HeadStart Volunteering At Borough Care
Borough Care, the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, is offering volunteering opportunities to young people through its links with The Challenge, which created and developed the HeadStart volunteering programme. HeadStart connects young people between the ages of 16 and 19 to local volunteering opportunities, with the aim of up-skilling and empowering them for further education and employment.HeadStart volunteers have been busy planning fundraising events for Borough Care’s resident amenity fund, which provides the little extras that make life more colourful for residents. The first HeadStart project with Borough Care took place at its Wellcroft home in Gatley. The ‘PlayStreet Youth Volunteering Challenge’ featured outdoor games and a tombola for residents, their families and friends.The next HeadStart project is taking place at Borough Care’s Silverdale home in Bredbury. For the project, entitled ‘Shared Lives’, the young volunteers will be speaking with residents to capture their life stories and exploring the similarities and differences with their own lives.Commenting on the HeadStart link up, Geraldine Blow, Area Manager at Borough Care, says: “It’s fantastic to welcome so many enthusiastic and imaginative young people to Borough Care. Being able to provide young people with the skills they need to enter the world of work, while giving our residents the chance to take part in fun and exciting projects, means it’s a win-win for everyone.” Find out more
Borough Care Marks World Alzheimer’s Day
Borough Care, the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, marked World Alzheimer’s Day with a special afternoon tea at its eleven homes. World Alzheimer’s Day falls on 21 September each year and is part of World Alzheimer’s Month, which takes place each September. World Alzheimer’s Month is an international campaign to raise awareness and challenge the stigma that surrounds dementia. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of dementia among older adults. Borough Care hosted afternoon tea events at each of its homes, to enable people to share their experiences and get support from its experienced carers. Family and friends of residents were invited along to enjoy afternoon tea and chat to Borough Care staff, who were on hand to answer any dementia related questions. Residents and guests tucked in to a selection of finger sandwiches, cupcakes, fruit jelly shots, black forest trifle and scones with jam and cream. Borough Care has over 20 years of experience supporting people with dementia. All Borough Care employees, in all roles, have access to ongoing dementia training and education, to help them support residents and their families.
Borough Care Appoints New Head of Finance
Borough Care has appointed Nick Pennell as its new Head of Finance. Borough Care is the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport and has eleven homes across the borough. Nick Pennell will be responsible for managing Borough Care’s finance team. The emphasis of his role will be updating the company’s financial processes and reporting capabilities, to help improve efficiency, through the introduction of new technology and systems. Commenting on what attracted him to his new role, Nick Pennell says: “The care sector as a whole is facing many challenges, especially in regards to number of beds, local authority funding and aging infrastructure. Borough Care’s leadership team is aware of the issues facing the sector and has ambitious plans to address these challenges. There is a key role for the Head of Finance to shape some of the thinking around funding, investment decisions and growth plans. The opportunity to help do this really appealed to me. This position also means I can use my skills in the area of finance transformation.” Nick continues: “I see Borough Care is a forward thinking, innovative company; characteristics which match my own values. I’m looking forward to helping the business continue growing.” Nick joins Borough Care from KPMG, one of the Big Four accounting firms. His most recent role was Deputy Finance Director of KPMG Learning Services.
Borough Care Launches My Workplace
Borough Care, the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, has launched My Workplace. My Workplace is a human resource and payroll system that gives Borough Care employees more control over their personal information, time and money. My Workplace enables employees to change personal information, such as their address or emergency contact details, so it is as up-to-date as possible. People can also access their payslips and book time off work. As the system can be accessed via a mobile phone app or computer, it means staff can check information whether they are at home or at work. My Workplace has many benefits for staff, managers and Borough Care as a whole. Staff will be able to check things like how much holiday they have taken, request time off and get their holidays approved quickly. They will also be able to complete return to work forms online after being off sick. Using the time and attendance system, included in My Workplace, managers can more easily analyse their staff costs. Digital rotas can be produced so that normal working hours, overtime and training courses are recorded accurately and paid appropriately. Jayne Hennessey, Head of Human Resources at Borough Care, says: “We’ve introduced My Workplace as it’s important all our employees feel that they have control over their personal information and can access the data wherever they are, particularly for those people who work shifts. The system will allow us to more easily check all employee records, hold important documents on individual files, run reports on staff turnover and ensure people are paid accurately for the hours they’ve worked. My Workplace is one of a number of initiatives we are introducing to continually improve working life for our staff.” Find out more
Borough Care Marks Nutrition & Hydration Week
Borough Care, the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, marked Nutrition & Hydration Week (11-17 March 2019) with a programme of special food and drink related activities. Every day during Nutrition & Hydration Week, Borough Care’s catering teams at each of the company’s eleven homes put on tasty treats for residents, based around a different theme. Events included mocktail Monday, using fruits and juices to make non-alcoholic drinks; a cheese and wine tasting; an afternoon tea party; fruit tasting and a breakfast club. The week culminated in a Sunday roast celebration meal. Commenting on the Nutrition & Hydration Week events put on for residents, Nicci Gregory, Head Cook at Borough Care’s Bamford Close home in Cale Green, says: “Myself and Joanne Morris, our Activity Lifestyle Facilitator, decided our events needed to be fun and creative so residents would want to engage with each activity. For mocktail Monday, we decided on a Hawaiian themed party. I mixed and pureed ingredients to make a choice of mocktails, which we served in sugar coated glasses with tropical themed accessories. We put on tropical themed music and soon our residents were enjoying singing and dancing along.” Nicci Gregory continues: “For our cheese tasting session, we sourced a wide variety of different cheeses to tickle the taste buds of our residents. Lots of the residents hadn’t sampled many different cheeses before but were up for the new experience. Wensleydale and Cheshire came out on top, with Stilton getting a definite thumbs down. We decided to make our afternoon tea party very traditional, to provoke memories among residents. I made a selection of savoury treats and the obligatory cucumber sandwiches, followed by an array of cakes and scones. Our residents immediately engaged with the activity and many of their family and friends joined us for the occasion. It was a wonderful afternoon, with lots of smiles and laughter.” Nutrition & Hydration Week highlights and educates people on the value of food and drink in maintaining health and wellbeing in health and social care settings. Preventing malnutrition and dehydration is crucial to good health, especially in older people. Mark Dale, Catering & Hospitality Manager at Borough Care, says: “We are committed to ensuring all our residents enjoy high quality food and eat well. Offering healthy, well-balanced meals to suit a person’s specific dietary requirements is an important part of the care we provide. Getting older people to eat well can sometimes be difficult. The food we serve not only needs to be nutritious, it has to be presented well and look appetising, to encourage people to eat it. We have recently introduced a nutritional tool that can track a resident’s food consumption. This enables us to make sure people are receiving the correct nutrients in their diet. Nutrition & Hydration Week provided the ideal opportunity to highlight the importance of food and drink to good health.”
Borough Care Appoints New Board Member
Borough Care, the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, has appointed Lee Omar to its Board of Directors. In his new position as a Non-Executive Director, Lee Omar will support Borough Care’s Executive Team at a strategic level and also engage with residents, their families and staff, to provide invaluable feedback to the leadership team. Lee’s role will include developing relationships with external stakeholders, to help Borough Care innovate and remain commercial focussed. Commenting on what attracted him to becoming a Board member at Borough Care, Lee Omar says: “Having been a Non-Executive Director for NHS Trusts, I was interested to work in social care as I believe one of the great challenges we face is how we meet the requirements of our ageing society. We are living longer lives and I want to be part of the change that sees us offering aspirational products and services for this ageing population.” Lee Omar continues: “I am looking forward to working with Borough Care’s innovative leadership team and adding my expertise and skills to the mix, as we empower our residents and their families by delivering a world class service. As a founder and CEO of a start-up company, I have had to be innovative to grow my business and survive. This has meant creating trusted partnerships with external stakeholders and doing things differently. I will be bringing this approach to Borough Care.” Dr Mark Ward, CEO at Borough Care, says: “It’s great to have Lee joining us at what is an exciting time for Borough Care. As a forward-thinking company, we have ambitions to lead a step change in the approach to care for older people and Lee’s expertise will be invaluable in helping us achieve this.” Lee Omar is CEO of Red Ninja, a design led technology company that makes apps for the healthcare and transport sectors. He also advises governments on technology at Prime Minister and President level. At Red Ninja, Lee has designed apps that help older people shop online and improve their nutritional intake. He has recently worked on an app that helps prevent falls in care homes, which has been adopted by the NHS. Find out more
Borough Care Hosts Employee Awards
Borough Care, the largest not for profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, recently held its Employee Awards 2018. The annual event celebrates the hard work and dedication of people working for Borough Care. Borough Care staff were nominated for awards in ten categories. The winner of the ‘Above & Beyond’ category was Amanda Harrison who works at Bamford Close in Cale Green. Amanda is always thinking of ways to improve the environment and to make day to day life brighter for residents. The ‘Aspiration Award’ was won by Robin Bowden, from Lisburne Court. Robin joined Borough Care in 2017 and since then she has shown great enthusiasm for learning and developing herself. Meadway Court’s Judith Burgess won the ‘Best Newcomer’ award. Judith joined Borough Care in August and is already well settled into her role. The ‘Best Team’ accolade went to the laundry team at Reinbek, who work together to ensure that not only is the laundry done efficiently but they engage with residents as they go about their daily tasks. Jessica Hallworth from Cawood House in Brinnington took the honours in the ‘Engaged’ category. Jessica is always a team player. She likes to involve residents in every way she can and ensures they have smiles on their faces. Denise Lyons from Marbury House is this year’s ‘Unsung Hero’. Denise has been fantastic at supporting the catering team since Borough Care transferred its meal service back in-house earlier this year. Denise has built great relationships with all the chefs and has helped develop new starters who join the team. The winner of the ‘Inspiring Leader’ category was Nerys Carpenter from Shepley House. Nerys’ vision has had a positive impact on Shepley House. Since moving to the home she has made a huge difference and created a lovely home for residents to live in and a great place for staff to work. Mei Lloyd, who also works at Shepley House, scooped the ‘Thinking Differently’ award. Mei carries out her role as an Activity Lifestyle Facilitator with great enthusiasm. Imaginative and creative, Mei is always thinking of new ways to engage with residents, making sure there is a variety of different activities on offer. A number of staff were recognised for ’Making a Difference’. Those picking up this accolade were Georgia Dawson from Bamford Close, Linda Hamnett from Bruce Lodge, Michelle Gallimore from Bryn Haven, Caroline Hegarty from Cawood House, Donna Allwood from Lisburne Court, Maxine Haughton from Marbury House, Meadway Court’s Carol Stavordale and Sarah Robinson, Lisa Jewsbury from Reinbek, Judy Knowles from Shepley House, Lindsay Hadfield from Silverdale and Wellcroft’s Kelly Bramley. During the awards evening, Borough Care staff who have completed thirty years’ service received a long service award. These included Christine Millett at Wellcroft, Sandra Sutherland and Pat Nugent from Silverdale and Meadway Court’s Julie Carter. Dr Mark Ward, CEO at Borough Care, says: “Our annual awards are a great opportunity to recognise the vital contribution made by people in all areas of our business. We are fortunate to have such committed people, who are dedicated to making the lives of Borough Care residents both comfortable and enjoyable. We are continually improving the service we offer residents and everyone involved with Borough Care has a critical part to play in this.” Find out more here
Borough Care Launches New ‘Life in Colour’ Website
Borough Care, the largest not for profit provider of care for older people in Stockport, has created a new website that reflects the company’s ‘Life in Colour’ values – www.boroughcare.org.uk The new Borough Care website brings to life what it is really like to live in a Borough Care residential home, through stories, eye-catching images, testimonials and examples of care featuring real residents, their family members and staff. The new site has been simplified, making it easier for people to navigate and find the information they are looking for. It now includes more information about each of Borough Care’s eleven homes, including details about the amenities on offer and what makes each home unique. Dr Mark Ward, CEO at Borough Care, says: “Towards the end of last year we re-energised the Borough Care logo and brand, to challenge people’s perceptions of what life is like in a care home. Our Life in Colour message is intrinsic to everything we do at Borough Care, as we believe when older people move to a care home their interesting lives shouldn’t come to a standstill. We think everyone should be encouraged, and supported, to live their best possible life, whatever their age, health or capabilities. Instead of settling for a grey existence, a life lived at Borough Care is a colourful one. We encourage residents to share their experiences and continue to lead an active social life if they wish: living their life in colour. “It is our desire to lead a step change in the approach to care for older people. We believe that every resident is unique and should be treated as such. As our website is an important tool for people to find out more about our homes, we were keen to ensure it effectively shows people what we offer and the ethos behind our care.” www.boroughcare.org.uk
Care Staff Complete Memory Walk
Borough Care staff Executive Team at Borough recently took part in an Alzheimer’s Memory Walk, which took place at more people taking part Heaton Park in Manchester. The group of 12, along with one of the team’s dog, walked a total of 7km around the park. So far, the group has raised over £500 for Alzheimer’s Society. Alzheimer’s Society is a charity for anyone affected by dementia. Borough Care is the largest not for profit provider of care for older people in Stockport. The company has over 20 years of experience supporting people with dementia. Nine of Borough Care’s 11 homes are specialist dementia care homes. The company offers dementia support through a range of services, including residential care, active recovery and day care provision. Dementia prevalence rates are higher in Stockport than the national average, with over 4,000 people in the borough estimated to be affected. www.boroughcare.org.uk
