Welcome to Kirsty Meets!
Each month I meet key stakeholders and business leaders in the social care sector. This month I met Ruth French, Operations Director, and Alex Ball, Operations Manager, at Stow Healthcare Group Ltd.
I caught up with Ruth and Alex to discuss workforce development, staff wellbeing and championing best practice.
So Ruth and Alex, can you tell us a little about Stow Healthcare and the company’s ethos?
Stow Healthcare is the East Anglian based, family run group that is making the industry stand up and take notice. In only 12 years, Stow Healthcare has moved from an inexperienced start up, to a multi-award winning group that has only grown in reputation and confidence through the pandemic. With eight homes in its portfolio, Stow Healthcare has become known as the industry ‘disrupter’ that can turn around the most difficult homes to create beacons of quality care within the community.
There is significant competition locally in each area we operate. There are high numbers of outstanding homes in our locality, which makes it even more important that we stand out. How do we do this? In three key ways:
- We are family owned and family run. When you are surrounded by big, faceless corporates, we can offer the benefit of accountability and oversight, which people find a comfort;
- We provide consistent and quality staffing – we don’t rely on e-learning, but train people face to face which means we are able to provide better care, from staff who are supported in their career journey with us – some going from carers to managers over the last decade;
- We give our residents a reason to get out of bed each day – none of us are anything without purpose and joy in our lives – our residents are no different. Whether people are relearning to butter their own toast, shave, or make a cup of tea, it is the little things that count
Workforce development is clearly a key part of Stow Healthcare’s vision – what schemes and programmes are you working on to ensure this?
We believe that this sector has so many unique career opportunities with so many rewards and we love to inspire others to consider a career in social care!
Starting as kitchen assistant ten years ago and rising to Operations Manager, Alex takes time, using her own experience to put a twist on the perception of social care as a career and ways to progress in the sector.
At Stow Healthcare we believe that developing staff through professional qualifications and stimulating training is key. From practical quizzes and dignity ‘Hazard Rooms’ to bitesize sessions in safeguarding for families and residents, our approach to training is innovative, impactful and memorable. We do not let the grass grow. In May 2022, we hosted a fantastic series of learning events held to coincide with national Dying Matters Week for the second year running. We engaged staff, residents, families and the local community with a series of standout talks including: organ donation, wills & power of attorney and ‘Death Doulas’. Feedback was outstanding – staff even held informal ‘debrief’ sessions in their homes to talk about bitesize takeaways they can apply in their practice.
Staff recruitment & retention are necessarily implicated in workforce development discussions, so how are Stow working to improve recruitment and retention specifically?
Despite the challenges, we believe that this sector has so many unique career opportunities and we love to inspire others to consider a career in social care! For us it is about dispelling the myths surrounding care homes and show how rewarding working in social care can be.
We both had unconventional routes into the sector, which we think is helpful in demonstrating that social care is a place where people of all talents can find a role. For example, Ruth came to social care after a career in the civil service, supporting in central government. She has utilised her experiences of leadership to support the business to grow and manage change successfully.
“We both had unconventional routes into the sector, which we think is helpful in demonstrating that social care is a place where people of all talents can find a role.”
Starting as kitchen assistant ten years ago and rising to Operations Manager, Alex takes time, using her own experience to put a twist on the perception of social care as a career and ways to progress in the sector. She has shared her career progression at student events at schools and universities, and more recently helped develop the ‘Step into Social Care’ work programme for young people looking for opportunities in the sector.
We have also developed a work place learning day inviting cohorts of Health and Social Care students to our home for a day of on the job learning featuring talks from staff and practical elements carefully crafted in line with their course curriculum. Not only did these students receive the highest-level distinction, we saw a number of students from previous years stepping up to work at the home around their studies- an amazing outcome for our residents and staff at the toughest of times!
In 2022, we created the concept of ‘Career Cafes’ and arranged multiple face to face sessions at every home, with additional sessions via Zoom for staff to openly discuss their career aspirations and training opportunities. The results have been fantastic. Over 20 staff are now starting the process to complete a diploma in health and social care with us ranging from Level 2-5. We have sourced additional nutrition, hydration and care home specific dysphagia training for our kitchen staff reviewing external courses for our maintenance staff and our activities teams will be coming together to attend a bespoke Activities Coordinator development day in May. Staff also offered constructive feedback on the current training offering requesting a move back to more in person training post COVID, further developments to our induction offering for new starters and in-house training. The sessions also saw staff stepping forward with an area of interest they would like to develop an in turn share knowledge with their colleagues through workshop exercises.
The last 12 months have marked another change for Stow Healthcare, as we have started to sponsor overseas nurses for the first time. So far seven nurses have arrived and are being embedded into our homes, supported every step of the way. It is really important for us to be proactive and to plan for the future – where many homes are simply stopping nursing provision, we have actually opened a new nursing unit and are planning another for 2023.
Being involved with the Outstanding Society, best practice is another aspect of Stow’s vision – what does outstanding practice look like to you? Is there a link between this and staff wellbeing?
We love innovating and sharing best practice. Being part of networks where we can do this helps us to learn from others too. Outstanding practice for us is about every resident feeling they have a purpose and are supported to enjoy each day in our homes. What is important for us is helping all of our staff recognise what outstanding practice looks like and ensuring that this is documented effectively. We have seen how much enjoyment staff get from actually setting down in writing what they have done and reflecting on the positive impact they have had on people’s lives.
And finally, where can we learn more about Stow Healthcare Group Ltd.?
Stow Healthcare Website- www.stowhealthcare.co.uk
Socials @stowhealthcare
Outstanding Society- Care Insights- Podcasts