connell enjoyed a day full of surprises and celebrations which saw a guest appearance from some alpacas as well as Bridlington’s Mayor and Mayoress. Alpacas from Butterwick Alpaca Retreat made a special visit to Red House care home which proved to be an extra special occasion for Joan as she loves animals. Joan also received an overwhelming response from the local community, receiving more than 300 birthday cards to mark her special day. As part of the celebrations, Kids’ Corner Nursery from Bridlington Bay Primary School paid a visit to serenade Joan with a heartwarming rendition of ‘Happy Birthday.’

A Salisbury care home welcomed a special visit by an ice cream van so a resident could have a wish come true – a 99 Flake on her 99th birthday. Stella Parsons told carers of her wish for the crumbly chocolate treat and enjoyed it with a beaming smile in the sunshine outside Colten Care’s Braemar Lodge. First in the queue when Fat Sam’s Ice Creams parked up at the home, Stella said: “I can’t believe you managed to get an icecream van here for me. I love an ice cream with a flake in it.” Behind the scenes, team members had to act quickly when the original van they tried to arrange for the sweet surprise was unable to make it in the end.

A resident at RMBI Care Co. Home Prince George Duke of Kent Court, in Chislehurst, has celebrated her 104th birthday. To mark the special milestone, resident Annie Hardy enjoyed celebrations throughout the week with her family, friends and staff at the home. Annie and her fellow residents also enjoyed a visit from schoolchildren from Farrington School. The children performed an assembly and even sang Happy Birthday to Annie. Anne received a cake, cards and flowers and activities coordinator Diane Connor organised a West End performer to come along and entertain residents. Earlier this year, knowing about her love for pie and mash, staff at the arranged a trip to London for Annie, where she was able to enjoy her favourite dish once again at Manze’s in Deptford.

Traci Herbert (left) and Rachel Smith (right) pay a visit to Belong at Home customer Victoria Ashby.