CALL centre workers swapped telephones and keyboards for shovels and dominoes for a day volunteering at a Teesside care home. 

Staff from BT’s Middlesbrough office carried out gardening work and engaged in activities with elderly residents living at The Gables Care Home, on Highfield Road.

As part of the telecoms business’s volunteering programme, almost a dozen call centre advisors and a team manager spent the day at the home.

They tidied the garden, removing weeds and sweeping leaves, planted flowers, repainted a fence, benches and plant pots, cleaned the green house and planted seeds for tomatoes, lettuce, onions and other vegetables.

After the gardening work, they shared a hot drink with residents, while reminiscing about the town and their own careers, as well as playing a few rounds of dominoes.

The National Association of Care Catering (NACC) has announced the finalists for the NACC Care Chef of the Year 2019 competition, taking it one step closer to crowning the nation’s best care chef.

Over the past month, talented chefs working in the care sector have competed in the regional heats to secure a coveted place in the national final of the prestigious culinary competition. 

A man who almost died from a blood clot is to launch a product which could save the NHS millions of pounds a year.

Paul Westerman suffered a massive pulmonary embolism – the result of a deep vein thrombosis – in 2011 and has spent the last eight years researching the condition and working with experts within respiratory and thrombotic medicine.

Now the 51-year-old, in conjunction with leading clinicians and a world- renowned product designer, has created the RBR legflow – which helps improve the venous blood flow in the lower limbs of individuals when seated.

Paul said: “DVT and PE costs the NHS over £200 million every single year. But clinical research reveals that many blood clots are entirely preventable.

“With this in mind, we would like to see the RBR leg flow available in every hospital, care home, work place, air plane, gaming environment, and environment where an individual is likely to be sedentary for over an hour.” are approved by the FDA and EPA.

As the population ages, the demand for high quality carers rises. By 2026 it’s predicted that the UK will need around 420,000 more carers, but with the current vacancy rate high and the amount of those showing interest in the care sector diminishing, it’s important that technology is utilised in order to help fill the gaps and provide the best social care possible. Some countries are already embracing technologies in their infancy such as smart home devices and robotics in order to enhance their care levels. Japan, for example, has made care bots prominent in its Shin-tomi nursing home and has committed to funding the development of more devices.

The UK has been slower to adopt technology into its healthcare system but changes are starting to be made. For example, in 2017 Southend-on-Sea was the first council to employ a humanoid robot to assist older people with certain tasks. Is this just the start? Could the future see each elderly or vulnerable individual accompanied by humanoids? It’s clear we’re not there yet, but in the meantime what else could be done? Helen Dempster, Chief Visionary Officer, Karantis360, discusses how human and bot could soon work together to improve domiciliary care.

Skills for Care has launched a new online guide to help social care employers to identify, plan and implement improvements across their service

The ‘Guide to improvement’ offers a comprehensive toolkit to help organisations deliver high quality care and support, and meet regulatory standards. 

The guide was created because, at the beginning of this year, 17% of regulated adult social care services in England were still delivering care that didn’t meet the CQC’s fundamental standards.

Organisations need to act quickly to make sure that they meet these standards, as, when quality begins to drop, they’re much more likely to need costly interventions to turn that service around.  

Even when a service is already achieving the CQC’s fundamental standards continuous improvement is a key part of achieving and maintaining a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ rating.

Borough Care has appointed Chrisi Williams and Geraldine Blow as new Area Managers. Borough Care is the largest not-for-profit provider of care for older people in Stockport and has eleven homes across the borough. 

A major landmark in Ashford Borough Council's multi-million-pound modernisation plan for its sheltered housing schemes has seen the re-opening of the £7.5m Danemore scheme in Tenterden.

Located at Beechy Path and a short walk from the town centre, the new-look Danemore provides 34 homes for affordable rent for older people, together with four chalet bungalows which will be sold on the open market.

Modelled on the multi-award-winning Farrow Court scheme developed by the council in south Ashford, Danemore has 25 one bedroom and nine two-bedroom apartments, built to a high quality that are care ready.

"The first tenants have moved in and I'm delighted to say that we are already seeing a really happy community atmosphere being generated there," said Sharon Williams, Head of Housing at Ashford Borough Council.

CENTENARIAN Kathleen Cattermole has celebrated her 102nd birthday with family and friends at her care home in Derbyshire.

A party was held at Longmoor Lodge Care Home, on Longmoor Lane, Sandiacre.

She received cards, flowers and a homemade birthday cake as well as eight cupcakes decorated to spell her name. 

After the birthday bash, she said: “I feel good about reaching 102 years young.”

Born in April 1917 in Long Eaton, Kathleen lived on Cranmer Street, before meeting her future husband at her aunt’s wedding, where she was a bridesmaid

A north Shropshire care home has become one of only a few in the county to be awarded a rare ‘outstanding’ rating by independent watchdogs.

Ashley Gardens Care Centre in Maidstone has hosted a music festival to help raise awareness of dementia and to encourage support for those living with the condition.

The home has partnered with Purple Angel Dementia Project, an organisation that strives to offer a better standard of life for people living with dementia, through music.  Purple Angel has hosted ‘World Rocks against Dementia’, asking people around the world to hold any kind of music events to join together in spreading awareness.
 

Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust is on a recruitment drive to attract more mental health nurses to work across Leicester, Leicestershire & Rutland

Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust (LPT), which provides mental health, learning disability and community health services for one million people living in Leicester, Leicestershire and Rutland is looking to recruit more mental health nurses.

According to statistics from the Nursing and Midwifery Council, the number of mental health nurses fell from 90,693 to 88,821 between 2014 and 2018[i].

LPT is addressing the shortage across Leicestershire by promoting the region as a leading career destination for mental health nurses, highlighting the many opportunities available. There are vacancies for experienced mental health nurses, including Bank Community Psychiatric Nurse-Band 6 positions which involve working as part of the secondary care services team, providing assessments and treatment packages for a range of service users aged 16-65 years with complex mental health needs. 

A neurological rehabilitation centre in Oxfordshire has been rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).

Orchard House, which opened in 2014 and is run by Christchurch Group, provides specialist community-based transitional rehabilitation in the village of Harwell in Oxfordshire. It supports adults with neurological conditions resulting from injury, illness or disease. The service offers accommodation for 9 residents and is a Headway Approved Provider.

Inspectors praised the service for its exceptional care, its strong, values-led leadership and their  person-centered approach displayed by the registered manager and staff, which provided clear therapeutic benefits for patients. The CQC also highlighted how the registered manager had ‘continually thought of initiatives to make improvements to enhance people's lives and those of the staff.’

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. 

Actor Shaun Williamson, famous for playing Barry in Eastenders, was the host of a glittering awards evening to celebrate staff at specialist care provider, Cornerstone Healthcare Group.

Shaun helped to celebrate the long service of more than 30 Cornerstone employees at the newly refurbished Langstone Quays Hotel in Havant last week.

All of the staff ‘VIPs’ have worked for Hampshire-based Cornerstone Healthcare for more than 10 years, with four of them celebrating more than 20 years loyalty and dedication to their residents and the company.

A CELEBRATION evening was held to thank businesses across Huddersfield for providing volunteering opportunities to hundreds of teenagers.

Over 590 young people were involved in the Huddersfield Giants Community Trust National Citizen Service (NCS) programme in 2018.

They worked on 48 social action projects around the city and helped fundraise more than £26,500 for the activities and work they carried out.

One of those projects was transforming the garden at Thornhill Care Home, on Thornhill Road.

A group of 15-to-17-year-olds from the NCS programme created plant pot borders around the home’s garden, installed solar lighting and laid artificial turf.