We all shape our values
That’s why, in 2019, we asked each of our homes to come up with their own vision and values. They could use the Care UK corporate vision and values as a guide, but we wanted them to capture the principles that were most meaningful to them.
Colleagues, residents and relatives worked together, and below are just a few of the responses.
Have you seen our Values film? We’ve travelled to Care UK homes across the country to discover what Caring, Passionate and Teamwork mean to our colleagues.
How are Care UK colleagues putting the values into practice every day?
Our Home Managers and management teams are passionate about delivering the very best, personalised care. Glastonbury Court in Bury St Edmunds recently received an ‘outstanding’ overall rating from the CQC, which included an ‘outstanding’ rating for ‘well led’. The Home Manager, Sharlene Van Tonder, inspires the team to deliver superb care, including highly personalised end of life care. She and her team have created a Sunset Suite for relatives to use, and where they can stay, during their loved one’s final days.
Our people consistently go above and beyond to make each day wonderful for residents – often giving up their own time to do so. At Brook Court in Kidderminster, a colleague organised a day to celebrate a resident’s professional achievements, while another gave up their day off to support a resident to fulfil a wish. At Priors House in Leamington Spa, colleagues have taken a resident on a road trip back to the area where he was born, and even reunited a lady with a long-lost friend after 60 years.
Our homes have champions who undertake extra training in specific areas of care, such as dignity, nutrition and dementia. They then provide colleagues – and often relatives - with additional training in that topic along with day-to-day support and information. Our champions are helping to drive a step change in the quality of care we provide, as well as in awareness of care-related subjects in their communities.
At Muriel Street in Islington, the team has run a Dementia Friends session for the children from the local school. Led by the home's Dementia Champion, and with residents sharing their experiences of living with dementia, the session helped the children to better understand dementia, and they even pledged to share their new knowledge with their friends. ‘Team Muriel Street’ just got a lot bigger!
If you have a great story of Care UK colleagues putting the values of caring, passionate and teamwork into action when caring for your loved one, we’d love to hear about it. Please send your stories to fulfillinglives@careuk.com.