One of the UK’s leading care groups has announced the appointment of Paul Wright as its new group hospitality manager, focusing on laundry and housekeeping.
With a long career in the hospitality and care industries, he joins Aria Care Group to launch new ways of working and drive excellence in his priority areas.
Having previously worked in hotels and restaurants, Paul spent a large part of his career at Unilever as a senior development chef, latterly looking after the elderly care sector, designing food for people living with dementia, as well as designing courses for care groups.
Most recently, he was regional hospitality manager at another care group, where he honed his skills in the approach to laundry and housekeeping.
As group hospitality manager at Aria, Paul will oversee the implementation of new cleaning schedules, developing a ‘Hospitality From the Heart’ housekeeping and laundry framework and introducing Aria Care’s new Housekeeping Academy to support its teams with the opportunity to develop and achieve NVQ qualifications.
In addition, he will also lead on the launch of the group’s nKind plant-based cleaning system in the coming months.
Paul said: “I’m really excited to be taking this opportunity with Aria at such a pivotal time because everything’s new and we have some really exciting innovations in the pipeline.
“This is all about engaging and empowering our housekeeping and laundry staff and taking them on the journey with us because they are an integral to, and play an incredibly important role, within the care we provide in our homes.
“So again, it’s about taking them on the journey with us and to drive excellence in laundry and housekeeping.”
Since it launched just over a year ago, providing “hospitality from the heart” has been a key priority for Aria Care, led by hospitality director James Clear, who brings extensive knowledge and passion to the role.
It is against this backdrop that Paul joins the group. He said: “For me, hospitality from the heart means providing our residents with a clean, safe and friendly environment in which to live. But also it means that our housekeeping and laundry staff treat them with respect, dignity and kindness – the same as we’d all expect our loved ones to be treated.”
James said: “I am delighted to welcome Paul to the team. He brings to the role an absolute wealth of experience, but most importantly, a passion for driving excellence for both staff and our residents. Having his support in pushing forward our housekeeping and laundry framework, to sit alongside our established nutrition and hydration framework, is fantastic and I look forward to seeing what the coming months hold for Paul, the team and Aria as a whole under his vision.”