In this final episode of the series I cover some key tips to take your recruitment and retention strategies to the next level.

You’re probably doing all of these things to a certain extent, but I always see more that care companies could be doing to really make the most out of it. After all, recruitment and retention are always hot topics and challenges so why not get the full value out of all the effort you’re making?

I delivered this episode as a talk at Health Plus Care and then again through a webinar which you can watch here.

All the links to everything I talk about are below…

Use Company Values As A Marketing Tool

Practical Steps To Build Company Culture

Do Social Media Properly

Take inspiration from Clarke Care’s Facebook Page

Use free tools like Buffer to schedule your posts

Previous episode on Facebook with Michelle Purse, Facebook Expert

Create And Promote A Wellbeing Policy

Research from A Great Place To Work about well being

Brush Up On Your Induction Plan

6 Steps to perfect induction past episode

Use A Tool To Help You Make Better Hiring Decisions

Learn more about the Judgement Index here

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie

As you'll hear in this interview, it took a while to arrange as we were waiting for the results of Lorraine Clarke's second CQC inspection. Luckily Clarke Care were awarded the Outstanding rating for the second time and so we were able to get the interview recorded in time for this series!

Lorraine was previously a social worker working in the adults team in Bury St Edmunds. She left in February 2014 to start her own home care agency and hasn’t looked back.

It was Clarke Care's social media that first caught my eye and I couldn't wait to know more about how she finds the time to do it, but I also wanted to know more about how she uses different terminology to describe her staff and their roles, and how that changes people's perception of her staff and team. A really inspiring interview.

LINKS

You can follow Clarke Care on Twitter here and on Facebook here

The Clarke Care Website is here

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie

This interview is with Pia Rathje-Burton from Skills For Care and Rhona McClelland from No Place Like Home.

Pia has worked in social care for 27 years, starting as a support worker for people with learning disabilities before working her way up to a Registered Manager. After 15 years she joined Skills for Care just over a year ago. Her role with Skills for Care is as a locality manager is varied and she is involved with a number of projects including working with the local authorities in the geographical area, integration and transforming care.  

Rhona joined No Place Like Home as Registered Manager at the start of a brand new company exactly 5 years ago. Neither the business owner or Rhona had experience of working in the sector but managed to achieve a rating of outstanding after 3 years in the business. Rhona gained such a lot of support by working with Skills for Care, she says she doesn’t know where they would be without the wonderful resources they have provided.... and that is exactly why I thought it would be great to interview them together! 

I was fascinated to speak with someone who started in the business with relatively no experience, and how she managed to gain the Outstanding rating so quickly. I was also curious to hear more about the work Skills For Care do, and whether others were fully aware of how much support was being offered by them. If you're fairly new to care or a management position then this is definitely the episode for you!

LINKS

You can follow Rhona on Twitter here and No Place Like Home here

You can follow Pia on Twitter here and Skills For Care here

The No Place Like Home website is here

The Skills For Care website is here

"Being Mortal" by Atul Gawande - the book mentioned by Rhona is linked here

SKILLS FOR CARE LINKS

Registered Manager Network –

Skills for Care facilitate over 150 networks across England. They are always chaired by a registered manager. We do this to make sure that the agenda and the format of the networks are exactly what managers need. We use them to share ideas and best practices. We often have a speaker sometimes someone external sometimes either one of the members or the locality manager talking about topics. #thepowerofnetworks

Good and Outstanding guide – The free to download ‘Good and outstanding care guide’ is a 300+ pages guide to use to achieve or sustain a good or outstanding Care Quality Commission (CQC) rating. The guide provides examples of excellent care and support, and guides providers to make this happen.

Care Improvement Work website –  This is a great website; all guides and resources from NICE, SCIE and Skills for Care for each of the 5 KLOEs in one easy place. Its so easy to use, you find the resource that will help you, click on it and then its emailed to you.

Skills for Care Accolades awards. The deadline is the 7 September.

Locality managers  - Keep in touch with your l

Today's interview is with Laura, Jon and Emily from Cream Care who I met at an awards judging day and just knew I had to have them on!

It was great to interview three people at different stages of their career in care, and they shared some truly innovative ideas that they've put in place at their homes. 

Laura has been with Cream  for 5 years.  Laura started her journey in 1999 as a support worker, it was here she discovered her passion for learning and teaching others, as she progressed within the industry through various managerial posts Laura found her dream job as Training and Development Manager and strives to influence others on their own personal journey. 

Jon has worked with Cream since 2007 at Rawlyn House, as the Manager there Jon was instrumental in reaching Creams first Outstanding home with CQC.  Jon’s strong leadership skills have led him in to the role as Support Manager to all of our homes, a talent that has been recognised by The Learning Disability and Autism awards as a finalist for the front line leaders award 2018.

Emily Joined Cream in   2016  , in this short space of time she has become an integral part of the team at Rivers.  Emily’s passion and commitment to her role has had a tremendous impact on the people who live there and her enthusiasm is exuded amongst her colleagues, Emily has be recognised for all of her efforts for the Support Worker award at this years Learning Disability and Autism Awards.

LINKS

You can find the Cream Care Website here

Follow Cream Care on Twitter here

Find Cream Care's Facebook page here

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie

This is such a great interview with Debbie Vowles, I have a feeling you will be nodding along and agreeing with everything she says. Debbie was the first "outstanding" rated manager in Bristol, and works for Manor Community, where she manages two of their outstanding rated services.

As Manor Community provide services to people with both learning difficulties and mental health needs I was interested to ask Debbie how she finds the right staff, and what the challenges are. She shared so much and her story about her CQC inspection is so open and honest.

I really encourage you to check out the work Manor Community do, along with their website and blog. They really do share some great resources.

LINKS

You can find the Manor Community wesbite here

Follow Manor Community on Twitter here

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie

My interview this week is with Pete Dowds, co founder and CEO of Elder - a company who provide live-in care. Pete brings his experience working with Mopp; an app which provides handymen and used his knowledge of technology to start Elder.

I was really interested to hear more about managing a workforce who are not based out of one location. I wanted to know what the challenges are and how you keep a team focused on the mission when they are scattered across the country.

Whether you work in a care home, home care or something else, I think Pete talks about ideas and tips that can help any organisation improve care quality.

LINKS

You can find the Elder website here

Follow Elder on Twitter here

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie

This week I talk with Karolina Gerlich, who has worked in live-in care and home care and is also a founding director of NACAS- National Association Of Care and Support Workers.

This is quite a long interview but the time flew by as we dicusssed the difference between live-in care and home care and what could be done to build a team environment in these quite often lonely jobs. I also learn more about NACAS and how they are working towards creating a national day for care givers. Karolina beautifully describes it as a "celebration of care delivery"

We also cover one of my favourite topics - work life balance and how people working in care often need to be reminded to take holidays, breaks and even to eat! I'm sure Karolina's words will resonate with so many.

LINKS

You can follow Karolina on Twitter here

You can follow NACAS on Twitter here

NACAS website is here

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie

Shirley Emilio is my guest this week. She's experienced in taking services through major refurbishments whilst maintaining consistency in care and also in turning around poor performing care homes.

We talk a great deal about the steps to take if you're a new manager and know things need to change. We also cover shift handovers - a topic not yet discussed on the podcast.

I love Shirley's down to earth style and how she uses analogies to paint a picture that everyone can relate to.

LINKS

You can follow Shirley on Twitter here

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie

In 2012, Bill Watson and Peter Hamilton started working together to form Insequa Ltd.  Their aim was to create a specialist business support company to deliver informed, expert services to social care providers, and have some fun on the way.

I love the way Bill described what they do at Insequa; taking care of the business side of things so that you can focus on quality. I also threw some pretty big questions at him and really enjoyed his opinions on how we can shape the future of social care in the UK.

LINKS

Insequa Ltd website is here

Follow Insequa on Twitter here

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie

Welcome to Series Three!

Best friends Marina and Mary live in Bristol. I was interested to find out more about what had made them choose that home, what their considerations were and if they were friends prior to moving in.

In the end we just had a good gossip, and they shared much more after the microphone was switched off!

You may recognise the ladies, or their voices, as they are frequently on our screens on a Friday night, appearing in Channel 4's Gogglebox.

LINKS

Mary and Marina live in a retirement village run by St Monica Trust. You can find their website HERE

You can find all of the episodes on iTunes, Spotify or Podbean. Why not download the free Podbean app if you have an android or use the Podcasts app if you have an iPhone to listen on the go?

You can also follow and join in the conversation over on Twitter and keep up with all of the latest interviews and share your comments. It’s @CarePodcast.

As always, thank you for listening! Sophie