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2014 started with an immense personally memorable event – being

named in Her Majesty’s New Year Honours List. I was fortunate to be

awarded a MBE for services to Older People – in recognition of what we

achieve at Wren Hall Nursing Home and for the work I do across the East

Midlands in supporting Care Homes to be great places for Older People to

live and thrive.

I was given the MBE by Her Majesty the Queen in March 2014.

I was only to take three guest with me to Buckingham Palace so I chose

Bill, Shirley Smith and Penny Haney. I’d have dearly loved to have taken so many more people with me so I chose those who represent everyone

who helps me to achieve all I do. We had a fabulous time and finished the day celebrating with my wonderful children, Dominic, Benjamin and

Natalie and seeing the West End show ‘We will Rock you’.

Garden Row – was completed in November 2013 and in March

this year, Garden Row’s raised garden was completed. This lounge

and outdoor area has made a huge difference to the quality of lives for

both those living in Garden Row

and those working there. The atmosphere is so much calmer

and the feel more relaxed as a result of the increased space the

additional natural daylight from more windows being added.

touch In

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The raised deck area

offers access all year round to a garden

area. Zoe Greenwood was

appointed Care Coordinator for Garden

Row in July 2014. With the support of Penny

Haney, Zoe has lead

our team in Garden Row with passion and

commitment with the results being so

beneficial for all of our residents.

In March 2014, Wren Hall Nursing Home jointly hosted a Tea Dance at Greasley

Church Hall, with one of our suppliers, Healthcare Services. This was the second

year of this event aimed at raising funds for Dementia UK. Residents, their relatives and

staff from 8 care homes and one Homecare

agency came together for afternoon tea and entertainment.

Woodleigh Christian Care Home’s choir sang before GI Jane got us all up and dancing.

Special thanks go to Samantha Herbert and Katie Hodgkinson for the beautiful cakes

that they baked and decorated for us to enjoy. We also thank the Selston Co-op for

donating fresh cream, milk, tea, coffee, sugar.

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Building Works

Martin and Shaun, our two irish builders have improved our garden facilities over the past year.

They have built a decked area around Jack’s Tea Room. Mr Jack Wilde bequeathed £5000 to Wren Hall Nursing Home following the

death of his wife who we cared for at the end of her life. We aim to use Jack’s Tea Room more in the better weather, as a place for

our residents and their family to visit for refreshments.

The miniature golf course completed and more obstacles added.

This proved to be a great feature at our National Care Homes Open Day

event in July 2014.

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Our Beach Huts were relocated by

Martin and Shaun and a beach feature was created around them.

People, old and young have enjoyed getting the sand between their toes.

Martin and Shaun built an aviary for

the canaries and quails that were donated to Wren Hall by a couple

from Hucknall who have moved to Spain.

The pond area has been improved

by the pond being fenced off and a

BBQ and decked area has been created adjacent to the pond.

We look forward to regular BBQs

in 2015.

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Future work to be completed are :-

an electrical substation is to be installed at the end of the drive the wall which was demolished by a drunk driver is to be rebuilt

In May 2014 we experienced a fire in bedroom 29. Thanks to the regular fire training and the due diligence of our team, no one suffered significant

harm and the fire was contained to the affected bedroom.

The fire was caused by an air conditioning unit which had been PAT –tested and appropriately maintained.

However the fact that Wren Hall Nursing Home had experienced a fire, the Fire Service issued Wren Hall with an Enforcement Notice. We

appealed against the Notice as we faced having to remove all of our items which decorate our corridors.

After a long battle and almost having to go to Court, Nottinghamshire Fire Service agreed that Wren Hall was fully compliant with the Fire

Regulations and have allowed us to keep our ‘stuff’.

Dementia Care Matters is a national organization which offers

consultancy and training to Care Homes, Homecare Organisations and Hospitals wishing to be specialist Dementia Care Providers. Dementia

Care Matters accredits the standard of Dementia Care provided. I am delighted that in February 2014, for the 3rd year running Wren Hall

Nursing Home achieved Level One status (the highest possible).

- Wren Hall was accredited as Beacon Status (the highest award) by the Gold Standards Framework in May 2013. The

Gold Standards Framework assesses the quality of End of Life care against national standards. Wren Hall has maintained its accreditation and

we continue to look at ways in which we can better support our residents and their family and friends at the end of their lives.

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- Wren Hall has been inspected by the Care

Quality Commission three times this year. Once in January, again in May (immediately post the fire) and again in September (just before we were

due to go to court with the Fire Service). Only two of these inspections have been reported on by CQC as the

inspector who visited in May has been absent from work due to long term sickness and she failed to write the report.

I am pleased to say all Inspectors reported that Wren Hall Nursing Home was fully compliant with all standards.

I am delighted that Wren Hall Nursing Home

was awarded the Investor in People Gold Award (highest possible) for its investment

and support to its people. Wren Hall has been accredited with Investors

in People since 1996. We recognize that our staff are our biggest asset and we strive to give them all the support and guidance that they need to

deliver the highest standard of personalized care to the wonderful people

that we are here to serve.

Research – Wren Hall Nursing Home continues to participate in a number of research projects in order that we can continue to drive improvements

in or performance, knowledge and skills. We are testing ipads and other tablets to see if we can improve our record

keeping.

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have introduced a new inspection framework and

are rating Care Homes – Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement and Poor. To date the result ratings for the 221 Care Homes inspected under

the new regime are:-

NEW INSPECTION RATINGS

0 Outstanding

155 Good

53 Requires improvement

13 Inadequate

Obviously We will only be satisfied with one rating – Outstanding!

To achieve this we need your help!

We need you to tell us what we need to do for you to view us as

Outstanding, Excellent, Exceptional.

Only if residents, relatives and visitors refer to Wren Hall’s service in

these terms will inspectors award Outstanding.

Penny and Bill have created a ‘comment catcher tree’ which is in reception

– Please, Please, Please add your comments.

Snowflakes are for comments about those things you would like us to

improve in order to secure the rating we want.

Baubles are for those comments about which you feel Wren Hall is

Outstanding, Excellent, Exceptional.

In order to achieve the ‘Outstanding’ rating, I would like residents, their

relatives and their friends to join a Critical Friends’ Group, which I hope

will be run by those attending. I’d like attendees to consider the areas that CQC will be inspecting:-

Is Wren Hall safe? Is Wren Hall caring?

Is Wren Hall responsive? Is Wren Hall effective?

Is Wren Hall well-led? I would like the Group to give honest feedback to me (Anita Astle) and

my management team (Nurses, Care & Quality Coordinators, Luke Fairhurst/Malc Shipton – Catering Management and Marilyn Settle – Head

of Housekeeping). Please let us know if you are interested in helping us be the best we can

be.

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Filming – Are you willing for you/your relative to be

filmed? Wren Hall Nursing Home has been approached by two national training

organizations, who have requested our help in them creating training videos for care staff.

would like to film relatives of those who are

experiencing a dementia and the end stages of life.

Social Care

Institute for Excellence would like to film residents having/talking

about personal care.

It is vital that all nursing and care staff have access to high quality training materials and for this reason Wren Hall is keen to participate.

However we can only participate if you and your families are willing to be involved.

If we go ahead, we anticipate the filming to take place over two or three days.

Please let us know if you are willing to participate in either video.

We have acknowledged

the increased level of dependency of our

residents and installed a new eco-lift. This lift

is an evacuation lift which means that it can

be used in the event of a fire and it will

continue to work in the event of a power cut.

We have also had a new nurse call system installed. This will enable our residents to have

greater freedom to walk around and it will alert

us when residents are approaching an area of potential danger. The system also gives a

number of comprehensive reports regarding call response times.

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Regrettably we have had two bouts of diarrhoea and vomiting which have lead to us having to close our doors to visitors.

Please be aware that anyone suffering with any diahorrea and vomiting is likely to remain infective up to 48 hours their last episode. Please do not

visit Wren Hall or have physical contact with any of our residents until you are 48 hours clear.

It is vital that anyone who is feeling unwell or suffering with loose stools or feeling sick does not visit Wren Hall Nursing Home.

Please note that the only real effective way of avoiding catching infections is through thorough hand washing with warm soap and water. Alcohol

gels are ineffective with both Norovirus and Clostridium Difficile.

Wren Hall Nursing Home’s

website www.wrenhall.com now displays our newsletters along with

other news. Shirley has now learnt how to upload details to our

website so please visit it regularly to keep up to date with our news.

Anita has trained as a Dementia

Friends Champion and spent recent months delivering Dementia Friend

Awareness Sessions. The next session will be delivered prior to our next Relatives Meeting on

7th January 2015 at 6.30pm. The session will give greater insight to the difficulties associated with

experiencing a dementia.

Please do not forget to attend our next Relatives Meeting on 7th January 2015 6.30pm in Christine Bates Centre.

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Question Time

From time to time I am asked similar questions from Relatives of our Residents. I thought it might be useful to share the answers with you in this publication.

What is the book in the porch for?

This book is for visitors to sign into/out of Wren Hall. In the

event of a fire, the Nurse in Charge will pick up this book and

ensure that everyone who has signed in is accounted for. If

people do not sign in, we may not know they are in the

building and therefore may not find them in such an emergency

as a fire.

What do I do if I bring in new clothes for my Relative?

Please inform a member of our Nursing/Care staff. They will

record the item on your Relatives property

list and will ensure that the item is labelled

with a name tapes heat bonded to each item.

This will ensure that we know what has been

brought in to Wren Hall and being labelled

will prevent someone else from claiming it is their property.

Are vases available?

We have quite a collection of vases. These are available for

our Residents’ use. However, these become scarce on such as

Mother’s Day as we have so many Mothers and no so many

vases.

Do staff look after plants and flowers?

Our Housekeepers look after the plants and

flowers in Wren Hall. Residents and Relatives

are most welcome to care for plants and

flowers too.

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What sort of things need to be put in the office diary?

We like to record any event that requires us to have a Resident

ready for a specific time. If Relatives are taking a Resident out

for the day and want them ready for a

specific time we put that in the diary,

and also other information is such as

Residents’ hospital appointments.

Each named nurse is responsible for

arranging review meetings with their

Residents’ Relatives. However, Residents and their Relatives

may request a review with their named nurse or Anita

(Manager/Matron) at any time. Such requests can be made at

the time of visiting or by telephoning and making an

appointment in advance.

Who is in overall charge when Anita is not there?

During the daytime there are at least two Registered Nurses on

duty. One will be overseeing Garden Row and the Snug, the

other will oversee the Pavilion and Woodnook. However each

nurse will have an understanding of all of our residents’ needs

so please feel free to seek assistance from either Nurse.

Due to the immense responsibility held in managing Wren Hall,

we have tried to divide this amongst our team. The Kitchen

falls under Luke Fairhurst and Malcolm Shipton’s responsibility.

The Housekeeping/Laundry is managed by Marilyn Settle.

The Registered Nurses supported by the Care Coordinators

(Dawn Bradshaw - Woodnook, Penny Haney supports Sophie

Martin – Snug and Zoe Greenwood – Garden Row, Shelly Duffy

& Dawn Pilmore – Pavilion and Susan Pratt and Denise Holland

- Nights) manage our total Care Team.

Shirley Smith is responsible for business coordination such as

accounts and administration within Wren Hall. If you have any

concerns please ask to speak to the Nurse in Charge of the

shift, they will do their best to assist you and if necessary they

will contact Anita for further advice/support.

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How does my Relative get an opportunity to go out on

trips?

Each lounge team plans trips according to each Resident’s preferences. Staff will invite Residents to join trips so that everyone has equal opportunity and access to this facility. Relatives are welcome to join their loved ones on outings – please let the Care Coordinator responsible for your lounge

know of your wishes.

Wren Hall’s minibus is unreliable at present and despite

repeated visits to the garage the issues have not been

addressed. We are exploring purchasing a new minibus but at a

cost of £55,000, it is an expensive investment.

Thank you for reading this! I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our achievements. Here is wishing you the best health, wealth and happiness for 2015 from myself and our team at Wren Hall x.

Anita Astle MBE