The Young Ones

I hope you managed to catch the BBC One TV series last week called "The Young Ones". This series should be essential viewing for anyone involved in care for older people. The series followed the progress of six elderly celebrities as they spent a week together participating in an experiment on how people can retain and regain mobility and other faculties. The messages for care staff are clear and important - dependency and decline in old age has much to do with how young you feel. Doing less for people often helps them more. The series features two of our colleagues, Kelly Billins and Emma Hartharn, from Echoes Community Care in Surrey.

On Wednesday this week a follow up programme was broadcast entitled "The Science of the Young Ones". This features our residents and staff at Moorhaven in Taunton and is also well worth seeing. If you missed them do try to catch these programmes while they are available on BBC iPlayer or get hold of a recording. Congratulations to all involved.

"REALISE"ing in Manchester

Yesterday I was in Manchester giving a keynote speech on the "Provider Perspective" at the national Learning Disability conference organised by Care Management Matters.

There was a lively and fairly heated debate on the relative merits and costs of residential care and supported living for adults with LD. It does seem that the sometimes entrenched views of commissioners that residential care is outdated and inappropriate for anyone is softening towards a more realistic view that there is a continued need for a spectrum of provision in which progressive and enabling support in a residential setting can remain a positive lifestyle choice for some people, and particularly those with complex needs. I suspect the debate on this key area of social policy will continue for a while yet. It is important for everyone involved in this to be fully aware that there are currently a number of test cases related to supported living going through the courts and the legal position is not yet settled. This is a matter in which we are closely involved in relation to some of our homes on the Isle of Wight.

The lead keynote speech was given by Anne Williams, National Director for Learning Disabilities at the Department of Health. In conversation with Anne she told me that she had recently been on a visit to our region to be briefed on the LD campus reprovision underway in the Bournemouth, Poole and Dorset Authorities. She had been told of our involvement there and was able to pass on to me that our reputation in the area amongst the commissioners is very high. This was very good to hear.

It was a pleasure to have the company of two colleagues at the conference who came with me and helped to man our "REALISE" stand in the exhibition area at the conference. Kay Garrett and Claire Hurford are Community Team Supervisors for Learning Disabilities in Somerset Care at Home. Our stand was impressive as was the enthusiastic and passionate way in which Kay and Claire explained our LD services to delegates. This will have done a great deal to promote our reputation amongst the national LD community.

Opening of Echoes Offices in Havant

Today was a great day for the team at Echoes Community Care in Havant as their new offices were officially opened by the Mayor of Havant, Councillor Yvonne Weeks. We were all made very welcome by the team under the excellent leadership of our manager - Diane Martin.

Our Board members travelled to Hampshire for the event. On arrival we were given a series of presentations by the managers and senior members of the staff team about developments in the Portsmouth and South Hampshire area. The team are now delivering some 3,600 hours of domiciliary care services every week and, thanks to the hard work and dedication of everyone in the team, the reputation of the company in the area is sky high.


The new offices are in a highly prominent position in the centre of the town. They have been refurbished to a high standard and are now a highly appropriate and visible presence on the High Street. This is something we have been keen to support for our office locations as it makes our services more accessible and does much to enhance the image of the Company. The position of Echoes in the Havant community is very strong and the Company is well respected. I was pleased in my speech to be able to refer to our team as the 'beating heart' of the community, for that is surely what they are.

Congratulations to the team on a great day. Your dedication, spirit and motivation is exemplary and all your visitors were greatly impressed by the very evident pride you all take in the excellent services you are providing. We look forward to your next party!

Sue O'Brien

All her friends and colleagues were deeply saddened last week to learn of the untimely passing of Sue O'Brien after a long battle with cancer. Sue died on 13th September.

Sue joined Somerset Care in 1992 as a night supervisor at Wessex House and was appointed Deputy Manager in 1997. As a dedicated and highly professional nurse she set a strong example to the staff by her commitment to high quality care and to the wellbeing of residents and patients.

Born and brought up in Cumbria, Sue had a down to earth approach and always called a 'spade a spade' in true northern style. Amongst the many changes at Wessex House over the years she was always a steady and supportive member of the leadership team.


On a beautiful September morning yesterday it was a privilege to be able to attend Sue's funeral service at Somerton parish church. The church was packed with Sue's family and friends, and the message of hope and love that was the theme of the service was fitting and moving. The attendance of many of Sue's Somerset Care colleagues was testament to her place within the Company and the respect in which she continues to be held by all who knew and worked with her. I know that this will have been a source of great comfort to her family and especially to her partner Jim, who also works for the Company as a member of the great staff team at Portcullis House.

We will remember Sue with great affection and she will be greatly missed by us all.

All's well that ends well!

Reports have been coming in today of a potentially serious incident at one of our care homes at the weekend that ended well thanks to the speedy and professional response of our staff.

A resident at one of our homes decided to take himself off and was found to be missing at tea time. As soon as this was noticed the staff instituted a search of the surrounding area and notified the police. As anxiety grew a wider search followed that went on through the night involving our staff, local residents, and police reinforcements on foot and by helicopter. Eventually, after personally leading the search through the night, our manager found the gentleman at 3.50 in the morning in a nearby garden. He was confused and cold and there was concern that he may have been suffering from hypothermia. He was admitted to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton for observation and checks. We were pleased to hear later that he is none the worse after his adventure.

This incident was very well handled by our manager and the staff of the home. It reminds us all how important it is that staff are prepared at all times to handle critical incidents of this kind. Life in care services is always full of surprises and we all need to be ready to respond to such incidents and to "expect the unexpected".

Very well done to all involved. It is very good to be able to report on this occasion that "all's well that ends well".




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What a swell party that was!

I have attended some great parties in my time with Somerset Care but few will stay in my mind, for all the right reasons, as strongly as the "Farewell", and I think "Hen", Party for Helen Rex that took place on Friday evening. I think "Hen" because this was a first for me and probably also for Mike Date, the only other gentleman present. It had all the characteristics I have been told about relating to such parties - feminine humour of the risqué variety! My sides were aching from laughing so much thanks to the wonderful contribution of a certain Cynthia, who had no intention of sparing the blushes of the menfolk present.



Helen plus farewell cake!

Helen is manager of Somerset Care at Home Taunton Base. She is off to Phoenix, Arizona shortly to get married and start her new life. She will be carrying some interesting luggage in the form of the gifts given by her colleagues to send her off in style. We will miss her as she has become one of our best managers and has led her team with great success in recent years.

She loves travelling and back in 2007 she was selected as the winner of the Somerset Care Travel Bursary. That award took her to Australia where she spent time studying care services in Adelaide as the guest of our friends at Helping Hand Aged Care. You can read about our exchange programme on the IAHSA website by following this link:

http://www.iahsa.net/internalpage.aspx?id=7634

It is our intention to offer further international travel bursaries in the future when resources allow, so watch this space.

Good luck for your new life Helen, and sincere thanks for all you have contributed to Somerset Care. You are a Somerset Care star! Let us know when you are ready to set up the Phoenix Branch! Travel safely!

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Spending Review Debate

How was your weekend? 

A considerable portion of mine was spent preparing for a debate programme being recorded by BBC Points West on Sunday evening in Bristol.  I had been invited to speak on the potential impact of the Government spending review on social care.  A very important subject and one on which I was anxious to convey the key messages of concern across our sector.  I made my way to Bristol and joined the audience for the programme as invited.  The debate proceeded and got quite heated at times.  I sat wondering when my time would come to be called to speak but it didn't!  The debate turned out to be mainly about reorganisation of local government, the abolition of QUANGOS and public sector pension reform.  Health and social care didn't get a look in.  So a very frustrating evening and no chance on this occasion to express views on the essential need to preserve efficient and cost effective front line services for vulnerable people in communities such as those we provide.

I can see this debate becoming very heated in the coming weeks and it will be important that the voice of social care is heard.  Few people in the general public understand how social care is provided and funded.  There is little recognition that  nowadays it is mainly provided by independent sector companies such as ours where terms and conditions for staff are generally less favourable than those enjoyed in the public sector, and where scope for "efficiency" savings is very limited because we are already so much more efficient, and where we struggle continually to secure a fair price for the services we provide. 

I fear that this wider public spending debate may degenerate nationally into a battle between the public and private sectors and can sense the anger growing amongst public sector employees as they perceive that they are bearing the brunt of cuts.  These are without doubt very challenging times for everyone and it is important to have in mind the huge impact that the austerity agenda is having within county councils.  Somerset CC announced 1500 job cuts last week.

The BBC debate will be screened at 10.35pm on Thursday 9 September.

Croft House, Williton

In need of some fresh air after the morning spent in the Boardroom I took a trip out to Williton this afternoon to see how our building project to create our new Croft House is coming on. It is wonderful to see the progress that our contractor colleagues of Kennet Construction are making. The project is on target and the team are making the most of the fine weather. I asked Kennet's site manager Lloyd Bridges to tell me how things are going and you can hear his update in the clip below:

The new building will be a prominent addition to the Williton skyline and it is great to think that our residents can now see their new home rising out of the ground. The views from the first floor rooms will be stunning as you can see below.










After visiting the site I called in at our dear old Croft House to show some of the residents the photos. I also had a chance for a chat with some of the staff on duty.


Here are two of our senior Croft House team, Sue Hawkins and Maggie Thrush. They shared their thoughts on how we will need to plan the moving day for our residents with great care. They also updated me on the work going on at Croft leading towards the Gold Standard Framework for care at the end of life. As in a number of our homes this project is helping us build our reputation and collective skills base in this very important aspect of care.

Maggie reported how well the training was being received by the staff team, although she commented that several members of the team had remarked that much of the best practice advocated through the programme is already firmly embedded in the culture of the home and has been for many years. This I guess is to be expected and it may be that there is little new, but I am sure it is very helpful, and of course invaluable for newer staff, to have that best practice validated and codified within the framework and the associated training.

Maggie also shared a thought that is clearly an important by-product of the training and the recognition it brings. It appears that other health and social care "professionals" who have dealings with the home are now seeing and acknowledging the professional competence and credibility of the residential care home staff in a different light. Maybe they have collectively undervalued care staff and are now recognising how valuable and important they are. This can only be a good thing as it must enhance our professional image. I would very much welcome comment from others on this point. Do let me know what you think by posting a comment.

Enough for now. Best wishes to all blog readers.

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Executive Management Board

The first Friday of the month is the day our executive directors and senior managers get together for our Executive Management Board (EMB) meeting. The meeting lasts all morning and our agenda includes update reports from all areas of our business. We always have a very full agenda and the big ticket items discussed today included:
> Development of our Learning Disability services, especially on the Bournemouth Area.
> The effects of the national austerity agenda on local authorities and on the NHS and how these will affect our business.
> Measures to control costs along with our monthly review of the financial and operational performance of all areas of the business.

These meetings are very important as it is there that the fine tuning decisions are taken that help us to ensure that we remain within our budgets and business plan targets. The EMB meeting is followed every month by our main Somerset Care Group Board meeting on the third Friday.





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Audio

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Visit to YourLife Management Services - Cherrett Court

Today the SCG Board members travelled to Ferndown, near Bournemouth to visit Cherrett Court. This is the first assisted living development, built by our partners McCarthy and Stone, that is operated and managed by our joint venture company YourLife Management Services. The first new apartment owners have been moving into the development this month and Board members were able to meet some of the residents and join them for lunch in the restaurant. This is the first scheme that we are involved with as part of the joint venture and more are planned to come on stream over the coming months and years. Click on the video clip below to meet our colleague Dorota (Dot) Soanes and join me in welcoming Dot and her staff team to this exciting new joint venture. (sorry about the traffic noise - still learning how to use the video!)