Cyber Essentials is a simple but effective, Government backed scheme that will help to protect our organisation, against a whole range of the most common cyber attacks. By becoming certified, we are ensuring our compliance in maintaining the robust security of our IT systems.
If you’re looking for a new career in #socialcare, take a look at the variety of job roles available at Augusta Care. We’re recruiting for Support Workers, Senior Support Workers, Team Leaders and a Service Manager within Supported Living Learning Disabilities settings. We have services across Peterborough, Wisbech and St Neots. Find out more and apply quickly by just uploading your CV at our website: https://www.augustacare.co.uk/work-for-us/
Many offices across the country including our head office operate a Secret Santa scheme however this year it was unanimously decided that instead we would make a donation to a local food bank.
All head office staff and some support staff donated either funds or items that could be utilised by families who are in need this Christmas period.
We are incredibly proud to confirm our donations have now been distributed to local food banks and collectively we donated an amazing 136kg of food and toiletries.
Thank you to everyone who donated.
The Coronavirus pandemic has been a very trying time for everyone where ‘normality’ as we know it disappeared almost overnight. As a support provider we had to very quickly implement new ways of working. As we entered lockdown our senior management team and Board collectively worked together to ensure that we could continue to effectively deliver person-centered support in the community and our head office operations would run with as little disruption as possible.
Our head office remains operational throughout the pandemic with some staff initially working remotely where possible as systems were implemented or adapted as needed. The majority of our existing systems were already set up so they could be worked on from remote locations but where there was a requirement for a system to be changed, this was quickly developed to ensure our operations could continue uninterrupted. As lockdown restrictions eased, staff returned to the office with strict social distancing, infection control measures and policies in place.
During the pandemic, Augusta Care relocated to a new Head Office in Papyrus Parc, Werrington, Peterborough. The new offices are modern with a bespoke fit-out which provides a welcoming environment for staff, service users and visitors. There is also a dedicated service user meeting room for service user forum meetings and meetings with service users, their families and professionals.
All visitors to Head Office are asked to follow Infection Control guidelines when they arrive including washing hands or using hand sanitiser and using face masks where 2m distance cannot be kept. Following any meetings, our meeting rooms and Board room are thoroughly sanitised.
Despite the pandemic, our training was quickly adapted to make full use of our technology so that we could continue to induct new staff and to provide them with mandatory training.
Using our 3cx Web Conferencing system and Teams, our new starters were able to still receive classroom based training albeit remotely over the internet. As well as our learners joining, our Service Users who partake in the training were also able to join from home continuing their involvement in the training delivery.
Augusta Care are proud to announce that our Skills for Care endorsement has been renewed. Skills for Care endorsement is the bespoke quality mark that is given to the best learning and development providers within the adult social care sector and to become endorsed you must be able to clearly evidence that the training delivered makes a significant difference, not only to the learner but also to the person accessing care and support.
Again as lockdown rules changed, we have reintroduced staff into the training room ensuring the layout has changed to meet Government guidelines with learners joining online to create a blended learning environment. All participants, whether classroom based or online can provide feedback after the session so the training can be adapted as needed.
10 care certificates have also been issued in the past few months with new ways of working to evidence the skills learned.
Augusta Care has always been keen to adapt to new systems, especially within our Care Management and Quality Monitoring. As all our Care Planning, Delivery, Quality and Compliance systems are cloud-based, we could continue to monitor our care delivery and make reactive changes to support plans and risk assessments quickly, communicating directly with the staff teams to review the latest information as soon as it was published.
Our Quality & Compliance Officer continued to audit our services providing valuable feedback to the Operations team and Board of Directors.
As well as adapting to new ways of working, we also have to perform the important task of supporting our service users with the changing laws and regulations.
We were quickly able to establish a task force who ensured our service users basic needs would be met with minimal risk including completing grocery shopping and collecting medication. This meant that any of our service users that needed to shield were able to do so.
As lockdown restrictions eased, our support staff were able to support our service users back into the community in a safe way, accessing health and leisure activities whilst still ensuring that they worked within stringent infection control policies and procedures.
2020 has been a challenging year so far and there is still plenty to be done.
We thank the Augusta Care team for their continued hard work and commitment to keeping everybody safe.
November saw the first of our wellbeing workshops. They were greatly enjoyed by those who attended. During the workshops we discussed stress management, how to get a better night’s sleep and how to get that work/life balance right. We also looked at how to be more mindful and even practiced some relaxing breathing techniques.
If you have any suggestions for topics to cover in these sessions, please email me with your ideas. The next wellbeing workshop will be in January so please see check your emails for details. We should all try and find time for ourselves each week, even if it is only a couple of hours!
We also welcomed six new starters in November and look forward to working with them.
Because it’s almost Christmas, I’d like to thank you all for attending training throughout the year. I would especially like to thank Thomas, John and John for contributing so well to my training. They really do enhance our induction programme!
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas and a safe, healthy and Happy New Year!
Karren Tibbs
Training Manager.
Wellbeing Workshops open to all Augusta staff – please contact Karren for further information.
The 8th of August 2019 marked the 25th year that our Team Manager, Carol Clemenson has worked for Augusta Care and our sister company Hereward Care Services.
To celebrate, Carol and the rest of the head office and management staff teams went to Peterborough Greyhounds at the weekend. Before our delicious food was served Carol was presented with some gifts and it wasn’t long before the races started. We had quite a few winners on the night and Carol even got to present the trophy to the winning dog and her handler on race 8.
I’m sure all of Carol’s colleagues will join in thanking her for her continued service and commitment to the company and the people we support. Congratulations on 25 years’ service, it’s certainly an achievement.
I was invited to speak at the University Centre West Anglia’s Annual Humanities Conference on 28th June 2019. I spoke about returning to education and the career I now have as a result of that. I spoke to people who were considering returning to education and hope I encouraged them to take the step that I have.
Whilst preparing for the event, I reflected on my job role now and it reinforced just why I love what I do now. It was great to go back to where it all began for me, and to see two of my old tutors and one of my fellow students.
This week has been the British Nutrition Foundation’s Healthy Eating Week which is a dedicated week in the year to encourage organisations across the UK to focus on healthy eating and drinking, physical activity and celebrate healthy living.
At the heart of BNF Healthy Eating Week are five health challenges:
Have breakfast
Have 5 a day
Drink plenty
Get active
Sleep well
Karren, our Training Manager has sent resources to all head office staff to promote the BNF challenges and has put up posters in our communal kitchen.
The week before we hosted a healthy shared lunch where we were tasked with bringing in a healthy item to share at lunch time.
We hope that the BNF Healthy Eating Week has helped create positive changes in our lifestyles.
