FRIDAY 28 JANUARY - Croft House celebrates it's Gold Standard Framework achievement

On Friday, together with Alyson Martin, Director of Care Services I was delighted to be able to visit Croft House in Williton to help celebrate their latest achievement. Following months of hard work to improve policies and
procedures and to train all the staff Croft House became the first residential care home in Somerset to achieve the National Gold Standard Framework for Care Homes for the care of people nearing the end of life.

The GSFCH training programme is a three stage quality assurance programme that enables care homes to provide quality care for all residents nearing the end of life. The training programme is open to all care homes including care homes with nursing, personal care, learning disabilities and adults with physical disabilities. By implementing improved coordination and better organisation GSF helps care homes deliver better patient outcomes in line with their needs and preferences. It also delivers greater cost efficiency by reducing hospitalisation.


Achieving the GSF at the "commended" level is a tremendous achievement by all the staff at Croft House. They have been guided and led through the qualification process by the team above of Christina Clark, manager Diane Allen and Sharon Watts. Many congratulations to them and to everyone involved on this further recognition of the determination of all our staff to continue the unrelenting drive for excellence in all our services.

We look forward to more of our homes attaining the GSF in the near future.

"The fact that there is now a Gold Standard for palliative care means not only that everyone now knows what can be achieved, but that patients and families are beginning to know what they should be asking for - and expecting!"
Baroness Julia Neuberger, DBE House of Lords

Location:Williton

TUESDAY 25 JANUARY - Dementia workshop and drumming for the brain

The blog has been inactive for a week due to some technical difficulties. Hopefully these are now resolved.

Last Tuesday we welcomed a visitor to Somerset Care. Robert Chamberlain, Editor in Chief of Care Management Matters spent the morning with the company and was able to join me at the managers Dementia Workshop organised by Jane Lynch.


The workshop was an important opportunity for managers of our homes with specialist dementia services to share best practice ideas and to update on developments and innovation in care and support provision.


One idea being shared was the use of hand bells for music making.
Highlight of the day was a demonstration of therapeutic hand drumming by Sharon Stone. Sharon runs her own company "Organic Rythm" from her base near Yeovil.

The demonstration showed the powerful potential of drumming as an enjoyable and stimulating activity for people with dementia. It was one of the traditional activities I encountered amongst First Nation communities on my recent visit to Canada and I was delighted to discover an expert local practitioner in Sharon.

I hope we will see drumming introduced as an activity in our homes. My thanks to Sharon for the demonstration. Further details at:
www.organicrythm.co.uk

Location:Calway House

FRIDAY 14 JANUARY - Anniversary Day Celebration with virtual connections

Friday saw the culmination of our week of celebrations to mark the 20th Anniversary of Somerset Care. In the morning at the Canalside Centre in Bridgwater our managers gathered for their annual meeting. We heard a number of excellent presentations by managers about the development of the Group from it's beginning back in 1991. This look back over history was brought up to date with discussion of the current and future developments taking place throughout the Group.

We are grateful to the BBC Radio Somerset and Points West TV who broadcast extensive coverage of Somerset Care's Anniversary throughout the day including a wonderful interview with Eileen Heysham. You can listen to Eileen's interview by going to the following link:
www.BBC.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00cz5lm/BBC_Somerset_Breakfast_
Somerset_Care_20th_Anniversary.
The interview is at 2.04 hrs into the programme. Several other interviews can be heard throughout the broadcast.

At lunchtime we were joined by a large number of friends, former colleagues, residents and guests who joined us for our Birthday Party. Chief amongst our guests was Lady Gass, Lord Lieutenant of Somerset and Councillor John Edney, Chairman of Somerset County Council together with Mrs Edney. Mrs Barbara Cottier, who 20 years ago was a County Councillor and Chairman of the Social Services Committee also joined us. Barbara was the leader of the team who took the decision to create Somerset Care. We were also delighted to welcome back to the party our former Chairmen of the Company, Captain Mike Moorland, with his wife Pat, and Mr John Richards.


Amongst the speeches was an account of the early days by Chris Davies CBE DL, who at the time of our creation was Director of Social Services at the County Council. Chris is now one of the non executive directors of Somerset Care.


Chris was followed as speaker by Councillor John Edney, seen in the photo above with our current Chairman Barrie Dale and Mrs Edney. Captain Moorland is on the left.

At the Luncheon we invited the Lord Lieutenant to present our most significant award of the year, the "Harry Patch Award" to the outstanding manager of 2010. This year the award went to Hazel Jones, Manager of The Court and Popham House in Wellington. Many congratulations Hazel!


Amongst our guests was this group (below) of very special people, all former managers of Somerset Care homes or domiciliary care services. These special friends made such a great contribution in the early years of Somerset Care to help make sure that the Company got off to a strong start.


The highlight of the afternoon was the live SKYPE linkup that we were able to engineer with four of our homes where we were able to call in on residents and staff as they also celebrated. We called in on Preston Park House, Sunningdale Lodge, Critchill Court and Pulsford Lodge. At the latter we were able to join in on a very special party as Mrs Hannah Valentine celebrated her 100th Birthday.

Please see Skype videos below!
Preston Park


Sunningdale Lodge


Critchill Court


Pulsford Lodge

Location:Bridgwater

WEDNESDAY 12 JANUARY - Birthday Party time with the BBC

20th Anniversary parties are in full swing across the Somerset Care Homes. Residents and staff coming together to mark the Company's birthday and to celebrate the occasion. On Wednesday a great party took place at Popham and The Court in Wellington, attended by our Chairman Barrie Dale.

In the meantime an extended party (over two days!) was taking place at Calway House in Taunton. The extension was for the benefit of the BBC, whose reporter Ruth Bradley spent a happy hour interviewing directors, staff and residents.


Always on the lookout for a glamourous picture for the blog I was delighted to capture three of the Calway stars, enjoying and organising the party.


Angie Moore, Gill Cornwall and Geri Perkins.

The BBC interviews will be broadcast on BBC Radio Somerset (95.5 FM) during the course of Friday 14 January and hopefully a report will be featured on BBC TV Points West during the 6.30 broadcast.

Location:Somerset

WEDNESDAY 12 JANUARY - Launch of 100 in 100 Apprenticeships Challenge

This evening a special event took place at the Holiday Inn in Taunton organised by the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS). It's purpose was to launch the Somerset "100 in 100" Challenge. The target is for 100 new apprenticeship places to be achieved across the county in 100 days and to encourage more employers to create apprenticeship opportunities within their workforces. This is part of the national drive to encourage more adults and young people to pursue this vocational route for career development.

My role was to help the launch by making a speech in my capacity as Chairman of the Somerset Employment and Skills Board. It was an opportunity to speak about Somerset Care's commitment to apprenticeships. In Somerset Care Ltd we currently have 149 members of staff undertaking Apprenticeship or Advanced Apprenticeship programmes. In Somerset Care at Home the number is 145. This is an impressive number that underlines our ongoing commitment to training and staff development.


I also had the opportunity to speak about the huge contribution to the promotion and support to apprenticeships across the South West by our own team in Acacia Training and Development. In the picture above are NAS Officer Jack Fleming with members of the ATD Taunton team Linda Okiniewska, Mandy Bridge, Maggie Busek and Liz Grigg.

Location:Taunton

MONDAY 10 JANUARY - Central Office Celebrates

As parties take place throughout the week in our Somerset homes and bases to celebrate our 20th Anniversary, on Monday it was the turn of Central Office to mark the occasion with a tea party in the boardroom. We were treated to some tales of reminiscence from those who were involved in the creation of the Company, particularly John Parrott. John shared his memories of the day he, along with other staff, departed from County Hall with no ceremony to embark on the adventure of creating and building Somerset Care from the ground up.


This photo shows the original Central Office, located adjacent to Victoria Park in Taunton. The portacabin offices were home for the team in the early days before they moved to the first Acacia House at Bathpool.

Alyson Martin, now Director of Care Services, was then the manager of Sunnymeade in Chard, and she told us of the atmosphere of apprehension amongst staff in the homes back in 1991 when overnight some 1800 employees of the County Council had their employment transferred to the new company.


Our tea party was organised by our tireless Executive Assistant Jo Hopkins (left) and a delicious cake was made for the occasion by Martina Spriggs (right) of the Finance Department. By good fortune the beautiful cake cannot be recognised in the picture which means it's origin will not be compromised in the company wide cake competition that will be judged at our main celebration event on Friday. I can however report that it was quite delicious!

Location:Taunton

MONDAY 10 JANUARY- Start of a special week for Somerset Care

Today we see the start of a special week in the life of Somerset Care as we mark the 20th Anniversary of the formation of the Company back in 1991. There is much reminiscence taking place as those who were involved in the creation of the Company reflect on where they were and what was happening 20 years ago. It was a time of considerable tension and uncertainty in Somerset County Council as the date approached for the separation of all the County's services for older people from the Local Authority. Some 1800 staff members changed their employment status that week from the public sector to the new Company. Anxiety levels were high amongst people who had given loyal service for many years and who were understandably worried about the changes.

Now 20 years on we have a great story to tell of the development of The Somerset Care Group as one of the most successful social enterprise groups of it's kind. We have many things to be proud of and foremost amongst these is the continuity of the high level of commitment to the service of others that was there at the beginning and is still so evident today. It is also remarkable that so many staff are still serving with the Company today and they have maintained their commitment over all these years. This suggest that the Company must have got some things right. The long service of so many people to caring for the elderly of Somerset is so greatly appreciated.

Events to mark the Anniversary are taking place in our care homes and bases across the County. Yesterday these got underway with a great afternoon party for residents, families, retired staff members and supporters at Greenhill House in Cheddar.


For once the sun was shining outside as many of us gathered in the warm inside to enjoy the party. As always the staff had worked so hard to prepare a great party with plenty of delicious food and drink. Our thanks go to our manager Kay Bidgood and her team for a delightful event that got our anniversary week off to such a great start.



Please share your memories of what was happening 20 years ago this week by posting a comment.

Location:Taunton

WEDNESDAY 5 JANUARY - The New Year starts with a Plan

The break is over and the Blog is back and sending New Year greetings to all. I hope that everyone enjoyed a very good Christmas and New Year. In saying that I am acutely conscious of the tremendous amount of work the festive season brings for so many care staff. The work for so many of our colleagues goes on without a pause throughout the holiday period as they continue every day to ensure those who depend on them get the care and support they need. They deserve our thanks and appreciation for the commitment to the service that they show.

So now it is back to face the year ahead and for many of us the early months of the year is a time for planning for the future. We look to the start of the next financial year in April and now is the time for the preparation of budgets and business plans.

These early days of January are also a time for the planning of other activities. This week there are meetings taking place to plan our 20th Anniversary events that will mark the end of the first two decades in the life of Somerset Care and the start of the third. The Company birthday is 14 January so we are planning a major event at Bridgwater next Friday together with parties in care homes and bases across Somerset.

We are also planning for the completion in April of our latest new care home, Croft House in Williton. This major project is nearing completion and the team from Kennett Construction are now working inside the building installing all the mechanical and electrical elements. The move from the old building to the new one is a major operation that requires the most meticulous planning.

We are also now entering the final stages in the planning and putting together our first venture into book publishing. This week we will be delivering to the publishers the accumulation of stories and pictures for book "Somerset Centenarians". The publication of our book will also mark our 20th Anniversary and the book will contain life stories of 20 of the centenarians who have been supported by Somerset Care during their most senior years. So today we were at Calway House for a photo shoot taking some of the last pictures of residents and staff needed for the book.


In the picture for a change are our regular photographer Alan Lockyer and our very own PR and Marketing Manager Hannah Rowe.

The year ahead will be one of serious pressures on our businesses as we face the consequences of the most severe cuts in public spending in most of our lifetimes. We must think ahead and be ready to respond to the changes and challenges of the economic climate. It is going to be a testing time. With the benefit of careful planning and our customary ability to respond to change with a spirit of innovation and creativity I am confident that the Somerset Care Group is well placed to survive and thrive in the months and years ahead.

Best wishes to all Blog readers for all good things in 2011!
ONWARDS AND UPWARDS!

Location:Taunton