é
The staff and trainees at Mr Wilf’s Café attended a short basic chocolate course at Ampleforth Plus
(part of Autism Plus) one Tuesday afternoon.
Everyone got to taste the chocolate as well as hearing how chocolate is grown from a cocoa bean
and made into the lovely stuff we all love, chocolate.
Andrew and Linda who work at Ampleforth Plus showed everyone how to make a chocolate bar and
a chocolate lolly. Everyone then made their own chocolate treat and decorated them with a great
choice of toppings from jellybeans, skittles, dried fruits, honey pieces, brownie pieces, chocolate
sprinkles and so much more.
Everyone went to town with a vast range of bright, colourful and tasty combinations. When the
chocolate had set they were wrapped up in nice presentation bags and ribbons. The best bit of all is
that everyone was able to take them home, although I’m sure they didn’t last long!
Alison Crofts-Smith
Mr Wilf’s Café received a TripAdvisor® Certificate of Excellence. Now in
its sixth year, the achievement celebrates hospitality businesses that have
earned great traveller reviews on TripAdvisor over the past year. Mr Wilf’s
Cafe was given a Certificate of Excellence for continually delivering a
quality customer experience.
On 23rd of May, Charlotte went to Butlins in Skegness with Dawn one of her support workers. This is
Charlotte’s story of the holiday.
It took almost 3 hours to get there. Once at Butlins I was very impressed with the Butlins staff because
they were very very friendly, they showed us around the restaurant and showed us where to go for
different meal choices and drinks, they also greeted us very well every time we arrived for a meal
making me feel at home. The meals were really nice, there were lots to choose from and I always left
feeling full.
The night entertainment was very good, we went to see an Olly Murs tribute act, he sounded just like
the real Olly Murs and looked a little bit like him too. We saw the Red Coats doing their dance routines,
they were very good and friendly, they would walk around and chat to people and asked them if they
were enjoying their holiday, a really nice Red Coat came over and chatted to me one evening, he was
very friendly. While in Butlins we did Archery lessons, we liked it so much we went back for another
lesson the day after, I really liked doing this and I could see how much I was improving each lesson,
we also played Crazy Golf which was good fun.
We went to the amusements a few times, I am getting quite good at Air Hockey, I really liked this.
While in Butlins we went to Natureland and saw some amazing animals such as crocodiles, butterflies,
fish, penguins, seals, turtles and much more. We also visited a local petting farm, my support worker
held a baby goat, but I was happy just to stroke and feed him, we also got to see some baby ducklings,
baby pigs and we got to feed some little lambs, goats, sheep and chickens. We also went to Skegness
market which is near the fairground, I bought some presents to bring home for my parents and my
housemate.
It was quite cold in Skegness and we tried quite a few places for a warming hot chocolate, they were
all very nice, all of them had cream but some had marshmallows and one place even had a flake with
it, you can’t beat a hot chocolate.
By Charlotte Hawkins
Like many of our customers in Scarborough, the guys at Devonshire
Drive have been busy working on their garden. Pictured is Timmy along
with the first strawberry of the season!
Timmy has raised funds for a memorial bench in memory of his late
friend to go in his garden. The guys have invited Karen Roberts (Director
of Operations) to come visit and she will be presenting a cheque and
the bench’s plaque to Timmy later on in the month.
Thorncroft customers are very proud of Kayleigh
who with their help came 2nd Runner Up in the
Miss North Yorkshire contest, supporting &
raising money for the Candlelighters Yorkshire
Charity.
In the section for Go Green Eco Fashion,
Kayleigh made her own dress. David, Ed, Sam,
Andrew and Dan from Thorncroft designed and
painted the material for the top of this dress,
which we think is beautiful. Work is now starting
to plan her dress for Miss UK.
Good luck Kayleigh, who is always our Number
One!
Robbie from Astoria, Scarborough, loves Water Parks. Since the initial inception of the new water
park in Scarborough, Robbie has been following the development with much excitement. He even
got the chance to have a behind the scenes tour of the park before it opens to the public and also
got to share his enthusiasm with the local news in Scarborough. This is what he had to say:
“I have got more and more excited as the buildings have developed and even on days I am at work,
we have driven past the waterpark site so I can see the changes. I would like to be on the brochure
that everyone sees because I love the waterpark so much and I have even signed up for the
television advert!
“I can’t wait to put on my trunks and goggles and have a go in the pools and test the slides. I will be
a bit nervous, but once I have done it, it will be done, and it will be something for my history
book. My favourite thing is new technology, so I am also looking forward to using the up-to-date
lockers and testing out the inflatable rings.
“On the opening day I will be very excited and even though I do not like crowds, I am going to go
with my support staff, Dan, so I can be there on the very first day. Dan will ensure I keep safe and
help me deal with distractions. Maybe I will get a VIP pass that day for being the waterpark’s biggest
fan!”
Dr Anton Hoefter is the CEO of Alpamare, the company behind the development. He thoroughly
enjoyed meeting Robbie;
“Robert is the best type of ambassador any major attraction could have. His positive approach and
boundless enthusiasm for the development is infectious and his understanding of just how much a
world class waterpark will benefit Scarborough and the surrounding area, is very impressive.”
David Blokham of Benchmark Leisure Limited, the developers behind the waterpark said:
“Robert has become a familiar face on site in recent months and it’s been a real pleasure for me and
our contractors, Tolent, to show him around the site and talk him through all the different stages of
the construction. I’ve no doubt that when the excitement of opening day comes around, Robert will
be there at the front of the queue, raring to go and ready to slide!”
Ryedale had a great night on Thursday 12th May at our
Superstars awards. Congratulations to The Old Farm Close
team, Carla Redfern, T.J. Williams, Julie Hall, Sue Ridley,
Katrina Wilson, Mr Wilf's Cafe team, Bower Walk team and
Danielle Carpenter.
We know you will do us proud at the Trust awards in September.
Louise Crampton
This year the East Riding Regions staff teams wrote 40 nominations for their colleagues and teams.
This truly shows that the staff in the East Riding really value and appreciate the contributions each
other have made to the services and customers that they support.
The award categories were hotly contested this year. There were several nominees for each category,
13 nominees in total for Support worker of the year.
Our awards ceremony was conducted by Fiona Lees (RRM), Simon Plater (DRM) and attended by
Dave Beevers – Head of Operations East and was held at the Conservation Club in Beverley on the
3rd June 2016. Staff and some customers from each of the seven services in the east riding area
attended the evening.
The awards ceremony commenced at 7.30pm followed by a buffet, drinks and disco dancing and a
great time was had by all.
Award Winners
Customer Engagement Award:
Values Award:
Embracing Change:
C.R.E.W.S Award:
Best Newcomer Award:
Customer Service Award:
Customer of the Year Award:
Manager of the Year:
Support Worker of the Year:
Christine Buckle and Derrick Sykes
Jenny Shipman
Innisfail Service
Copendale Service
Natalie Braim
Karen Rogerson and Gill Green
Keith Creer
Ruth Watts
Karen Witty
Highly Commended Awards
Embracing Change:
Values Award:
Beechwood Team
Nornabell Staff Team
Written by Kirsty Connor
The Scarborough Region held their Regional Staff Awards on June 2nd. As well as presenting Long
Service Awards to staff who have been with the Trust for over 10 years (some have been continuously
offering our customers outstanding support for well over 20 years!) they presented awards to the
following people:
Best Newcomer – Samia Galeb
Support Worker of The Year – Rebecca Conlon
Community Engagement Award – The Orange Zebra Committee
Customer of the Year – Becky Cooper
Customer Service Award – Sue Sharp
Manager of the Year – Tamara Towse
CREWS Award – The Muston Road Team
Values Award – The Fell Close Staff Team
Embracing Change Award – Tracey Burdett, Beverley Ireland, Karen Haydon and Lucy Cook
Huge congratulations to Sue Pickering, Registered
Manager at Fell Close who recently completed
advanced Dementia training with Bradford
University. Pictured is Sue receiving her welldeserved certificate.
Here is a quick update on what SCG are up to this month. In case you were not aware, please
remember that SCG reps can attend disciplinary meetings with you for support now. They will also be
contacting you if you hand in your resignation to see if you are happy to meet with them to do a
farewell interview. It is important to us that we become an employer of choice and this is a great way
of learning what we could do better so please take the time to meet with your SCG rep.
We would like as time moves on for SCG to be seen as another Quality Assurance system. As you
are already aware they do attend RLT and staff meetings and we would like your reps to be able to
gather information on things like SDSs – are you receiving them, are they of a good quality & staff
meetings – do they happen, are they well attended?
SCG continue to be involved in several working groups looking at things like supervisions, appraisals,
flexible working, as well as still having a close link to the Health and Safety Committee, they have just
been consulted on the new Health & Safety strategy. There is a SCG section on SharePoint so if you
are not sure who your representative is please look on there. We are always looking for new members
so if you would like to join please contact Hannah Swierstra [email protected] at the York
office.
Gill Williams SCG Rep for Central Services
On May 26th the Orange Zebra’s hosted a glamorous ball. There was a
delicious two-course meal, a raffle and a live band with Lucy Cook,
Assistant Manager at 21 Londesborough Road, singing. The group have
raised over £800 from the ball, and this money will go to the group’s next
productions.
A big thank you goes out to all of the local businesses that supported the
Orange Zebra’s and sponsored the event.
The skills and knowledge
Passed down to us all,
To help our customers,
Live life and stand tall.
The skills that have been learnt,
Whether large or small,
Means customers and colleagues,
Know who to call.
With skills and knowledge that have been shared,
I think it’s safe to say we’re all now prepared,
To help and support our customers to see,
That together we’re all part of the knowledge tree,
With this in mind, it’s safe to say,
Let’s all join in the Wilf Ward way!
By Hannah Dewhirst
This year’s managers’ conference took place on Monday 6th June at Folk Hall, New Earswick. We had
a busy order for the day, and after everyone was signed in by the HR team, we went into introductions
and welcomes by Phil Metcalfe (Financial Controller) and me.
We started the morning session focusing on recruitment. Neil Eastman, Founder of StickyPeople,
shared his experiences and research into recruitment in social care. We looked at identifying how we
had recruited members of our staff teams. What seemed to be consistent across the groups was that
‘word of mouth’ is a really powerful source for potential new recruits. We also looked at identifying
different areas to find new recruits such as using Facebook, targeting more local settings such as
leisure centres, army base camps and volunteers. The final activity looked at what interview questions
we might ask individuals. We had some great ideas! These are currently being collated for our question
bank so we have an additional resources to support you with your interviewing.
The afternoon session started with Gill William’s, Regional Registered Manager, launching the new
Health and Safety Handbook (everyone should have a copy of this now). Clare Fallowfield, Manager
(Boothferry and the Wolds) and Sam Moor (Deputy Regional Manager) spoke about their experiences
of working on SCG, how valuable the group is to the Trust and why it’s important everyone gets
involved with our working groups. Fiona Strachan (Project Officer) talked to us about It’s a Knock Out,
and encouraged us all to get involved! There’s only 64 days to go – make sure you’ve signed up your
team.
Sallyanne Reid (L&D Advisor), Jayne Cooper (Head of Operations) and Karen Roberts (Director of
Operations) introduced the new management development course, which is due to start in September.
There are going to be five sessions which include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Communication
Performance Management
Team Building
Change Management
Train the Trainer
Members of the pilot described what they had got out of the days they had been on so far. Hannah
Dewhirst, a member of the pilot group has written a poem about her time taking part in the courses.
You can find it on page 7. Please can managers get themselves signed up? Remember places are on
a first come first serve basis!
The Ted Family Trust (Ted Learning) joined us for the final session for an interactive session where
we coached their manager’s through some difficult staffing issues which were managing absence,
collusion between a manager and a staff member (Beryl), and nipping staffing problems in the bud. It
was a really fun session and a completely different approach to any type of training session we’ve had
before. Follow on sessions are taking place across management teams at the minute to support with
change management within the Trust.
We’ve had some brilliant feedback on the day from so many of you which we really appreciate. Thank
you to those of you who took part in sharing your ideas and advising The Ted Family Trust on their
staffing issues. We hope you enjoyed meeting and working with different people on the day. Finally,
thank you to everyone involved in making the day a success.
The new resources from the recruitment sessions should be with you very soon!
By Claire Neill-Webb, HR Manager
How to: Calculate the National Living Wage or National Minimum Wage
In April 2016 the National Living Wage was brought in by the Government. This means that from April
all employers had to pay everyone who is over 25 years old £7.20 per hour. In January we increased
our rates which means that everyone (regardless of age) is paid above this.
Even though the national living wage is an hourly rate, it does not mean you have to be paid that rate
for every hour you work. When you’re working out national living wage you base it on your gross pay
(pay before any deduction such as national insurance and tax). National living wage is worked out using
a pay reference period, for the Trust this is our 4 week pay period.
So, if Henry is a Support Worker and is paid £7.85 per hour, and is contracted (and worked) 19 hours
per week (76 hours in a 4 week period). This means Henry’s gross pay is £596.60 which is £49.40 (19
hours x £7.20 x 4 = £547.20 - £596.60 = £49.40) more than the National Living Wage.
During this 4 week period Henry also worked two 8 hour sleep-in shifts at £53.60 per shift. This means
that during the same 4 week period his gross pay was £703.80 (Salary: 19 hours x £7.20 x 4 = £596.60
+ £107.20 = £703.80 Total hours in 4 week period = 94). Therefore during the 4 week period his gross
pay was £41.40 above the National Living Wage.
The same calculation can be used when working out National Minimum Wage.
This is a very basic view of what the calculations look like, and there can be other things that need to be
taken into consideration because not all pay is included as part of the calculations. If you have any
specific questions about your pay please contact your line manager who will liaise with payroll.
Please remember that each national minimum wage/living wage query will be looked at on a case-bycase basis.
Our new Health and Safety Handbook (HS0630GUID), has been uploaded to SharePoint today and can
be found in the Health and Safety area or the Forms and Policies area.
It is the responsibility of all staff to ensure that they have read this Handbook and confirmed to their
Manager that it has been read and understood.
Please note that we also have a new Health and Safety Policy and related forms.
If you have any queries in relation to this Handbook please contact your manager.
It seems as if there has been nothing but bad news from across the world recently. Similarly, there has
been quite a bit of bad news within the Trust as well. The past few weeks have brought us several
pieces of distressing news also. Someone we support died whilst on holiday in Spain, some people we
support have been told that they have only months to live and someone we support died suddenly and
without any prior warning this weekend. Not only this, in the past few months we have experienced the
sadness of several colleagues dying and a number of staff losing relatives and close family members as
well.
It would be easy to say that life goes on and that we must pick ourselves up from this, but what I do
know about the Trust is the sense of compassion and care that runs throughout the organisation. This
is one of the qualities of the Trust that makes it such a good organisation. This sense of family and
closeness is something that is at the core of the Trust.
Another thing that is evident across the Trust is the connectedness of our staff with our customer group.
Many of you will have supported a large number of people over the years to actively participate in their
communities and beyond, and whilst you may not now be involved in delivering their support, you are
likely to still have a genuine concern that they are doing well. Likewise, the learning disability community
is relatively small and close-knit, so it is possible that some of the people you support now may be upset
by recent events, as they may know people who have been adversely affected by some of our bad news.
What I would suggest is that if you or anyone you support has been affected by the losses and sad news
that we have heard about and experienced in the past few months, then please do let us know. You
can do this via your manager, your Staff Consultative Group Rep or indeed via HR. I do understand that
sometimes it feels safer to push on and to not share how you feel with colleagues or managers. If that
is the case please do consider calling the staff support helpline (0800 282 193), they can offer a
confidential, friendly impartial ear and more importantly if you need to see someone face to face they
can arrange that also.
I am due to attend the next Staff Consultative Group Meeting on 14 July 2016 and I will discuss how we
can ensure that during times such as this, our staff and our customers are provided with the right support
to deal with such events both now and in the future.
Paul McCay