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Posted: 2nd Jul 2008
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Castlebeck has been presented with the “Partnership of the Year” award at the North East Awards for Excellence Gala Dinner, hosted by Business in the Community.
The award was given for Castlebeck’s CREATE project, set up in partnership with the Maidendale Fishing and Nature Reserve and Darlington Borough Council. The project has had a huge impact leading to the improvement of the site for the local community.
Service users and staff attended the awards dinner which was held in Sunderland.
Castlebeck, which employs 1,600 staff and is based in Darlington, provides specialist healthcare and rehabilitation services for people with learning disabilities, significant challenging behaviour and complex needs throughout the UK.
Patients and residents in its services are very vulnerable individuals with mental health problems. Castlebeck works hard to provide stability, expert care and routes to progress, enabling them to enjoy meaningful lives in the community.
In 2003, Castlebeck began to look at ways of incorporating Corporate Social Responsibility into the business in a meaningful way. The aim was to find a project that provided an opportunity to create a new form of active community-based therapy for patients/residents and improved staff satisfaction and engagement.
As a result, the CREATE project began in 2005. It was set up through a strong partnership with Maidendale Fishing and Nature Reserve Trust, (MF&NR), a charity run by local residents of Firthmoor estate in Darlington, the local Countryside Ranger (Ruth Congreve) and Darlington Borough Council.
Dr Bunny Forsyth, Director of Governance at Castlebeck, said: “Through CREATE, our residents and staff have linked with partners to help regenerate a large area of wasteground into a nature reserve in an urban area of Darlington. The 7-hectare site has been transformed with the introduction of pathways, ponds and rare flora and fauna.
“We use the time and skills of our staff and resident volunteers from 8 different Castlebeck services. Attendance at CREATE has grown from three volunteers in one Castlebeck service through to 45 volunteers from 8 services in 2007 – a 15-fold increase.
“Our partnership has seen impressive outcomes for Castlebeck as a business & the local community in creating a sustainable environmental resource.”
CREATE has evolved into a weekly programme based at the Reserve. Volunteers (staff, residents, and external partners) average 45 people, attending weekly for active conservation work.
Activities of volunteer groups are wide-ranging: litter picking, clearing ponds, planting trees, weeding and others.
Volunteers also attend the local community centre for indoor nature activities. Collaboration with the Charity and Ranger encourages new ideas to improve site sustainability. Current projects include developing a cycle path, extending ponds, and creating a sensory area. Suggestions for improvements are a collaboration of volunteer’s, community member’s and council members’ ideas.
Hazel Southern, Deputy Manager at Castlebeck’s Newbus Grange independent hospital and key figure in the CREATE team, said: “Castlebeck is the first learning disability healthcare provider to pilot an innovative partnership-based environmental treatment programme, with clear evidence base, linked to positive impacts on the local community.
“CREATE has improved health and well-being of our learning-disabled volunteers, a vulnerable and often socially excluded group, by positively impacting on their mental well-being as well as their physical health.
“As well as improvements for our residents, the local environment has also benefited. Site visitor numbers have increased by 47% since 2006, and there has been a reduction of negative perceptions of learning disabilities.”
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Posted: 27th Jun 2008
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A Castlebeck centre has been presented with an Eat Safe Award in recognition of its high standards in food hygiene.
Trinity House in Lockerbie, a treatment and rehabilitation centre, was presented with the award by Dumfries and Galloway Council representative Geoff Douglas.
This is the first time in three years that the award has been presented to an establishment in the area and is given by both the Food Standards Agency (Scotland) and Dumfries and Galloway Council. It is presented in recognition of outstanding catering achievement in food hygiene and shows that all records and data concerning a kitchen are excellent.
Trinity House manager Anton Watson said: “We are very proud of this award, not only for Trinity House and for Castlebeck, but also for the great kitchen staff who are dedicated and loyal.
“We plan to have an official award ceremony to mark the achievement over the next few weeks.”
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Posted: 27th Jun 2008
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A new quality rating system for care services has been launched by CSCI. The public will, say CSCI, be able to see a glance whether care services in their area are excellent, good, adequate or poor.
Only four of Castlebeck’s services are applicable for the “star” rating system, and have done very well in their ratings.
Victoria House, in Darlington, has achieved three stars, as has Redlands, also in the town. Briar Court in Hartlepool has achieved two stars. Willow House, being a new service, has not yet been inspected for its “star” rating.
Ratings range from 0-3 stars. Three stars indicate an excellent rating, while two shows a good service is provided.
Neil Cruickshank. Director of Operations at Castlebeck said: “It is very pleasing to note that the high standards of care that the individuals we look after receive, has been recognised so positively. It is an excellent endorsement of the immense effort our unit teams contribute to the lives of individuals with learning disabilities.”
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Posted: 9th Jun 2008
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Nottinghamshire Healthcare, the county’s mental health and learning disability service provider, entered into a new collaboration with Grove Investment UK, a company that owns a number of independent sector healthcare and support providers around the country, including Barchester Healthcare, Castlebeck and Swanton Care & Community.
The partnership agreement, one of the first of its kind, was signed at the first joint partnering event on 19 May 2008 by the Chief Executives of both organisations. This collaboration is intended to encourage learning and sharing of good practice between the public and private sector.
The creation of a learning environment of innovation, that has clear boundaries and expectations from all parties, is part of the Trust’s Invest to Innovate initiative – aiming to improve services for people with a diagnosis of mental health or learning disability through shared learning and enhanced pathways through treatment and care.
Innovations will include the secondment of staff between organisations, tendering for services in partnership and working together on the development of services such as a neuropsychiatric service for the East Midlands.
Mike Cooke is Chief Executive of Nottinghamshire Healthcare:
“We recognise that both parties have distinct and complementary roles in the development and delivery of health and social care. It is important that we recognise our individual strengths and work to share those with each other. Our differences are actually an added benefit to this strategic partnering arrangement. We’re all keen to explore new ways of working together and hope to reap the benefits of that in the future.”
Mike Parsons, Chief Executive of Grove Investment UK said: “As founder of Barchester Healthcare we set out to establish quality services that could work in partnership. The organisations that are here today have in common the desire to deliver quality for people and we welcome this exciting opportunity to ‘invest to innovate ‘ with Nottinghamshire Healthcare. We think this is the start of something different and new and gives us the chance to learn from each other and all retain our commitment to quality.”
David Cole said: “As Chairman of Castlebeck and Swanton we know we need to focus on people, programmes and places. This new partnering agreement gives a real opportunity to explore what that might mean for people who we support and who are taking an increasingly active role in defining the type of support they want. We are really pleased to be working with a team who from the beginning have been open to looking at new ideas.”
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Posted: 5th Jun 2008
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Residents from Castlebeck’s Ranaich House have been helping out on the BBC’s Springwatch campaign.
The residents are preparing a site called the Lochore Meadows Country Park in Fife which will be getting a makeover on June 8th as part of the Springwatch campaign.
They have travelled from Ranaich House, in Dunblane, to help prepare the Tree Nursery by clearing and digging the site in preparation for the creation of raised beds and rabbit fencing.
They will return to the site on Sunday to work on transforming the piece of land.
Manager Bruce Carribine has been interviewed by BBC Radio Scotland and the interview is due to air on Saturday morning between 7am and 8am. BBC Radio Scotland is on Sky Digital Channel 0116.
As part of Springwatch 2008, BBC Radio Scotland is challenging listeners to turn unloved pieces of land into breathing places for people and nature. Over one weekend locations across the UK will be tackled by special ‘SWAT’ teams. These teams of local volunteers will have just one day to transform a piece of land. The sites which have been chosen are currently neglected and have potential for a real transformation to be made. The transformation needs to be beneficial for nature, and when the work is complete the site needs to be publicly accessible.
Bruce said: “The residents thoroughly enjoyed their day helping to prepare the site and are looking forward to going back to the site on Sunday to take part in the Springwatch Action Team event.
“There are many physical and health benefits associated with conservation activities such as this. Team skills, team building and transferring skills they have learned elsewhere are also benefits.
"It’s also fun – there’s benefits for the residents themselves and also the environment. ”
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