Category: Business Stories

Augusta Care underwent a periodic review from Peterborough City Council in March 2024.

The purpose of the review is for the commissioning team at the local authority to review our care plans, risk assessments, record keeping, training, staffing levels, recruitment practices and personnel records in addition to obtaining feedback from service users, families and staff teams.

Some of the service user feedback included:

“I think the staff here do well”. “I do not know what I would do without them”.

“I am happy, I like my staff and my house”

Feedback from a member of support staff:

“The individual service user should be supported to make choices about their care and support. They should be given information in a way that they can understand so they can make informed choices. When working with individuals who cannot express their wants, needs and wishes in words, you must find other ways of communicating with them.”

We are very proud to say the review went well, meeting all the required standards and there were no concerns highlighted.

A big thank you to our staff teams for their continued support in providing a good service to our service users.

We would like to wish all our service users, staff and contacts a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Our head office will be closed on Monday 25th and Tuesday 26th December, re-opening on Wednesday 27th at 9am as usual. We will also be closed on Monday 1st January, re-opening on Tuesday 2nd at 9am as usual. Our emergency out-of-hours on-call is available 24/7 and can be reached by calling the office on 01733 233725 and selecting option 1.

As we head into the festive season once again, Augusta Care’s head office team decided to continue the tradition of donating to the local Food Bank instead of operating a ‘Secret Santa’. Our donation has now been sent off to the Food bank so that it can hopefully be put to good use ahead of the big day.

If you would like to know more and find out how you can get involved, please visit: https://peterborough.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/

In February 2022, Augusta Care began the application process to become a ‘Sponsored Employer’ with the Home Office so that we could offer employment to those applying from outside the UK and those who were seeking a change to their existing visa status, such as those who had finished their studies.

A few months later we were awarded our Sponsorship License and so we could begin offering Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to successful applicants.

Fast forward to just over 14 months later, Augusta Care has welcomed a new cohort of staff from both overseas and within the UK changing visa status and have recently began celebrating 1 year service of our new recruits.

Our International Recruitment Project has proved to be incredibly invaluable to the organisation, providing much needed staff support in an ever difficult to recruit to industry.

We have just conducted our final ‘wave’ of recruitment where we offered CoS to applicants and hope to review the project again in 2024 with the potential to open up the project for further applicants.

We invitied our office and management teams to get involved with #WearItGreen Day today – raising £26 for the Mental Health Foundation. Its a small contribution to the amazing work the foundation does and we invite you to find out more at: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week

We’re proud to be supporting @mentalhealth this #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek – 15 to 21 May. Join in and help to create a world with good mental health for all. Find out more and get involved https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/mhaw #ToHelpMyAnxiety

Our staff team are able to access the EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) if they need additional support, please login to the staff area or speak to your line manager for further information.

We will also be joining in a national ‘Wear it Green Day’ on Thursday 18 May and we’re encouraging all staff and service users to get involved. For more information please click the link above.

World Autism Acceptance Week is back from 27 March to 2 April 2023, raising awareness and support of the 700,000 autistic people in the UK. There are lots of resources on the National Autistic Society website with fundraising ideas, how to best support people with Autism and stories from people with lived experience. Find out more at https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/raise-money/world-autism-acceptance-week-2023/fundraising-resources

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

As an organisation, Augusta Care has a strong equality & diversity policy, that no only protects sets out protection for all our staff and service users, but also promotes equality to all regardless of gender, race (including colour, nationality or ethnic origin), disability, sexual orientation, marital status, age, religion or belief.

“The Company is committed to providing a working environment in which employees are able to realise their full potential and to contribute to its business success irrespective of their gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, part time status, age, religion or belief.  The Company values the differences that a diverse workforce brings. This is a key employment value to which all employees are expected to give their support.“

Care spotlight – Mary Seacole – The pioneer of convalescent care

Mary Seacole was born to a Jamaican mother and Scottish father in 1805, and is widely considered to be the world’s first nurse practitioner. Growing up in the Caribbean she studied herbal medicines, and travelled to Britain to offer her services at the start of the Crimean war.

At the war office she was met with prejudice due to her gender and heritage, and was told she wasn’t needed. Undefeated, Mary travelled to Balaklava herself, and set up her own refuge for injured and sick soldiers called the ‘British Hotel’.

She was also known to go to the battlefield – risking her life to tend to the wounded.

After the war she returned home to nothing. To show their gratitude for her bravery and compassion, service men organised a money-raising gala for Mary in London, attended by over 80,000 people, including royalty.

Our Head Office team decided to pull together and make a donation to the Peterborough FoodBank instead of operating a Secret Santa again for Christmas 2022. We’ve just received confirmation that the funds have been received and are now being put to good use.