Case Studies

Rodwell Farm - Caring Starts With The Staff

Rodwell Farm nursing home is in Row Town, near Addlestone and has been owned by Ernie Graham and Dr Karen Graham since the mid 1990s. Today it provides beds for 46 clients, covering both older people with frailty/confusion and younger people with physical disabilities. The home also offers day care and respite care facilities and employs a staff team of around 60.

Getting Started

During the late 1990s, and in common with many other nursing and care homes, Rodwell Farm found itself faced with ongoing staff turnover, which in turn, added to the business’ cost base.
Home owner Ernie Graham and then, staff nurse, Karen Raggett were keen to find a way to retain staff and to ensure that the home’s employees were equipped with both the skills and confidence to perform well in their jobs.

Dalmuir House - Raising Standards of Care

Mike and Myrna Noorbaccus established their care home business in Limpsfield, near Oxted some twenty years ago. Today they employ 21 staff and own Dalmuir House, a 16 bed home catering for the needs of people with dementia and its sister unit, Alexandra House, which provides residential care for five adults with learning disabilities.

Wray Park Care Home - Delivering High Quality Care

Wray Park Care Home was established over 25 years ago in a Georgian mansion in Reigate. Since coming under the ownership of Antony Coomb in 1992, it has grown to care for 24 residents.

The Home is registered with the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) and at any one time may care for frail and elderly clients including those with conditions such as: dementia, sensory impairment, physical disability and other minor mental conditions. Wray Park employs about 20 people ranging from managers and care workers to chefs, housekeepers and handymen/gardeners. 
 

Broome Park Nursing Home - Self Sufficient In Training

Broome Park Nursing Home recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Housed in an 18th Century listed building in Betchworth, the home has 38 residents and specialises in caring for the elderly mentally ill. Another building in the grounds, Stable Cottage, currently has a further 16 beds.

The home employs a total staff of 65 of which 40 are nursing staff.

Getting Started

Owners Mike and Muriel Choy had been in the care business many years before setting up Broome Park. They started Broome Park with clients taken in from a local psychiatric hospital which was closing down. They also took on the hospital’s staff, which was an ideal way of guaranteeing continuity of care and support for the clients.

Overcoming learning difficulties to achieve NVQ

Julie Buckler at Quality Care had to overcome her initial reluctance to embark on NVQs as she worried about her levels of reading and writing.

“I attended induction at Godalming College and was really scared and when we needed to complete paperwork I decided to declare for the first time ever that I had ‘severe learning difficulties’, says Julie. “I felt very self-conscious about doing this and that everyone was watching me – although I know this was not the case.”

Julie brought work home from the first workshop and completed this with her husband Alan’s help.

Getting the most out of NVQ Workshops

Annette Clarke works for Quality Care. She started NVQ Level 3 in Care in 2003. Annette talks about the benefits of attending workshops at Godalming College.

Broome Park's Eric & Pauline - 79 years service

Broome Park’s Eric and Pauline Welton celebrate 79 years’ service.

With a total of 79 years service between them, Eric and Pauline Welton from Broome Park must surely set a record for years spent working in Care.

Eric went to work as a handyman for Broome Park Care Home on 1 March 1961. Broome Park was then a residential home for the Electronics industry.

In 1972 Pauline started working there as a cook. She had come fresh from Ireland where she had spent five years as a nun a convent. Pauline didn’t have any training for her work as a cook, but she said that the work at the convent had prepared her in a practical way for all types of employment.