Caremark Thanet Announce Three Appointments

Caremark Thanet: About Us

We (Caremark Thanet) were registered with the Care Quality Commission in November 2012, and provided care for our first customer in December 2012. We are very proud of the fact that we now provide care for over 100 people in Thanet – that’s not far short of 1500 hours of care every week. Delivering that care for us; we have over 80 care and support workers. To put this into some focus; Caremark Thanet provides over 45 full time equivalent jobs in Thanet. And we are also very proud of that.

We are equally proud of the fact that we have extra-ordinarily high standards; our customers deserve no less. However, we are acutely aware that we are only as good as the people who deliver our care. We have the highest expectations of our care and support workers and quite rightly they should have high expectations of us. Therefore, no-one working for us should be disappointed by our ambition.

And we are ambitious. Our business ethos and our vision say a great deal about the type of company that we are. In achieving our vision of being Thanet's first choice private domiciliary care provider for customers and carers we believe that we will transform domiciliary care. To do this we are making working in care a career. It will not happen overnight; but it will happen; it is happening now. 

In the new year we will have some incredibly exciting news about opportunities for careers with Caremark Thanet; opportunities for our existing carers and for new carers. When you work for us, you are never "just a carer".  With us, caring is not just a job; it is a vocation; caring is not the last resort for the aimless; it is the first choice for the ambitious; it is not a job without prospects; it is a position with opportunities; a chance to develop, not a place to rest.

To bring about this transformation we need highly talented people. We believe that in our three recent appointments, Xana Welch as care manager, Kerry Hill as Operations and Compliance Manager and Gemma Haffenden as supervisor we have appointed people who fit the bill perfectly.

Introducing Our New Appointments

Xana and Kerry are both internal appointments. Xana was initially appointed as a supervisor just over a year ago. Kerry was appointed in March 2017 as a care co-ordinator. Both Xana and Kerry have made significant contributions to the work that we do. Gemma came to us in July as a care and support worker and was appointed as a supervisor in November. Although Gemma's time with us has been brief, she has made a marked impact.

Xana Welch: Care Manager

Xana comes to us with quite a varied CV. She was a fostercarer for six years - 2 years with Kent County Council and 4 years privately; she has worked in care for eleven years and has also worked as a bar manager. 

Xana likes music - particularly anything she can dance to - and reading - particularly horror novels. Dancing may not always be a good idea because when we asked her to tell us something interesting about herself she told us that she once managed to break both arms at the same time. She never said whether she was dancing at the time.

Xana has made a monumental impact since she arrived at Caremark Thanet. In particular, she has taken the lead in the training that we provide to our care and support workers. She has undertaken training herself and is now qualified to teach moving and handling and first aid. 

At Caremark Thanet, we believe that working in care is a career, and first class training is fundamental to this. Xana will play an integral role in our ambition to transform domiciliary care. Xana will be liaising closely with East Kent College with which we are teaming up to provide a training programme that will make Caremark Thanet a centre of excellence for domiciliary care training.

We know Xana will continue to make a very positive impact on what we do. We wish her well for what  we are sure will be a long career at Caremark Thanet.

Kerry Hill: Operations Manager and Compliance Manager

Kerry brings vast care experience with her to her now role. She has worked in both residential and domiciliary care for over 15 years as a care and support worker, supervisor and care co-ordinator. When Kerry first joined us she did so as a care co-ordinator. Kerry has also spent short periods working in retail and hospitality.

There is little doubt that Kerry's organizational and communication skills are more than a little impressive. She has imposed a sense of order on what can at times be a very unpredictable working environment. What Kerry has achieved in six months has brought about nothing less than a transformation - an enormously positive one -  in the way Caremark Thanet operates.

Kerry's new role marries up well with her ambition to be at the forefront of leading Caremark Thanet to a position where it is the first choice provider for those who wish to work in care and for those who require a little help at home.

We asked Kerry to tell us a little about herself. She told us that she was a bit of  a swot at school and left with seven GCSEs at grades A-C, and that she is currently studying amazingly hard for her level 5 award in leadership and management. Outside work she is kept busy with her three young daughters.

Everyone at Caremark Thanet wishes Kerry well in her new post and for her very well deserved promotion. We're pretty sure that Kerry will be with us for some considerable time.

Gemma Haffenden: Field Care Supervisor

Gemma is still relatively new to Caremark Thanet; however, she has settled in very well and following her appointment to supervisor she has proved herself to be a perfect fit for our management team. Gemma's approach to working sits well with Caremark Thanet's business ethos of putting customers and carers at the heart of what it does.

Gemma has worked in care for about four years, one of those years was spent working in residential care. She has also run her own business selling Avon products.

We asked Gemma what she likes to do outside of work. She told us that spare time is at a premium as she works full time and has four children. However, when she gets a chance she does enjoy a game of bingo.

Gemma is very keen to progress in her career with Caremark Thanet and is looking forward to studying for further care qualifications.

We know Gemma is going to be a great success and we all wish her well. Gemma has a fantastic future with Caremark Thanet and we are quietly confident that this is not the last that you will here about her.

A Final Word

There is no business in no industry in no country that is successful by luck alone. A little bit of luck here and there is very welcome, but when you get down to it there are no ifs, no buts, no maybes, no doubts: without good people; talented people; industrious people - people for whom going the extra mile is just a normal day - no business will be successful. At Caremark Thanet, these are the type of people we look for: in the appointments above; these are the type of people we have got.

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.

Caremark Thanet Raise Money for East Kent Hospital's Dementia Appeal

Our Charity Quiz Night

On Friday 8 December 2017 we (Caremark Thanet) held a quiz night in aid of East Kent Hospital's Dementia Appeal. Even the atrocious Margate weather could not keep our valiant quizzers away from what proved to be a spectacularly successful evening. On the night £366.60 was raised, which, in the new year, we will make up to £800. 

Managing Director, Garry Costain, and Business Development Manager, Jemma Clayton, draw the Raffle.

Everyone at Caremark Thanet sends a very big thank you to each of you who came along, bought raffle tickets and donated raffle prizes. Your wonderful generosity will go directly to help people in Thanet living with dementia. A special thank you must go to Bernie, the owner of Bernie's Chocolate Bar, for allowing us to use her superb venue located on Margate sea front, and for organizing the questions and compering the quiz.

Caremark Thanet and Bernie's Chocolate Bar

The quiz night is the third event Caremark Thanet has held with Bernie's Chocolate Bar.  In June we held two events: a Great Get Together, in celebration of the values of Jo Cox, and a Charity Comedy Night, once more in aid of East Kent Hospital's Dementia Appeal. The comedy night raised £1200, which means that this year we will have raised £2000 for the Appeal.

Presenting the Cheque

We will arrange to present a cheque for £800 to the East Kent Hospital's Dementia Appeal sometime early in the new year.

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.

Government Shelves Plans to Cap Care Costs from 2020

Introduction

The government has shelved plans to introduced a £72 000 cap on social care costs. The cap was due to come into effect from 2020. The Care Act 2014 provided the legislative base for the cap. The article below was written in 2014 when there was quite a bit of media attention about the cap on care fees.

At the time the article was published, The Care Act 2014 had not long received the Royal Assent. In the article I argued that there was no guarantee that the cap would, in fact, come into force. The relevant section providing for the introduction of the cap had not yet been implemented and the Act itself did not set any figure at which a cap, should one be implemented, should be set. The government's original intention was to introduce the cap from 2016 - hence the reason that my article refers to 2016 not 2020. This was later revised to 2020.

Given the debacle over social care funding following the Conservatives' manifesto launch during the election this year, and the announcement that there will be green paper on social care next year, it is probably not surprising that the cap has been shelved. It is equally unsurprising that the announcement was made during some tricky brexit negotiations. Perhaps the brexit spotlight has cast a shadow on the social care situation, at least in the short term. I have been saying for some time now that history will judge this government not just by brexit but also on how it deals with social care funding, and social care more generally.

What follows is a slightly modified version of an article first published on 2 October 2014.

The Care Act 2014 and Caps on Individual Care Costs

You may have read in, or heard on, the news that The Care Bill became the Care Act 2014 when it received the Royal assent recently, on the 14 May 2014, to be exact. Potentially, the Care Act 2014 contains some major reforms that will have important consequences for people receiving care in their homes.  A reform of huge significance for everyone involves an upper limit, a cap, being placed on the amount that you as an individual will have to pay for your domiciliary care.

The Legislative Process

The Care Act 2014 (from now on referred to simply as the Act) is an Act of Parliament. An Act of Parliament – or a statute as it is often called - is law made by Parliament. Parliament consists of one elected body - the House of Commons – and two unelected bodies, the House of Lords and the Monarch. A statute begins its life as a Bill. To become law it must be passed by all three of the bodies that make up Parliament. In the Houses of commons and the Lords this is achieved by the members voting in favour of the Bill. The Monarch – ie the Queen – grants her assent, which, it might be suggested, is a type of vote. The final stage in a Bill’s progression through Parliament is reached when it is granted Royal Assent, at which point a Bill becomes an Act.

However, just because a Bill has become an Act does not mean that its provisions have come into force; indeed, far from it. Today, it is fairly typical for a statute to be granted Royal Assent and only over a period of time – often a period of years - for its provisions to come into force. There are some Acts of Parliament various parts of which have never come into force.

The different parts of a statute are generally brought into force by a cabinet minister. Section 127 of the Care Act 2014 says “The provisions of Parts 1 to 4 come into force on such day as the Secretary of State may by order appoint.” Section 127 is known as a commencement section. Parts 1 to 4 are the main parts of the Act. Therefore, even though we now have a Care Act that is law in England and Wales, all the important reforms that it contains await implementation by the Secretary of State over time.

The Care Act 2014

The Act is long – 129 sections contained in 167 pages - and wide ranging. Norman Lamb, the care minister has described the Act as “[representing] the most significant reform of care and support in more than 60 years”.  Speaking more generally about care and the new Act, Norman Lamb has commented that:

"Care and support is something that nearly everyone in this country will experience at some point in their lives….Even if you don’t need care yourself, you will probably know a family member or friend who does, or you may care for someone. And many more of us will need care in the future, so it is important for us to have a modern system that can keep up with the demands of a growing ageing population….Until now it’s been almost impossible for people who need care, carers, and even those who manage the care system, to understand how the previous law affecting them worked.”

Amongst other things, the Act deals with personal budgets, duties on local authorities, minimum eligibility thresholds and, of course, caps on the amount that you as an individual will have to pay for your care.

The Cap on Your Individual Care Costs

Under the current system, to qualify for your care costs to be paid by social services you need to have less than £23 250 in savings (known as your capital) and be on a low income. For more information on this, go to this page.

The new Act provides the legislative framework to place a cap on the total amount that you will have to pay in your lifetime.  There will be a needs assessment – currently known as a community care assessment. The care and support that you are assessed as requiring will be care and support for what will be known as your “eligible needs”. The cap on your care costs is the maximum amount that you will have to pay in your lifetime to meet your eligible needs.

It is important to note two points. First, at this moment in time the relevant part of the Act dealing with the cap has not been brought into force. The intention expressed by the government is that the cap will operate from April 2016. However, there will be a general election in 2015 and we may have a different government. As explained above, it is for the Secretary of State (who is Jeremy Hunt at the moment) to bring into force the relevant part of the Act.

The second thing to note is that there are no figures contained in the Act. Once again, the government has expressed an intention, this time to the effect that the cap should be set at £72 000. Just as with the implementation of the relevant part of the Act dealing with the cap itself, the actual figure at which the cap is set will be set and implemented by the Secretary of State.

The cap will not cover what are called “living costs”. This is highly relevant if you were looking to move into residential accommodation. The cap will not cover such costs as utility bills and food. The aim behind this is to try not to disadvantage those receiving domiciliary care. If you have home care; you still have to pay for things like heating and food. Therefore, excluding living costs from the cap attempts to gain some consistency between those in residential care and those receiving home care.

The cap will only cover the cost of meeting your eligible needs. You may want something extra. In such a case you will be expected to pay for that yourself. For example, if your eligible needs require a home care visit of 30 minutes each morning, only the cost of those visits are covered by the cap. If you wish to have a 45 minute call each day, you will have to pay for the extra 15 minutes.

 

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website atwww.caremark.co.uk/thanet.

(Still) Lonely this Christmas

This is a slightly amended version of an article first published in 2015.

Christmas is a time for being with family; it’s a time for sharing gifts with friends; a time for creating memories.   For some, amongst whom are many of society’s most vulnerable and frail,  their families will be absent this Christmas; there will be no friends to share this season with, and their memories of Christmases gone by will be all they have.

Loneliness does not discriminate. It is a state that has no sympathy for illness, for gender, for status, for race, for age. Though it is a state to which age makes us more susceptible. And loneliness is felt more keenly at Christmas when the shadow of everyday loneliness lengthens. This year (2020) that shadow is longer than ever.

The facts on loneliness and isolation make uncomfortable reading. There are about 3.5 million people in the UK aged 65 and over who live alone. Many of the 65 and over age group report that they have contact with family, friends or neighbours less than once a week; that they feel trapped in their homes; that they have no help to go out; feel socially isolated, and have no one to turn to for help.

If you found those facts a little disturbing; prepare yourself for this: in 2010, in the UK, 500,000 people aged 65 and over spent Christmas day alone. That was in 2010. I have not looked for figures for other years; I suspect they will be little different from 2010. I suspect, when someone comes to do the calculation for more recent Christmases, the figures will be about the same.

You probably know someone who lives alone. It’s never easy to know how to help.  The NHS Choices website – especially the page: Loneliness in the Elderly: How to Help – has some very good advice. The things we can do to help are often quite simple. This Christmas, the most important gift we give might be something as simple as saying hello to a neighbour.

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email: garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.