Royal Buckingham Palace Garden Party

Amherst Court Go Flower Wild

A Proud Parkview Care Home

Family Mediation at Stepahead Support

Olympic Park 10k Charity Run

July 2016 Issue 18

As we move into the summer months it is pleasing to see the progress being made by all of our services in meeting and improving standards.

All of our Care Homes have been inspected under the new CQC arrangements, with only our Bexley domiciliary care service remaining. Our overall grades reflect well on Avante Care & Support and our approach to quality through our mock inspection team who work so closely with all our home and branch managers. Without a doubt we are now stronger and more responsive to the requirements of our regulators which is being seen in the continued improvement in grades across our services. Special mention goes to Pat Collis at Parkview, who came into post at a challenging time just before a CQC inspection but has delivered and responded well.

I am pleased to report on the continued roll out of our capital investment strategy which has now seen the completion of works at Bridge Haven and Parkview. Works have now commenced at Court Regis and Weybourne. Later in the year we will begin preparing for the required investment at Pilgrims View.

I am pleased to confirm the appointment of John Ogbe as our new Home Manager for Pilgrims View, who I am sure will be a welcomed addition to the Kent Management Team. This now means we have a stable and complete set of registered managers across all our homes under the experienced leadership of Heather Brimm and Jane Kingsmill.

On the 30th June I, along with Anne Child, presented at the 2016 Health Plus Care Excel Conference in London. Our topic was ‘Turning Blue’ with reference to CQC gradings and our experience last year with the success of

Amherst Court in Medway. I do believe we are well placed in the coming year to build on the solid foundations all our homes have with CQC to see more success in our gradings, which reflect well on the organisation and the management teams we now have in place. It is important to stress that we are now far more aware of the key quality and performance issues in our services and continue to see continuous improvements in our policies and practice, as we learn from our audit and management of increasingly complex care.

Reputational standing particularly with our services users, families and Commissioners continues to be enhanced as we meet performance outcomes. Of particular note are our excellent relationships with the Royal Borough of Greenwich, London Borough of Bexley, and Medway Council. New opportunities are and will continue to emerge in relation to how we diversify our services to meet locally identified needs.

As a Charity in 2016 we are well placed after a significant restructuring and downsizing of the business over the past 18 months. This reflects well against the recent BBC research into the registered care market, predicting some 25% of all homes nationally will close within 3 years. Avante Care & Support has repositioned its business ahead of this warning and should be secure provided we continue to enhance our reputation, attract service users and families and, of course, meet our budgets. In summary we have come a long way in a short time and are stronger and fitter as a consequence so well done to all of our sta�!

Mark LLoydManaging DIrector

Good Performance Outcomes

Avante Care & Support’s dementia care home, Parkview in Bexleyheath, has recently completed its refurbishment programme which has improved areas of the 69 bedded home to be of the same high standard as the rest of the home. The programme started back in October 2015

and has included improving the entrance and reception area, corridors and the day care centre.

The revamped reception area is a welcome addition to the home and

also a pleasant quiet area for families and residents to enjoy. The area is full of light and bright colours and boasts a welcoming feel as soon as one walks through the homes doors. There is also a new entry phone coded system at the home, allowing families better entry access into the home.

Parkview is a well-established dementia care home in the area and greatly supported by the local Bexley community. The care home o�ers a variety of lounges and dining areas over two

A Proud Parkview Care Home

floors with tastefully decorated rooms and bright and cheerful furnishings. Many of the single rooms at Parkview benefit from en-suite facilities, all have been individually decorated to provide comfort and relaxation.

The refurbishment programme included freshening up the corridors and bedroom doors with bright colours bringing all areas of the home in line to give a fresh and bright environment for residents to live. A request from the residents and sta� at the home were to include renovating the gardens to encourage more activity and interaction with some of the green fingered residents at the home.

A big well done to Marie, Toni, Suzanne, Zoe and Tommy from Amherst Court who, despite the bad weather last Monday, took part in a 12 mile sponsored walk to raise funds for a tea room at Amherst Court.

“We walked approximately 12 miles in total to raise money for our future outdoor Tea Room. The weather was not kind to us and on the way there we all got completely soaked. We were lucky on the way back as we had bright sunshine.

Amherst Court Sponsored Walk

It's a long walk but we had so much fun and so far we have raised £300, with more collections to come. We are all hurting a little today, but it was well worth it.”

- Marie Taylor, Activities Co-ordinator

On the morning of Sunday 12th June, Kayleigh Barker and Nicola Allen awaited the starting pistol for their first 10k run, at the Olympic Park in London.

Set within the grounds of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, the route o�ers a quick and fun race for everyone involved. The run helps raise funds for the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust that helps support young people facing disadvantage.

Kayleigh ran the 10k in 1 hour 3 mins and 54 seconds and placed 683th, Nicola ran the 10k in 1 hour 14 mins and 9 seconds and placed 787th.

Hopefully we’ll be hearing more from Kayleigh and Nicola as they look to enter more runs later this year!

On Sunday 11th June a Street Party was planned to celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday. Unfortunately, in true British tradition, the weather had other ideas.

Our quick thinking sta� moved all of their preparations to the Orangery and I think you will agree it looked absolutely wonderful! The sta� wore red, white and blue to mark the occasion and home was decked out in flags. Red, white and blue could be seen everywhere. Friends, family, residents and sta� enjoyed the party atmosphere. There was singing and dancing and many toasts to our Queen on her Birthday. Unfortunately her Majesty was unable to attend due to a prior engagement. We would like to thank Hovis and Morissons for their kind donations.

Olympic Park 10k Charity Run

Riverdale Court celebrate the Queen’s 90th Birthday

D.C.B (Kent) Ltd competitively tendered for the internal refurbishment works at Parkview and works commenced in October 2015.

D.C.B. Ltd co-operated succesfully with the home management and contributed to ra�e prizes and organised a garden planting afternoon with plants donated by ‘Burleys Landscaping’. Many thanks go to Site Manager, Darren, for his friendly and co-operative approach to these works.

Following this, the internal re-furbishment and roof covering replacement works at Court Regis was contracted with DCB and work commenced late May 2016. This is currently proceeding with great speed

whilst the summer weather is with us. Rory, is working closely with Emma and keeping her informed on progress and up –coming works.

Further refurbishment works at Weybourne were successfully negotiated with D.C.B. This was based on our previous experience with them. The works commenced on 4th July 2016 again with Darren as Site Manager.

On Saturday the 11th June with the sun shining sta� decided to use the opportunity to go to B&Q and buy a few colourful flowers to plant in their raised beds. Residents Megan and Dotty agreed to come along and help choose the flowers.

“They were both very enthusiastic about choosing when they saw all the di�erent flowers. Megan liked the purple petunias and Dotty took a fancy to the white. James who is our young volunteer kept making them laugh and Care Services Assistant, Teresa, was quick to ask for a discount, and managed to get us a £10 voucher.

This was lovely, we chatted on the bus back about going in the garden after lunch to plant them, and Dotty said, ‘If you think I am doing that as well your mistaken‘.

After lunch a few people popped in and out of the garden some did planting some just watched, but we got them all planted. They didn’t need to be watered as the sky opened up after 4pm and did it for us.”

-Patricia Allen, Activities Co-ordinator

Amherst Court Go Flower Wild

- Property and Development Team

On Thursday 26th May residents from Avante Care & Supports care homes were thrilled to be invited and attend the Annual Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.

The event was held by “The Not Forgotten Association” (NFA) for ex-servicemen and women and was attended by HRH The Duke of York and his daughters, Princess Beatrice of York and Princess Eugenie of York, who chatted to so many guests, delighting them with their keen interest.

Residents attend a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace

On Friday 6th May five residents and sta� from Court Regis visited the Kingfisher Trust for a cruise on the River Medway. The cruise started at Wateringbury and at a leisurely pace finished in Yalding, this was a cruise some of the residents had enjoyed before and wanted to repeat!

Cruising downstream the cruise passes under Teston Bridge, one of the oldest pack horse bridges in the country, then on to East Farleigh and its church with a Norman tower. The cruise was a great reminder of fond memories for some who were in the Merchant Navy and for one resident, Michael, it was a great reminder to him what it was like to be on the water as he used to own his own boat. Michael shared with sta� member Tina and other residents his stories about being a boatman and his adventures on the water. “You go into your own little world when you are out on the water, said Michael, many decisions I made when I was out on my boat, I would recommend a boat to any one!’’

The River Medway Cruise

It was a great honour for me to be parking outside Buckingham Palace with our residents and walking through to the Palace gardens, you could see the excitement in all of our faces and it stayed that way throughout the day. We met many celebrities and had a long chat with the Chelsea Pensioners who came over to meet us all. There was a group of them and they spent ages with our residents. One member asked Barbara to marry him she said yes at f irst but shared with him she had been married 3 times before so he quickly changed his mind, Barbara found it very funny!

Family Mediation with Stepahead SupportStepahead Support was founded in 1995 and has grown from a small service supporting young people in Gravesend to a multi-disciplinary service that supports children, young people and families across Kent and Medway.

The support service provides emotional, practical and therapeutic support to young people and families in the community who are finding life’s problems di�cult to overcome, or need support to move on in their lives.

Many of the young people Stepahead supports have experienced significant challenges in their lives resulting in them having a heightened level of vulnerability. Stepahead provides these young people and families with a safe environment to explore their di�culties and identify their strengths, enabling them to increase their chances of leading a fulfilling life.

The following testimonial is a perfect example of how sta� at Stepahead Support have worked with a family in crisis supporting them to find solutions to their disagreements, enabling them to improve their relationships and regain a

positive family life. Ashley has spoken openly on how Stepahead has helped and supported her and from this she wanted to share her story to thank the sta� at Stepahead but also more importantly to help others who may be approaching or in a similar family crisis that she found herself in. Testimonial from Ashley “About six months ago, I was at the end of my tether. We had a lot of problems in the family with my youngest child’s behaviour and my relationship with my partner was not good. As well as behaviour issues there were other reasons outside the family that were a�ecting our relationship.

I decided that we couldn’t sort things out ourselves and needed help. I went to my GP about my son’s behaviour. They made a referral to Early Help who then referred us on to Homestart. A worker started working with us to help with the behaviour, but also listened to the problems I was having in my relationship with my partner, Dan. She felt mediation might help us sort out some of our problems and so she made the referral to Stepahead for some mediation sessions.

This was the best thing that could have happened for us. Stella came and met us at home and made us feel really comfortable. She helped Dan open up and talk about his feelings. This encouraged both of us to be more honest and open about issues between us. Mediation helped us uncover deeper feelings that had been buried and that we’d never discussed together.

We discussed in mediation sessions, that as parents we needed to be on the same page, as a result we are now stronger and more of a team.

I never knew that the mediation service was available for families. We had previously tried relationship counselling, but this hadn’t helped so I was a little bit sceptical that this would be any di�erent.

My mind was put at ease when we met Stella, I knew that we would all get on.

As a service it’s been really helpful, it has given us the tools we need to help us when things get di�cult and has helped us cope with life’s di�culties.

I would recommend to people if they are o�ered an opportunity to have mediation, to give it a try as it’s really helped me and Dan and our family.” - Ashley

Things get so muddled inside my headAnd I've got no teeth to eat my bread.My arm won't move when I tell it to,

I think it should and so do you.My leg won't take my weight any more,

My bottom is getting very sore.To spend a penny is such a task,

I hardly even dare to ask.You're in a hurry again today,

O how I wish you'd look this way.A gentle smile, a soothing touch,

Do I really ask that much?I sit and think about when I was young,

The games I've played and the songs I've sung, All the books I may have read,

And all the things I might have said.So when at last you come to me,And my wet knickers you can see,

Please don’t shout and tell me off (I only gave a little cough).Once I was young and fit like you,

Dashing in and out the loo.It makes me sad that I depend,

Upon the helping hand you lend.So please try to lend it with a willing heart,

Because so soon our ways will part. But thank you so much,

we can't do without you all.

Thanks to the Kent County Council Commissioning Team who provided this poem, written by a 93 year old lady who had been living in her own home up until recently

and who has now moved into a care home.