Nov 29th, 2011 - Christmas Fete success at Brockwell Court
Brockwell Court Care Home in Consett, County Durham held its
Christmas Fete on Saturday 19th November 2011 and managed to
raise £428.00 for the Residents Amenities Fund. A meeting will be held with residents, relatives and staff on how to decide how to spend the money.
At the fete there was a handmade cupcake stall, handmade crafts, shabby chic trinkets, cosmetics, handmade cards, goods from the local Matalan store, hot chocolate, mince pies and a grand raffle.
Residents, their families and staff all enjoyed the festive fun and the total was boosted by a great turn out from the local community.
Nov 17th, 2011 - Uplands Care Home achieves Gold standard PEARL
Uplands Care Home in
Streatham, London has achieved the Gold standard of the PEARL Accreditation
Scheme. The PEARL programme is an accreditation programme specifically designed
by Four Seasons Health Care to ensure we are providing the most up to date
training, communication and interventions for people with dementia. PEARL
stands for Positively Enriching And enhancing Residents Lives.
“We are absolutely delighted to inform the Home
Manager and her fantastic team at Uplands that not only have they maintained
PEARL they have also now achieved this at ‘Gold’ standard. The culture of care
in the Home is so genuine and naturally person centred, it has been an absolute
pleasure to spend two days in Uplands with all the residents and staff. A huge
congratulations to all the team”.Joanne Agnelli, Dementia
Care Project Manager
Nov 11th, 2011 - Resident at Dolphin View Care Home celebrates her 102nd birthday.
Nellie celebrated her 102nd birthday in Dolphin View Care
Home last week. Surrounded by family and friends she was treated to a birthday
cake with candles and sparklers.
Nellie was born in Acklington in 1909 the daughter of a railway
worker, when her father died the family moved to Amble. Asked what was the
secret for a long life she answered, “I’ve worked hard all my
life.”
Daughter Audrey confirmed that Nellie lost her husband quite early in
the marriage and she had to work to support all her children, Billy, Allan and
Audrey. As well as her three children, she has five grandchildren and seven
great grandchildren, many of them still live locally.
Pictured with Nellie in Dolphin View are carers Kizzy Henderson and
Jodie Taylor
Nov 1st, 2011 - Four Seasons Health Care concludes second phase of agreements to take over operations of 140 homes from Southern Cross
Four Seasons Health Care announces that is has concluded the
agreements to take over the operations of 140 homes from Southern Cross. In
this latest phase 80homes have transferred to
Four Seasons Health Care, the transactions having been given regulatory
approval. Southern Cross employees in the homes have joined Four Seasons Health
Care under TUPE provisions.
The total transfers include Four Seasons taking back 45 homes it owns that have
been leased to Southern Cross under an historic arrangement.
Chief Executive Officer of Four Seasons Health Care, Dr. Peter Calveley said,
“These homes are an important strategic addition to our organisation and
significantly increase our capacity and regional cover. They represent a good
fit with our existing homes portfolio. I
am gratified that the landlords have placed their confidence in Four Seasons as
their preferred operator and I am pleased to welcome the Southern Cross
employees and residents to the Four Seasons Health Care Group. We have been
working closely with Southern Cross managers to ensure the transfer of homes
would take place with no disruption to care services.”
The transfers from Southern Cross
increase the number of care homes and specialist care facilities, across the
Group’s Home and Huntercombe divisions respectively, from 376 to just over 500.
Four Seasons has safeguarded continuity
of care for approximately 5,500 former
Southern Cross residents and transferred around 7,300 staff from Southern
Cross.
Information:
Four
Seasons Health Care: 07533 886 573.
Background
on Four Seasons and response to misleading statements by the GMB
- Before it took over 140
homes from Southern Cross, Four Seasons) operated 323 care homes for older and
physically disabled people with c.16,700 beds
giving it a 4.6 per cent share of the independent sector. The addition
of the former Southern Cross homes increases this to over 23,000 beds and
approximately 6.5 per cent share of the independent sector making it the
largest independent provider in the UK.
- In addition Four Seasons
also operates 43 specialist care facilities, including 7 hospitals, with
c.1,300 beds, operating under the Huntercombe brand. The transfers from
Southern Cross will this increase to almost 60 units. Huntercombe provides
specialised care for individuals with mental health disorders, learning
difficulties, acquired brain injury or physical neurodisabilities. The Huntercombe
Group is also a market leader in providing care for children and adolescents
with special mental health needs.
- Four Seasons is also a
landlord of some 30 care homes leased to other operators.
- Four Seasons Health Care’s Homes Division is one of
the highest quality rated care providers in the independent sector. It has
developed a pioneering award winning dementia care programme and shared the
learning internationally and has taken a sector lead in developing other higher
dependency care services. Its specialist care subsidiary The Huntercombe
Group provides wide ranging treatment in areas of mental health, acquired brain
injury, neurodisabilities, learning disabilities and children with special
needs.
- Four Seasons Health Care Group has profits at circa
£100million (before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization). After
these deductions it remains profitable.
- The Group successfully completed a capital
restructuring in which certain of its lenders exchanged debts of £780 million
owed to them for a stake in the business, so becoming its shareholders. This
effectively reduced its debts by about half, with maturity of the remaining
debt being extended to September 2012. It is currently reviewing options for
future refinancing. The shareholders and debt holders are supportive and the board is very confidentthis will
be achieved before the maturity date.
Response
to recent misleading statements by the GMB
The
most recent valuation of our company was over £950 million, a multiple of the
figure that has been quoted by the GMB and significantly greater than our debt.
We are well able to manage our debt and are very confident we will arrange to
refinance it before it becomes due. Four Seasons is different to Southern Cross
in several key respects. We are earning profits of circa £100 million pa
(before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation). After these deductions we
are left with a modest profit. We own 60% of the facilities we operate and so
are not so vulnerable to rents. We continue to outperform the market trend with
occupancy at 88% and admissions up against last year.
The GMB suggestion that fees for care may be diverted to pay interest is
mischievous nonsense. Four Seasons Health Care is one of the highest rated
quality of care providers according to regulatory inspection reports. Far from
cutting back we plan to invest up to £28 million this year and next on
improvements to our homes (way ahead of the sector average). Local authority
fee settlements tend to apply to all operators in their region with little
variation, so interest costs of debt are not reflected in our care fees but
come out of our profits. Businesses in every sector operate with
borrowings and pay rents. Ours are affordable. The public sector also pays
interest indirectly to fund building through private finance initiative
schemes.
The
GMB singled us out for attack after we had declined to give them voluntary
recognition for collective bargaining rights or to deduct union subscriptions
from staff pay. We are happy for our staff to be members of the union of their
choice and would not voluntarily give bargaining rights to any one union in
preference to others. The GMB statements to media are significantly at odds
with what their full time representatives said in numerous meetings with us
when they agreed the transfer of homes from Southern Cross to Four Seasons.
This raises questions about their motivation. Their misleading statements will
cause undue anxiety to staff and to the vulnerable residents they claim to be
concerned about and to their families.
Nov 1st, 2011 - National Care Awards - Chef of the Year
Simon Hughlock, chef at Euxton Park
Care Home, has been selected for the final line-up in the National Care Awards.
Simon cooked for the judging panel at the Inspired Gourmet Cookery School in
Milton Keynes. He chose the following 3 course meal, taken from Euxton Park’s
current menu. The winner of the Chef Award will be announced at a gala dinner at
London Hilton on 25th November.
"Fabulous food, cooked to
perfection. Once again care chefs have shown what a top-class bunch they are.
High standards are vital in care homes and an enjoyable mealtime is crucial to
residents well-being" says Christine Hamilton,
Executive Chef. Four Seasons Health Care have developed their own 5* Quality
Dining standards encompassing every step of the meal service from making sure
residents have time to wash their hands before the meal is served through to
that final cup of tea. We look at the suitability of cutlery and crockery,
whether residents are happy with the seating arrangements, if music is played is
it the right type and most importantly, are residents managing to eat and if
not, what can we do to assist. We look at all the barriers that may affect
someone's enjoyment of their meal which could subsequently affect their food
intake and, to put it very simply – do something about it."
