BelongLife

BelongLife
SPRING 2012
Belong
at Home
A domiciliary service with
a difference Page 6
In this issue... Understanding direct payments - Pages 6 & 7
Plus...
• Belong Atherton
General Manager,
Julie Washington,
scoops first prize.
Third IIP accreditation
Page 2 & 3
An interview with
Gill Menguy
Pages 4 & 5
Day in the life of...
Sam Jackson
Page 8 & 9
Belong Crewe • Belong Macclesfield • Belong Wigan • Belong Atherton

Belong Life Spring 2012
A word from the team
‘IIP’ accreditation for the third time.
Tracey Stakes, Finance Director,
gives the low-down on progress
at Belong Warrington.
The contractors will soon be moving
into Loushers Lane following our
success in obtaining planning
permission for what will be the fifth
Belong village.
Work at the £9.5 million pound
scheme is due to start this summer,
and will be ready for customers to
move inn by early 2014. In fact
customers are already starting to
register their interest! The village
will comprise 72 en-suite rooms in
small, open plan households where
specialist dementia and nursing
support can be provided. Also on site
will be 12 one-bedroom and six twobedroom
apartments for independent
living, all in close proximity to the
village centre with bistro, hair salon
and a range of additional facilities.
Belong Property Manager, Nigel
Franklin, has developed a ‘model
design’ brief, building on the
experience of existing villages and
feedback on what customers and
their families tell us is needed.
The village will be designed once
again by Pozzoni LLP, one of the
UK’s leading architects in the field of
designing for older people.
During the construction phase,
our central services teams are
continuously supporting and
implementing efficient working
procedures to ensure that all Belong
villages continue to offer the very
best for everyone living and working
there!
You can follow us on...
Belong welcomes contributions
from our readers, please contact
tracy.brookes@belong.org.uk
Belong gets the thumbs up
for ‘Investing in People.’
Belong has received resounding endorsement
of its approach to people management,
receiving the respected ‘Investor in People’
(IIP) accreditation for the third time.
The nationally recognised people management standard
is used to measure how successful an organisation is in
communicating and carrying out its business plan through
its people management processes.
Belong, and indeed the CLS Group as a whole, was last
awarded the status in 2008 and has again impressed
the IIP, who found good evidence of staff learning
and development, and a supportive and approachable
management style.
Progress made
Interviews with 110 staff across the organisations
indicate a strong, happy workforce with good levels of job
satisfaction.
The assessor also commented on Belong’s innovative
implementation of the ‘Strategy Tree’, used to
communicate the organisation’s vision, objectives and
targets, as well as helping staff see their performance and
contribution to the villages.
Staff feel motivated and confident to input into how the
villages are being run through team meetings, open door
policies and good line management. There is a strong
sense of team spirit and staff are comfortable offering
suggestions to management, which have been well
received.
The assessor also found strong evidence that the quality
and frequency of training has improved. Belong impressed
with its promotion of ongoing staff development and the
availability of opportunities for staff to get involved in
things outside their normal roles. The well structured and
welcoming nature of inductions were also praised.
Wendy Gray in The Salon at Belong Wigan
Tracy Paine, Belong’s Operations Director, comments: “We
are delighted to receive this independent endorsement
of our staff development. Our people are the heart of our
business and we work hard to create a culture of ‘Belong
champions’, dedicated to making life as good as it possibly
can be for those who live in our villages.
“We will continue to use the feedback given to
us by the IIP to offer our customers the best
possible services.”
Looking ahead
Recommendations for future developments have been
suggested to better the villages’ performance, including
improving staff rewards and strengthening of staff award
schemes.
Additional work is also to be done to develop consistency in
people management practices across all the villages, as well
as continuing to improve the visibility of senior people.
Julie Naylor in the laundry room
at Belong Atherton
Gemma Clelland, Nurse at Belong Wigan
2 3

An interview with...
“I love my work and it’s
a bonus to get paid.”
Forget the Olympics and Diamond Jubilee, 2012
marks a special anniversary for one of Belong’s
General Managers, Gill Menguy. In January, she
completed 25 years of service for the CLS group,
and talks to Belong Life about her experiences.
On the 5th January, Gill Menguy was sitting in the Bistro at
Belong Wigan happily getting on with a staff meeting when she
was asked to rush upstairs to see a brick that had, apparently,
just been put through a window. “It was just an excuse to get me
upstairs,” laughs Gill. “I walked into the venue and was greeted
with a bouquet of flowers, a group of Belong staff and nine of
our longstanding residents.”
Gill has spent the last two and a half decades climbing the care
career ladder, and launched Belong Wigan three years ago. For
her, Wigan is where it all began too, as in 1986 she started as a
Care Assistant in the old CLS care home, which stood on the site.
She spills the beans on her career:
What attracted you to the care sector?
My mum managed a care home for young adults and in those
days you lived on site and so I’ve grown up with it. Although I
enjoyed the work then, I wanted to move into older people’s
care because I never had a grandmother figure, and have a lot
of respect for what older people have experienced. I love my
work and it’s a bonus to get paid.
Gill Menguy
Gill on site during the building of Belong Wigan
What do you find the most
challenging?
Treating people as individuals in a large
environment was difficult, so I’m pleased
that Belong has different, smaller
households to support older people in.
Funding is also very challenging.
What are you most proud of?
I didn’t leave school with the best
qualifications, so I’m glad I’ve
completed those while on the road to
becoming a manager. I’m also happy
with how I’m developing my staff, I
think because I worked through from
care assistant, I can honestly say to my
team ‘I’ve been there and done it.’
What is the secret to your success?
Liking what you do, and wanting to do the best for older
people.
What piece of advice would you give someone starting out
in the sector?
Look at small, homely environments that offer personalised care.
Push and develop yourself, but get a work and life balance.
When you aren’t at work, what do you enjoy doing?
Looking after my grandchildren and spending time with my
husband. This year is our silver wedding anniversary! Locally, I
go to Bingo! It’s great, I don’t have to think and I can have a
good catch up with my friends.
News from...
Belong Atherton manager scoops
first prize within months of opening
Julie Washington, General Manager at Belong Atherton,
has been distinguished for a national award, taking home
the title:
‘Most outstanding community village manager’
at the prestigious UK Over 50s Housing Awards 2011, presented
last week in Westminster, London.
“Running a village with such a wide range of services is certainly
a challenge,” says Julie, “but it’s one we had been working up
to for years. It’s fabulous to finally be in the new building, with
a great team of staff working together, and all there to serve
members of the community and provide high quality support
for the older people of Greater Manchester.”
The Over 50s Housing Awards, now in their third year, are run by
the Over 50s Housing Weekly News, a leading business journal
in the care home and retirement village sector in the UK.
“The most notable trend,” said editor of the title, Mr. Esmonde
Crawley, “is the emergence of new entrants to the sector taking
out the major awards.”
“Standards in the UK have risen dramatically in the past three
years, and the UK now leads the world in some key areas,” he
said, adding that: “Judging is against the prevailing international
standards and not just a UK measurement.”
Belong Life Spring 2012
Describe yourself in three words.
Friendly, approachable, caring.
Gill pictured during a visit from the
Elisabeth Svendsen Trust
Belong Atherton
Julie Washington, General Manager
at Belong Atherton, awarded ‘Most
outstanding community village
manager’
Gill with Rex the guard dog
4 5

Belong Life Spring 2012
Understanding direct payments:
what you’re entitled to and how to access them
The terms
‘personalisation’,
‘personal budgets’
and ‘direct payments’
have been used in the
social care arena for
several years, but there
is still much confusion
about what they mean
and how they apply to
people receiving care
at home.
Caption Testimonial
“I have recommended domiciliary
care to so many people since I
discovered Belong at Home. The
thing I really appreciate is that
they are willing to do whatever is
required.” Jenny Written
Charities, organisations and government believe that
an improved vision of social care should revolve around
individually tailored care. This is known as ‘personalisation’,
in other words, people are best placed to know what care
they need, and how those care needs can be met.
Older people who currently receive a contribution from their local
authority to pay for care at home can influence how their care is
provided by understanding ‘personal budgets.’ This term refers
to the funding a person is allocated, after an assessment, to
meet their care needs.
Choice and control
Local authorities offer different ways for people to get involved
in managing their allocated personal budget. One method of
managing the funding is to opt for ‘direct payments.’ A direct
payment is a cash payment made by a local authority into the
bank account of a person who has been assessed to receive care,
or another ‘suitable person’, for example a spouse or partner, if
they do not have mental capacity.
Direct payments can only be used to pay for services that
a person’s local authority has assessed to be a care ‘need’,
and cannot be used to cover residential care. If a person
believes their direct payment is unjustifiably short of what
is needed to cover their care services, they can appeal to
the local authority.
Receiving direct payments is not the only way in which
an individual can express and direct how they get their
care support. Local authorities can also offer to manage
a person’s allocated care budget with input from that
individual or another suitable person, transfer it to a third
party to be managed, or arrange for the account to be
managed by a trustee. Local authorities can also provide a
mixture of those options to suit a person’s needs.
Why opt for direct payments?
By receiving local authority funding directly, it is believed
that a person can have more choice and control over how
and when they receive their care. For example, a person
living with the early stages of dementia at home may use
their direct payments to choose to go on an outing one
morning a week with a carer they employ directly, rather
than attending a day centre.
There are a growing number of organisations that offer a
more flexible service to traditional care at home providers
who have local authority contracts. Indeed, Belong’s
domiciliary service, Belong at Home, was launched for this
reason. It is designed to offer a flexible service to suit the
individual rather than the provider, and help support an
older person to live well in their home and community.
Belong at Home offers a range of support options from
personal care through to companionship, perhaps
supporting a person to do their weekly food shopping,
attend a regular hospital appointment or maintain hobbies,
whether at home or in the community. Whatever the level
of support received, Belong at Home nominates dedicated
support workers that are matched to customers to ensure
they see the same faces each time.
Customers can be specific about the time their Belong
at Home carers visit, or change the time in which they
receive support, week to week. This, for example, may help
customers keep to routine activity in their community, or
be used to introduce them to new meaningful activity such
as Belong village experience days.
Laura Evans, a Belong at Home Co-ordinator, says: “It’s
made a huge difference to my working life, the fact that
I know I’ve got dedicated time to my customers, and that
we’re able to offer what they want, when they want it and
how they want it.”
Tracy Paine, Belong’s Operations Director,
adds: “Deciding what type of care at home
is right for you, or a loved one, can be
challenging. It’s important that people talk
to their local authority about what support
they are eligible for, and research the range of
local high quality services available to them.”
Further information
Personal budgets and direct
payments
Individuals who are eligible for help
from their local authority to get the
care support they need should talk to
their local authority about a personal
budget assessment. It is important
to note that contributions to the cost
of care a person receives may still
apply when care is arranged via direct
payments. Charity Age UK has several
factsheets on care and support and
help at home, which can be found at
www.ageuk.org.uk or by telephoning
their advice line 0800 169 6565.
Belong at Home
Belong at Home is a high quality,
flexible support service for older people
living in their own homes, run out of four
centres in Atherton, Crewe, Macclesfield
and Wigan.
For more information about Belong at
Home, call 0800 032 2266 or email
enquiries@belong.org.uk
6 7

A day in the life...
Sam Jackson
Belong Life Spring 2012
Head Chef at Belong Crewe
Sam Jackson is the Head Chef at Belong Crewe. She’s held the position since the
village opened just over twelve months ago and is responsible for the management
of the Bistro team, creation of menus for functions, cooking lessons for residents and
supporting staff from the households with cooking and meal preparation.
“I used to work in hotels but the hours were too long; I was
working until 2am in the morning. When this position became
available I’d recently married and wanted to spend more
quality time with my family. It’s all about the work-life balance
and this has worked out really well for me. I get a lot more
pleasure from my job at Belong Crewe and the feedback from
customers and visitors is really rewarding.”
Preparation is everything
“The first thing I do each morning is take my dog for a walk, and
then it’s in to work for 7.30am. The day starts by making sure
everything is prepared for the smooth running of the kitchen.
We also deliver shopping to the households for them to be able
to do their own cooking. The support workers actually cook
all the meals in the kitchens within the households, so that
residents can see and smell their meals being cooked as well as
joining in if they want to.
“When our staff ask me how to cook specific meals, my job is
to help and support them with this and I can either go into the
household and give a cooking lesson or we can make the meal
in the Bistro kitchen and deliver it to the
household if they prefer. If the customers
choose to, a whole household will book
tables in the Bistro and they all come
down to eat together, like going out to a
pub or café in town – and the customers
enjoy a pleasant change of scenery and
we get to cook for them in the Bistro.
“I oversee the running of the Bistro
throughout the day, making sure the
variety of food on offer is fresh and
appetising and that the ‘special of the
day’ is our usual excellent standard.
“We get lots of families and friends, plus
members of the wider community, who
eat regularly in the Bistro – we tend to
remember the regular customers and
can usually predict their order, which they
really like.
“My favourite day of the week is ‘Fish Day Friday’. We prepare
battered or breaded fish and we also do fish pie or homemade
fish cakes, both of which are really popular. All the fish is fresh so
it’s really appetising.
Passion rewarded
“Probably the most rewarding element of my job, and the area
I have a real passion for, is the work that I do creating meals
for customers who have swallowing difficulties. These customers
can’t eat solid food and their only previous option has been to
have a complete meal pureed. We create meals that actually
look and taste like the real thing for them so that they can enjoy
a quality eating experience just like everyone else.
“I do this using moulds; so for example if I were preparing a
bacon sandwich for a customer with swallowing difficulties I
would puree the bread and then reconstruct it to look like a piece
of bread using moulds, then puree the bacon and reconstruct it
to look like a piece of bacon...and so on. It was the nicest thing
ever when I gave one of our customers a reconstructed bacon
sandwich, which was something they hadn’t been able to have
for four years.
‘Journey of food’
“As well as the cooking, I also help to run a gardening club at
Belong Crewe, along with some of our customers. There’s now a
herb garden and lots of vegetables are being grown which can
all be brought into both the households and the Bistro kitchen.
We get really excited about the journey of the food from the
garden to our plates and we all love seeing the efforts of their
gardening activities being served up as tasty meals.
Roasted chicken dinner served with carrots,
mashed potatoes, broccoli and gravy
“At the end of the working day, 6pm,
I make sure that the Bistro team are
okay and close down the kitchen. Next I
make sure that the households have got
everything that they need for the night
before heading home.
“I’d love to say that I get home to an
evening meal ready and waiting for me,
but the reality is that I pre-make a lot of
our family meals and freeze them...then
start all over again when I get home.
“We don’t often go out to eat but
occasionally we take a trip to my
favourite restaurant in Nantwich where
I enjoy someone cooking for me for a
change!”
8 9

Noticeboard
To everyone at Belong,
I am writing to thank you for
the wonderful care that you
gave to our Dad at Belong in
Macclesfield over the last two
years of his life.
Dad came to you suffering
from severe Alzheimer’s
having struggled to remain
independent for several years.
On his first trial day in Beech
House he was visibly relaxed
and declared that he ‘liked
this place’. As you know,
my Father was not an easy
man to impress so this was
high praise indeed and the
encouragement we needed
to confirm his placement at
Belong....
We would like to commend
all the staff at Belong,
particularly everyone at Beech
House, for all the excellent
care that Dad received, and
hope that our comments are
transmitted to all the staff
at Belong Macclesfield – as
well as those operating at
higher levels in the Belong
organisation.
Thank you so much.
Ms Comer & Mr Spencer
Dear Gina,
I would like to take this
opportunity to say a big
THANK YOU to you, for all
your help and kindness and for
all the activities you arrange
each month for everyone.
We are never bored. All the
staff and volunteers here are
so kind and helpful also.
It is almost a year ago since I
came to rent a flat and all my
family and friends agree it is
like living in a lovely hotel with
the bistro, hairdressers, library
and film shows etc.
With the shops and bus stops
so close by, no-one could wish
for a better place to return to.
Irene M Bowler
Dear Belong,
Yippee, Mum is home at last!
Thanks to you and your staff
for looking after her so well
and giving her the confidence
to spend lots of time with Dad
again and venture back into
the big wide world.
Oddly, I think this unforeseen
long stay has changed her
and given her much more
confidence.
Your team are also making a
real difference to the quality
of life for my Father. My Dad
has been transformed with the
loving care that he receives at
Belong.
Mr Dave Perry
Dear Belong,
Our Mum moved into Belong
in December 2010 on respite
care. We were lucky after
a few weeks to be offered a
permanent place which we
a few
words
of
thanks
snapped up. Mum is now a
resident on Willow House at
Belong Wigan. The facilities
are excellent and the care
given by staff is second to
none. We always know that
Mum is kept clean and tidy
and that she is secure.
In April 2011 she celebrated
her 90th birthday with a party
in The Venue with family
and friends. Nothing was to
much trouble for the staff who
helped us to organise and set
up the party. The party was
a great success and all who
came were amazed at the
facilities which Belong offers...
I feel each time I walk through
the doors of Belong that I
am entering a five star hotel.
There is no feeling of entering
a care home, everything is
relaxed, clean and bright – just
as it should be. It is a pity that
there is not a Belong village
closer to where Mum used to
live in the Beech Hill area of
Wigan. But thanks for being
where you are and for the
level of care and service you
provide. Other care homes
should be like Belong. You
have set the benchmark which
others should follow.
Mr James Pryle
Recipe
Sam’s
Bistro head chef,
Sam Jackson, shares
a quick and tasty
recipe to try at
home.
Stuffed Pepper (serves one)
Ingredients:
2oz Cous cous
4oz Chicken stock
½ Courgette (diced)
¼ White onions (diced)
1 Whole pepper
Method:
Wash the pepper under cold running water and then cut
off the top and de-seed, keep the whole pepper to one side
including the top. Pour a small amount of oil in a frying
pan and lightly fry the chopped onions and courgette until
tender. Add the cous cous to the onions and courgette
and fry for about 1 minute. Then pour over the chicken
stock and simmer for 4 to 5 minutes stirring whilst
simmering. Place the cous cous mix into the peppers and
replace the lid and place on a baking tray and bake for 20
minutes until the pepper is tender...
Serve with a crisp salad.
Belong Bistro
Special occasion
menus NOW available
Join us for Valentine’s Day
Tuesday 14th February between 12.30 and 2.30 pm
Mothers Day Lunch
Sunday 18th March between 6.30pm and 9.00pm
Starter
Mozzarella Bruschetta with shaved Fennel & Feta
Main Meal
Crab & Salmon Fishcakes with Homemade Tartare Sauce
Or
Belong Life Spring 2012
Special mentions
Belong Wigan (Beech House)
resident Ina Dowd and support
worker Rachel Holland enjoy
making pizzas.
Book early to avoid disappointment
10 01942 855600
11
Main Meal
Minty Lamb Steak
or
Cranberry Mushroom and Walnut Wellington
(both served with crushed new potatoes and vegetables)
Dessert
Chocolate Fudge Cake
or
e Made Strawberry filled Merinque
Saturday 17 th March
between 6.30 pm and 9.00 pm
Starters
Irish Cheddar & Stout Fondue
Mains
Beef & Guinness Pie
with Baked Cabbage & Bacon
Desserts
Irish Cream Chocolate Mousse Cake
Cost £8.95 per person
Belong Wigan - Millers Lane, Platt Bridge, Wigan WN2 5DD
O
Sirloin Stak with Chunky Chips
Dessert
Lemon Mousse
CALL FOR ENTRIES
The Belong / CLS Group Staff Awards
will again be held at Mere Golf and
Country Club on 27 June 2012.
Nominations are now open across a range
of categories, including team of the year,
newcomer of the year, manager of the year
and many more. Colleagues, customers or
their relatives are able to put people forward
for awards. Look out for the posters for further
details or visit www.belong.org.uk