I have worked in Health and Social Care for near on 40 years across the public and voluntary sectors.
RCH Care Homes has services in Kent, Essex, Bedford and Cambridgeshire, – we provide inpatient Acquired Brain Injury Rehabilitation services and Sheltered Housing for Learning Disability service users; in addition to a range of residential, nursing and dementia care services. In my role I need to keep a close oversight of all the services from an operational quality and care perspective.
I am passionate about leadership because good leaders transform the lives of staff and the people in our care. In RCH we encourage co production leadership – working in a joined-up way both within the organisation and with our external partners across the wider landscape of health and social care.,
The other part of my job is developing innovative quality initiatives, talking to our health and social care partners to see how we can work with them in partnership to improve care delivery in a more effective and efficient way.
It is important that as a Provider of care that we stay ahead of care developments, in particular relating to the advancements of technology, so that our residents and patients benefit clinically, socially and emotionally.
I am also the lead for Infection Prevention & Control for RCH Care Homes; everyone’s safety and wellbeing is of paramount importance to us. We take our responsibilities very seriously and ensure robust measures are in place to keep our services COVID 19 secure in line with Government and Public Health England advice.
Our Managers have worked closely with local GP’s and Health professionals in all locations to ensure the vaccine is offered to all our residents and staff.
Assuming the responsibility for Infection Prevention & Control across RCH services has been a significant dominance in my daily working life, ensuring our services are kept updated with changing guidance and in practice are carrying out the intensive high levels of infection control cleaning required and maintaining the use of personal protective equipment such as gloves, aprons and masks. We are very proud of our staff who have contributed to ensuring all our services who have been inspected have passed the Infection Control Inspection by the Care Quality Commission.
Why do you love working for RCH care homes?
No two days are quite the same and that is what I enjoy about my job.
I rise early any time from 5.45 am, – I love putting my feet to the floor every morning and thinking about the day ahead and the difference I can make to the people we care for, with the RCH Team.
I live in Essex and like to start travelling early so I get to our services as promptly as possible to meet with the Manager, their Team and see our highly committed staff who do a wonderful job supporting and caring.
My ideal day includes going out to see our services, meeting residents, their families, talking to our staff and supporting them to provide the best care they can and to ensure life is lived to its fullest potential. I like the Managers and Teams to know that if they need to talk to me I am accessible at all times.
I finish my day hoping that I have made a difference and that the care we provide would be what I want for my own parents. Nothing else is good enough!
What does a perfect day with your family look like?
My perfect day is having my four grandchildren around me, Harry, Bella, Angus & Imogen relaxing and having fun – preferably on a beach somewhere.
In general, I enjoy having a nice glass of wine with good food and company
