36 CARE HOME PROFESSIONAL | August 2019RECRUITMENT CARE UKDESPITE SOCIAL CARE’S WIDELY REPORTED
NURSE RECRUITMENT CHALLENGES, CARE
UK CONTINUES TO INVEST IN EXPANDING
ITS NURSING CARE PROVISION. DURING THE
LAUNCH OF ITS LATEST NURSING HOME, MILLERS
GRANGE IN WITNEY, OXFORDSHIRE, CEO OF
RESIDENTIAL CARE SERVICES, ANDREW KNIGHT,
EXPLAINED HOW CARE UK IS SUCCEEDING
WHERE OTHERS HAVE FAILED.I
n the midst of a sector-leading care home development
programme, Care UK launched its latest nursing home,
Millers Grange in Witney, Oxfordshire in June.
Andrew stressed the care provider’s ongoing commitment to
nursing, highlighting how 19 of its 119 homes provide nursing care.
“We are staying in nursing,” Andrew told CHP.
The Care UK boss said the provider’s successful formula for nursing
recruitment was due to a combination of factors.
“Firstly, we look at getting recruitment right on a home by home
basis,” Andrew noted.
Care UK has also managed to attract more nurses by reshaping its
career offering, including the creation of a nursing manager role offering
extra responsibilities.
Andrew acknowledged that attracting high quality nurses remained
a challenge for the sector, however, adding Care UK’s creation of a
senior carer with medication dispensing responsibilities had helped
compensate for the shortfall.
Care UK’s adoption of eMAR through its partnership with Lloyds
Pharmacy has supported this step change by making medicine
management safer and more efficient. Andrew said eMAR had contributed
to a significant drop in, the admittedly small, number of medication errors.Children from Our Lady of Lourdes Primary School sing at the official
launch of Care UK’s latest nursing home, Millers GrangeNURSING LEADER
He added that ensuring sustainable
NHS, CHC and private nursing rates
was a further key component of
nursing care.
In combination with this, the CEO
cited Care UK’s successful overseas
strategy that began targeting nurses
in Dubai, the Caribbean and India well
ahead of Brexit.
“It’s been a good programme for us,”
Andrew noted.
“We have 50 nurses currently going
through the process of coming to
the UK.”
With its combination of residential,
residential dementia, nursing and
nursing dementia care, Millers Grange
is a typical example of how Care UK
meets the full range of elderly care
needs in a state of the art setting.
“We are very proud of the home,”
registered manager Steve Reader
told me.
“It’s a magnificent building and has
been an amazing opportunity to build
up something from scratch.”
As well as e-medication, the home
employs the latest technology,
including Caresys electronic care
planning, Medicare nurse call
systems and a Tovertafel interactive
activities table.
Care UK has played a leading role in
providing high quality and nursing care
facilities for the sector with 47 new
homes coming on stream since 2011
and another 26 due to open in the next
four years.
While doing this, the provider has
also managed to boost profitability
by raising its percentage of privately
funded residents from a little under
30% to 50% in the last five years.
With Care UK recently having passed
its 8,000th bed milestone, 2019 is set to
be another busy year for development,
with six new care homes following over
the coming months.
As global property adviser Knight
Frank has warned that the UK has a
100,000 shortfall of market standard
beds, and the situation is set to worsen
as demand increases, Care UK is
playing a vital role in helping to close
this gap.