Our CEO's blog

28 September 2009

Being shortlisted in 4 categories of the Great West Midlands Care Awards

Wow! Shortlisted in all 4 categories we entered in the Great West Midlands Care Awards. Last week we all had to attend interviews, and now it is in the lap of the gods to see if we win any. I know lots of other people think we are good; we get lots of compliments for our clients. But how will other professionals see us and how do we measure up to them? There is not a long wait to find out; we are to attend a great gala evening at the National Motorbike Museum on 10th October.

        Amy, whom we entered into the newcomer to care category, and Harry, entered into the best home care assistant category, are both among our younger staff. Clients often say they are not keen on younger staff, but both Harry and Amy had brilliant commendations from clients to go with their submissions. So I am wondering what it is that some clients don't like about younger staff? Is it maybe that the clients think they will not do the job so well? All our staff get the same training at the beginning of their employment to ensure they have the skills. No staff, of any age, are allowed to work alone until they have passed the competences to demonstrate those skills. So perhaps any of our staff, no matter what age, do the work well.

        Michaela has been nominated in the trainers section. She is the training facilitator who makes sure those competences are met by new and existing staff. She helps and supports those who are trying to achieve them. And finally we entered the company as a whole. We are trying to demonstrate that our investment in training, planning for the future, learning from our mistakes and listening to clients will make us the West Midlands Best Care Organisation. We are keeping our fingers crossed!

13 August 2009

Interviewing for our new Team Leaders

Our Bromsgrove Team Leader is moving away from the area. Therefore we needed someone to replace her.

Team leading is such a difficult role. Sometimes they are stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to please clients, other staff and the management. So we wanted to get it right. We devised a scoring system that covered all the qualities and competances we wanted.

We advertised internally and got three candidates who were all experienced Home Care Assistants. We wanted to be fair to them all as we knew some better than others. And we had to deal with that problem that so often happens when you prmote someone who is really good at their present job; it doesn't mean they will be good at their new job.

So it was decided to split the interview into two parts. One was a workshop where the candidates helped us write the Pandemic Flu plan, and the second a formal interview which might help to demonstrate the skills they had.

We decided on two Team Leaders instead of one, and are now busy planning an induction programme that fast helps them achieve their new tasks, and help us give a better service.

7 July 2009

New Ideas?

How is it that you think you have an original idea about developing the company only to find that everyone else is saying and thinking the same? In the last few months we have worked very hard to develop our Team Leaders so that they are running their own small organisations using head office services such as training and support as their resources. We think that this will give us better outcomes in better care and staff support.

Then the Registered Manager, Hilary Overington, and I went to a workshop at Warwick Business School on following research principles on world class standards on customer care and there it was. Research has shown "one of the great drivers of success is developing your Team Leaders". Wow! Research has shown that we are trying to do the right thing. That made us feel goos and we were on the right track.

Then I read the report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Demetia's report "Prepare to care" on challenging the dementia skills gap (at present there are insufficient staff trained to care for and improve the quality of life for clients with Dementia). And, written large in its executive summary is, "Developing leaders with good generic management skills as well as good Dementia care skills are seen as an important solution". We must be on the right course.

 What really perplexes me is how did I come to think mine was an original thought. Had I read other documents, professional journals, unconscious of what they were saying or are we all in our reflective moods looking at similar situations?

I'm not spending any time on this problem. I want to run the best possible service to give the best possible care that people want and I shall use whatever resources are available to achieve that aim. I am just pleased that our thoughts on good services being based on good leadership are confirmed by these other researchers.

8 June 2009

Changing the name of The Hall at Home to Worcestershire Care Group.

As those of you who have been receiving care from us for some time will know "The Hall at Home" name was used to trade on the good reputation of The Hall Nursing Home which the company then owned. It has been eighteen months since the home was sold and the home care service has grown and changed. We now feel it is time to differentiate ourselves. So from 16 June 2009 we shall cease to use the name Hall at Home and only use

Worcestershire Care Group

Of course, this should make no difference to our clients, our staff or our contact information and the service we offer will stay the same. It is just the name that has changed.

As always, we want to provide you with the best care and support we can.

20 December 2008

How do you keep your reputation if it’s good?

This has been exercising my brain a lot of late. In any service industry your reputation rests with your staff. Our staff (about 90) mainly work alone covering about two and half thousand visits a week. So how do we ensure that the care and support they give is of a high standard? And all the time the business is growing with new staff and clients. And we have realised that we don’t have sufficient staff skilled to oversee and give support to all the care staff engaged in giving care.

So Dawn, Stephen (the other Directors) and I have been addressing this issue. Our solution is to identify staff, mainly home care assistants, who would like to increase their role within the business. 

 We have identified some staff, and in the monthly newsletter we have also asked other staff to come forward, to undertake three new trainings we have devised. The first one is for skills mentors who will work with new staff to ensure that they are working to the required standard. The skills are often around small household chores we are required to undertake, washing up, emptying bins etc. If you receive home care, you will know how important these tasks are to the quality of your life.

Secondly we are going to train 6 experienced staff to undertake assessment of new clients and re-assess annually all our present clients. The training will concentrate on present need but we are mindful of the personalisation agenda that is fast coming on us when the Local Authorities will be giving to clients the funds to purchase the care they want rather than what is assessed they need. Our training will include preparation for this.

Finally, we are training new supervisors to support our staff. Skills for Care, the national development body for the social care workforce, has recently published a document ‘Providing Effective Supervision’ which we are using and will get the new supervisors to undertake the Unit of Competence.

None of this training is cheap but we hope the investment will keep our staff with us, our customers happy and complaints to the minimum.