Valley Court

Liam Palmer is the new Home Manager. Here since 2020, Liam has ran care homes and retirement villages for various groups as a manager, regional manager and consultant prior to joining Valley Court.. He believes that working with and serving older people is a privilege. He thinks care homes should be well run and good places to work and that if you don’t hear laughter from the team as you walk around, there must be something wrong!

He has an abiding interest in company culture, leadership, quality and customer service. He has apparently written a couple of books (which few have read).

I’m the Executive Chef (my posh new title!). I have been at Valley Court for 5 years and working in hospitality since I was 16. With my team of kitchen assistants., we work hard to provide nutritious and tasty food and drinks for our 60+residents. There is quite a lot to my role – planning the menu, dealing with suppliers, catering for individual preferences, pureed diets for those with swallowing difficulties. I know all the residents here and will regularly go and see them. We have a “resident of the day” process in place where they are asked about their individual preferences, checking they’re being catered for. I ensure they get to eat their favourite food and avoid what they don’t like. It is their home after all.

I see Valley Court as an extended family and I care about those here as I would my own. I see it as a privilege to get to know these lovely people and do my bit to try and make their life here as happy and fulfilled as possible. I’m working on a pilot with a speech and language therapist to help educate staff about how to support those with swallowing difficulties. I like projects and learning something new. Recently, I have been developing my skills with pureed diets – I managed to take a full English breakfast (popular with our residents) turn it into puree and put into the shapes of the original items. Residents loved it and I get many contacts from other homes asking how I do it (secret!).

What I especially enjoy is variety – for example we make birthday cakes fresh for each resident birthday and we go and sing to them with the cake and candles – the whole thing to make them feel valued. Unfortunately, Liam our home manager joins us who sadly can’t sing (don’t tell him!)

In my spare time, I do some work for helping promote singers and bands with marketing. I managed to get Paul Burrell (Princess Diana’s ex butler) to record a tribute to the home which was fun. I also help Liam with the social media.

The highpoint of my career at Valley Court was at Christmas 2020, singing “White Christmas” by Bing Crosby / David Bowie with Liam the Home Manager to residents in the nursing wing. I was Bing, Liam was David Bowie (he has the hair). Remember that..rum pum pum pum? It was funny..we went into various rooms and sang lots of times, we were experts by the end! Forget BGT!

My role is Head of Housekeeping. I’ve worked in social care for 20 years, with 16 years as a senior carer across a couple of homes. I manage a team of 7 housekeepers, with responsibility to ensure the home is kept clean and fresh, with high levels of hygiene and safe infection control practices. I want the home to be a lovely and clean for the residents – it really makes a difference to live somewhere well managed. Residents deserve to live in a nice clean home – dignity is so important and that motivates me and my team to give our very best.

I’ve been with Valley Court for 4 years, 2 years as a housekeeper and 2 years as a Head of Department. The home is a friendly place to work, the residents are happy and well cared for – you can see that clearly. It’s good place to work- staff are happy, lots of laughing and singing. When I come in, I feel uplifted. The refurb has made the home more fresh and welcoming. Think it has given the staff a greater sense of pride in the home. I think this is important because it takes a team effort to manage the home and keep it nice.

I am an active supporter of Villa with my husband and go to all their matches which is one of my many interests!

Hi my name is Helen Baddams my role at valley court is Activities Coordinator working with Amanda – I cover the nursing residents upstairs, with facetime calls, 1 to 1’s, pampering and other activities. I’ve been here since 2010! Some of the residents within nursing are nursed in bed, so I make it a priority to ensure we get some time together. This means a lot to many of the residents here – I know them all from when they first joined us.

What I love about my job? The feeling that I have made a difference to some of the beautiful people living here, I find that really fulfilling. I enjoy working here – there is a good atmosphere. I get on with everyone, attend daily management meetings, we support each other. This is what I think running a care home well all about. In the last year, with a new manager, there have been many changes for the better – whether the new hair salon, or refurbishing the rooms – it all looks far nicer for the residents and their families. We’ve had lots of positive feedback. It’s a nicer place to work too.

I’m best friends with Amanda the other Activities Co-ordinator. We’ve known each other since we were 4! She likes to think she holds my hand and looks after me as she did then (it is really me looking after her!). It’s nice as we got on and we’re like family.

My role is Activities Co-ordinator. I’ve been here for 8 years, working with my friend Helen Baddams. We went to school together!

I work in the residential part of the home and we have fun! I arrange facetime calls, games, make a fuss of those who have their birthday. We like to really celebrate peoples birthdays here with painted banners, cards, and a specially made cake and the team will come and sing. The home manager comes but he can’t sing (don’t say I said that!)

I love everything about my job, seeing residents smiley faces, listening to their stories, keeping them connected with their family is so important. It doesn’t feel like work to me and we work as a team. I help the team where they need it and I get plenty of support from my colleagues.

For me, it’s a welcoming happy family feel here at the home. With the refurb, families and residents are really happy with what we’ve done – the environment is looking lovely.

Colleagues say I’m approachable and will always help and make time for people. Friends say I am slightly loopy. I wouldn’t disagree. Love Amanda x

My job is maintenance man – I oversee the maintenance of the building, previously a painter and decorator by trade. I also oversee the refurb which has been going on since last July. I work closely with the Home Manager to come up with new ideas for decorating and developing areas – they’ve all worked well because we share our ideas, respect each other. We have a laugh and do great work - how it should be.

I’ve been here for nearly 4 years. The people I work with make it for me, we have fun and we help each other. I’ve got 2 decorators helping me – they’re doing a fantastic job. We’re doing showrooms now. I am especially proud of the hair salon we made here – I love to show it to families, it’s really stunning and it brings joy to the residents here. There was a time during the lockdown where we had no visitors, we used the time to get a lot done. Now when families are able to return, they can’t believe how the home has improved – it looks much fresher and more modern. There’s more laughter here and it’s a really great place to work. I love talking to residents, showing them how we will redo their room – they love to be involved. We let them choose colours, paper, they like watching the work being done. Being part of it. It’s a pleasure to come to work and I work with some great colleagues.

We’re really lucky – we have some beautiful gardens here. The Home Manager has promised me a residents barbecue in summer – watch this space!

I’ve been at Valley Court for 8 years, in the care team on both the nursing and residential wings. I’ve worked in all areas of the home when help was needed including the kitchen (I can cook!) and the laundry and a time as a nursing assistant. To me, Valley Court is our own little family, I call it “Happy Valley.” This is my second family- I love working with older people, I have since I left school as a volunteer (a little while ago!). I like working with older people as I feel connected to them. I find it really rewarding.

I think the home is looking far better now, I really like the look of the hairdresser, the residents love the feeling of going to the hairdressers, it’s like they’re “being pampered”. It makes me happy to see them feel happy. I think the new manager Liam has some interesting ideas. This is the way we should treat older people - with that love and dignity that we’d want for ourselves.

I started at Valley Court in 2006 – 15 years of service in July. Prior to that I worked in retail – at Peacocks and Owen and Owen in Wolverhampton. I’ve seen many changes in care – standards have got a lot higher – whilst there is more paperwork it is all about better care and better outcomes for people living here.

I am a manual handling trainer which I enjoy. I have always worked days, I enjoy the company of the residents and the home is like a 2nd family to me. I think effective teamwork is the most important thing to run a care home well, me and my colleagues work together really well. We trust each other.

We aim to give the best possible care to those that live here. I have always worked on the nursing wing – I have a passion around palliative care -ensuring we make those important final days.months or years count as much as possible. We get good support from our clinical lead and we’ve a great team of experienced nurses. This gives me confidence to do my role.

I work as the Administrator – doing finance HR and related admin which I enjoy. I’ve been here since 2014, previously working in a large GP practice.

I’ve been working here long term with my colleague Lauren. Lauren is on maternity leave – much missed. We’ve been really lucky to have Sharon step in to help – she’s doing a great job. She was a senior carer before, knows a lot and we have fun too.

I feel it is important to provide a decent, accurate admin service to the owners and the staff. I pride myself on getting the details right. Whilst much of my work is detail orientated, I still get to enjoy a laugh and joke with my colleagues. Apparently, I am especially good at charades – this is a private joke!

We’ve implemented new systems for payroll, HR and accounts. This means much of my work to write in ledgers and manual spreadsheets has thankfully gone! I was hesitant about the system for payroll but actually it has worked really well, it is much easier now.

My secret ideal job is to a librarian! Me and Liam the Home Manager have a good joke about this. He has promised to buy me a librarian stamp for the books. I find this funny, he thinks it dull! He just doesn’t get it!

I’ve been at Valley Court for 12 years, progressing through senior carer to nursing assistant and more recently Deputy Manager (2019). I have always had a passion for caring for older people, since caring for my grandparents when I was young. I have worked in social care since then. I feel this is what I’m here to do, my purpose.

The home has a good reputation in the community having been here for over 20 years. It was run on a fairly traditional basis up until the new manager Liam took over in July 2020. Since then, he has brought in some new approaches around improving the experience for the resident focussed on developing teamwork. This has worked really well. Residents have enjoyed seeing the refurb take shape and being asked about which colour / or paper they want. We also make more of a fuss of them, by celebrating their birthdays with a homemade cake and candles and the team singing to them! Unfortunately, Liam joins us and can’t sing but I don’t have the heart to tell him! Thanks

It was tough when the families weren’t able to visit during the lockdown and it has been lovely for them to start visiting again. I see the residents, their families and our staff team as a 2nd family and that’s how it should be.

I have been at VC for 3 years, starting as a carer, then moving up to senior carer and then late last year, I moved up to Care Team Leader (CTL). After school, I went into work in hospitality initially. I had wanted to work with children but then a role came up at Valley Court and I have been really to have opportunities to develop my career here with lots of support.

You can hear me laughing out loud most days I’m on – for me this about a sense of joy from providing good days for our residents – it really gives me a buzz when we make their day. It helps that we have a really nice and welcoming home environment, it doesn’t look or feel like a care home, more like an interesting home and I think the residents and staff appreciate that difference.

I was only a senior carer for a few months so to then move to up to CTL was a big step. I was nervous about it but I needn’t have been. I share an office with the deputy manager and she has been great and has really helped me grow into the role. My work really varies from being on the floor, to doing supervisions to quality audits, to ad-hoc projects for Liam to helping nurses with documentation. I enjoy learning about the service from different angles and seeing how it fits together. There is a lot more to it than I realised!

After leaving College studying health and social care for 2 years, I became a childminder. I did this for 6 years and I loved it. I supported children from 6 months to 13 years old. However, I had always wanted to get into residential care, working with older people. Reports and feedback from school always said I was considerate, thinking of others more than myself. I felt this was the right career direction for me to go. A friend of mine at Valley Court told me about a role coming up and here I am nearly 3 years later!

I work days in the nursing wing. I love working with the residents – every day is different and its nice to have a good laugh with them, cheer them up and to make them physically comfortable. I have a very dry sense of humour (which most people get)! People tell me I am fundamentally kind – I’m just a teddy bear really!
Lou x