RED HOUSE - Key Persons
Andrew joined the Red House in December 2011 after working in a small family run engineering firm since he left school. Progressing from the workshop into the office, where he acquired the skills and experience that were the foundations of the work he does for us today. Andrew looks after and runs the financial side of the Red House, including all the book keeping and accounting for the home and its residents (if they wish) as well as the payroll for the staff.
Andrew holds an HNC in Business Information Technology, Certification in Sage Accounts and Sage Payroll (Advanced user), he has recently been awarded an NVQ in Business Administration Level 2. Andrew also attends all the mandatory training courses that are held within the Red House. His door is always open to staff, residents and relatives and he always makes time for anyone who pays him a visit.
Carol has worked in care since 1992 originally with the elderly and elderly mentally ill. She then moved to the Learning Disability sector for 15 years before joining us as manager in June 2013.
Her first appointment as a manager was in 2008 when she obtained a Registered Managers Award and NVQ4. Carol's other qualifications obtained during her career include:-
As manager Carol and our assistant manager are responsible for the smooth running of the home.
Natalie has worked in the catering industry all her working life and for most of that within the care industry itself. Indeed Natalie's first career preference was to become a carer but she soon discovered her passion for cooking. She has a series of impressive qualifications. She is trained in MUST (the delivery of nutritional standards in the care industry) and she also has qualifications in health and nutrition and in dementia.
Natalie's personal mission is to deliver the best qualify meals to the residents which meet their individual preferences. She loves cooking and her great pleasure in life is feeding people and seeing them enjoy their food. She places great priority in asking the residents individually what they want and to deliver the food cooked to the style that they prefer. She does not take anything for granted.
Sara manages a team of five domestic assistants plus a laundry operator. All the residents' rooms and the communal areas are cleaned daily. The carpets in the communal areas are shampooed once a week and the others regularly and certainly as often as needed. One of the ways that a professional will judge the standards of a care home is its cleanliness and that it should be odour free.
Vanessa has worked in the care industry almost the whole of her working life. She started at the Red House in 1998 as a junior carer and since then has worked her way up through the ranks. She has to all intents and purposes done the job of Assistant Manager for a number of years but was formally appointed to that post in 2013.
Vanessa holds NVQ2 and NVQ3 qualifications. She also worked part time at West Suffolk College for a number of years where she qualified as an NVQ Assessor. In that role she would move around many other care homes in the locality assisting the staff to acquire their own NVQ qualifications. This gave Vanessa an exceptional insight into the attitudes and general demeanour of the staff employed throughout the locality. With the benefit of that experience she says with confidence that the staff at the Red House are in a special category of their own. There is an extremely happy and close atmosphere in the Red House. The staff treat their job as a vocation rather than just work.
Vanessa's job as Assistant Manager includes many administrative roles, this includes assisting the Manager in reviewing on a daily basis the individual care plans of each of the residents.