PCP invests to remain 'Pioneering'
The Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP) is renowned as a multi-award winning, regional charity committed to help improve the lives and health of local communities. PCP is proud to manage the Pioneering Care Centre in Newton Aycliffe, and after over 25 years of success, some areas need a bit of a refresh!
People come from far and wide to access one of the only full accessible hydrotherapy pools in the North East. Previously offering over 17,000 appointments every year, it was well loved but ever-so-slightly tired with outdated plant equipment, which meant the odd breakdown or two.
Carol Gaskarth, PCP’s Chief Executive, said, “People who access hydrotherapy report significant health benefits, but we were finding it difficult to keep the pool operational with many parts obsolete.
“This led us to re-look at the Pioneering Care Centre overall, and we concluded Options, a co-produced service for adults with learning and physical disabilities, also needed more space. Operation ‘Centre Renovation’ was born!
After years of planning, community fundraising and securing grants, and with post-pandemic building costs spiraling, PCP agreed to fund almost £1m from charitable reserves.
The organisation is built on the foundation of being ‘pioneering’; we keep this in the forefront of our planning, and we recognise
the value the Pioneering Care Centre brings to the community.
“This significant investment from the charity will see the number of people able to access hydrotherapy double and, with state-of-theart facilities, upgraded jets, new changing facilities and improved accessibility throughout. The renovations to the hydrotherapy pool will offer clients a fully brand new pool - the experience will be second-to-none.
To read more about our centre redevelopments, click here.
To keep up to date with the latest developments in this process, you can follow along here.
£400 donated to Options
The Pioneering Care Partnership’s (PCP) Options service would like to extend its appreciation to Shildon’s Busy Bees, who have kindly donated £400 to support its members.
Carol Gaskarth, PCP Chief Executive, said: “The Busy Bees have most definitely been active raising funds for many local charities; we're thrilled they're supporting PCP.
“Options were delighted with the £400 donation, the members will use the funds to do something fun and engaging. Thank you Busy Bees, for spreading joy across communities and for your continued support."
Linda West, Options Services Coordinator, shed light on what the funds
Healthwatch Sunderland shines a light on health and social care stars
The independent champion for health and social care in Sunderland has visited five care homes to recognise individuals and staff teams for making a difference.
Healthwatch Sunderland appeals for nominations throughout the year, with an opportunity to nominate both individuals and whole staff teams that provide a positive health and social care experience.
Anna Gillingham, Healthwatch Sunderland Engagement Coordinator, said; “It was a pleasure to present these care homes and Cathy with a Star Award, which recognises individuals and organisations within Sunderland’s health and care sector for the great work they do.
will be used for and said: “We are hoping to put this fabulous donation towards a new smart TV where we can access our social media and use for research.
“It will allow us to keep sessions interesting and hands on for members to do their own research on topics we learn about.”
“Recognising those who work in our health and social care services and strive to make a difference to people’s lives is so important – as it celebrates the fantastic work taking place.”
To read more about Healthwatch Sunderland and their Star Award, click here.
For National Apprenticeship Week, we spoke to Dan Kamp, Administrator Apprentice for our County Durham Resilience Team.
Can you give an overview of your role?
Since I started at the Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP), I have spent a lot of time working alongside internal staff, external organisations/services to provide the best support to clients. My regular duties throughout the week are printing materials, letters and inputting client data. I work full time and tend to focus on my apprenticeship assignments two days a week when I work from home.
Day by day might look something like this, however, it can vary. I start at 9am, and the first thing I do is catch up on any emails. 10am I look at the spreadsheet with people who wish to access the service. Before lunch, I will prepare any letters to send. The rest of the day tends to vary depending on various factors such as how busy we are or just what is most urgent.
What do you like about working for the PCP?
My role started with PCP on 9th October 2023 as an Administration Apprentice. One of the memorable moments for me is attending the Christmas staff meeting at Bowburn Hall Hotel, this was a fun meeting and it was great to meet new people. Something I strive to achieve while working at PCP is to complete my apprenticeship and secure a role within the organisation.
What is the most rewarding aspect of the role?
Working as part of a team is rewarding to see the work that staff do to support clients and to know that I am involved in that work
It feels good to help people, even something as minimal as making sure they get the correct support really feels rewarding.
Has there been any additional training you’ve done since you started working for the PCP/ and starting your apprenticeship?
When I started at PCP, I began with the mandatory e-learning courses, it covered everything from fire awareness to manual handling and ones that are core to my role as an Administration Apprentice, such as GDPR/Data Protection Act. These were completed in my first couple of weeks at PCP. Following on I have taken part in several different training courses, from building personal resilience to change to a minute taking course. I have also done some excel training. Future plans for training are the upcoming time management training with PCP and A mindful approach to stress management in February.
Read Dan’s full staff spotlight here.
PCP achieves ‘Maintaining Excellence’ award by prioritising workplace health
The Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP) is proud to celebrate its success in prioritising the health and wellbeing of its staff. PCP has been recognised for ‘Maintaining Excellence’ award by the Better Health at Work Award (BHAWA) County Durham, showing that the charity's commitment to ‘Health, Wellbeing and Learning for All’ doesn’t stop at the people it supports.
The Better Health at Work Award supports organisations to improve workplace health. By signing up to the award, organisations are supported by a dedicated workplace health team, helping them to improve staff health and wellbeing through a range of activities and policy changes.
Stockton-on-Tees Wellington Wellness Event
On Wednesday 27th March, our Stockton-onTees Community Wellbeing Champions (SCWC) joined forces with Wellington Square to launch ‘Wellington Wellness’ - a new health and care community initiative.
A range of health and wellbeing services from the area attended the event, providing advice and support to the local community.
To read more about the SCWC and their partnership with Wellington Square, you can do so here.
Carol Gaskarth, PCP’s Chief Executive, said "PCP is proud of the health and wellbeing strategies we've developed to support our growing workforce.
You can read the full story here.
The next ‘Wellington Wellness’ event takes place on Wednesday 7th August, from 10am until 2pm.
My name is Laura Cruddace, I work as the Administrator for the County Durham Resilience Service. I started my Business Administration Level 2 apprenticeship with the Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP) in late 2012 - 11 years ago! Before PCP I looked around for different jobs, volunteered in a hairdressers for a while but decided it wasn’t for me. I was undecided at the time about completing a college course, in what I don’t know - who does when you leave school? The wage and learning on the job jumped out at me which is when I knew this was the route I wanted to take.
I heard about the role at PCP on Indeed and the job title was Project Admin Apprentice. The role entailed working on various different projects and services within PCP. As soon as my first week was complete I felt so comfortable and knew that this was the place I wanted to work. Throughout my journey as an apprentice my skills as an administrator and my own personal skills grew. I was communicating with internal staff, external organisations, organising events, being involved with volunteers and so much more! This increased my confidence massively.
Currently I am working full time with the County Durham Resilience service as the service's administrator. The job role entails working alongside partner organisations, supporting internal staff and communicating daily with external services and members of the public. My regular duties are data input, contacting service users, attending meetings and events to promote the service and organisation. As well as sourcing venues and arranging meetings, recruiting volunteers, developing systems, linking in with our marketing department and so much more.
A day-to-day in my role is never the same, but one thing that is continuous is providing admin support to our team and clients to build resilience within communities. We are here to help people, bridging the gap between services, and helping to improve social wellbeing and mental health. Recently PCP recruited an Dan, Administrator Apprentice for our service who I am now supporting throughout his apprenticeship and passing on the knowledge I have gained over the years.
Working at the PCP is very rewarding, the help and support that the organisation offers to the community is phenomenal. It’s great to see what a difference we all make to people’s lives. Something I strive to achieve is to just continue to do what I am doing while supporting our new apprentice throughout his journey with PCP.
PCP is a great place to start your career, everyone is so welcoming and helpful to help you progress within your role.
Read Laura’s full staff spotlight here.
Local community-focused arts charity prioritises workplace health
Jack Drum Arts has started its journey in prioritising the health and wellbeing of its staff by signing up to the Better Health at Work Award (BHAWA).
The BHAWA is delivered by the Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP), and encourages organisations to improve the health and wellbeing of their employees
Healthwatch South Tees GP Booklet Success
GP access was one of the biggest complaints and concerns our Healthwatch South Tees teams received through their Information and Signposting service, leading to the teams producing a GP resource document.
This has been a huge success, with primary care services from across the country requesting use of the resource!
This booklet can now be accessed here.
Fun at Primrose Lodge
Over at Primrose Lodge, there have been a wide range of activities going on!
They celebrated Chinese New Year, decorating with traditional decorations and enjoying a feast. Patients were involved in the food prep and cooking, learning new skills along the way! Other activities included making hot chocolate with all the trimmings, a visit to a cat café in Durham and a lovely fresh walk at Hardwick Park.
Read about the work our workplace health team have been doing behind the scenes, with Jack Drum Arts here.
Healthwatch South Tees have also held a number of community focus groups that has enabled them to evidence the impact of this resource on local people. This information is being collected, and will be available soon!
Quilling Course success at the Pioneering Care Centre
On January 22nd, Bishop Auckland College began their five-week quilling course at the Pioneering Care Centre.
The ‘Introduction to Quilling’ course taught attendees the basic skills of quilling, as well as providing a safe space to share feelings, create art and crafts, relax and build up selfesteem and confidence.
Stockton Community Wellbeing Champions Diabetes support group
Our Stockton Community Wellbeing Champions are hosting a diabetes peer support group on the last Tuesday of every month!
The team will be at Starfish in Stockton-on-Tees from 1pm to 3pm, providing a safe space for people to discuss their experiences of diabetes.
The next session takes place on Tuesday 30th April.
Healthwatch South Tees team building
On Tuesday 6th February, our Healthwatch South Tees team had a team building event where they shared ideas and information.
The team building exercise was a lot of fun, and even though the winning team had less resources they worked well together to build the biggest structure.
Easter fun day
On Wednesday 3rd April, the Pioneering Care Centre held its annual Easter Fun Day!
The event saw members of the public come along to enjoy an interactive storytelling session, free face painting and a wide range of Easter crafts.
Thank you to all who attended our Easter event - we hope you had an ‘egg-cellent’ time!
County Durham Resilience welcomes new Psychology team members
Sarah Talbot-Landon, Highly Specialist Psychologist“I’ve worked in Psychology for 24 years. I worked in Forensic Psychology for many years before focussing on clinical practise. I have experience & qualifications in Occupational & Coaching Psychology.”
I love working in the County Durham Resilience team because our team are open minded & progressive. Every team member truly cares and wants to give clients the best experience possible.
Katy Imiela, Assistant PsychologistPrevious to the current role, I worked as a support worker on inpatient wards, which at times was challenging but I loved it, and this provided me with the experience to become an Assistant Psychologist.
I love the diversity of our team members within the resilience team. Each individual has different qualities and strengths to bring to their work.
My name is Gaynor Tucker and I am the Communications Officer at Healthwatch South Tees which covers Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland. My background has always been in administration and my previous role was working for the Primary Care Team within the North East and North Cumbria ICB.
Previous to that I worked in my family’s business where I was responsible for the update of the website and social media. These past two roles have helped immensely in knowing about the NHS and how Primary Care works and also how to update and create websites. I do not work direct with members of the public but I do spend one day a week on our information and signposting service where I talk to members of the public about their experiences in Health and Social Care.
I work four days a week and I am off on a Thursday so that I can be available to pick my daughters up from school. In my role as we cover both Middlesbrough and Redcar and Cleveland, I have to do everything twice so when I update the websites I have to do both Middlesbrough’s and Redcar & Cleveland’s! The same for social media, it usually needs to be done twice so can be time consuming. We are currently promoting our STAR Awards. This is an award for someone, an organisation or service who has gone the extra mile in a health or care service to make a difference for others in South Tees. You can nominate here! This is taking a lot of time contacting external organisations and asking them to also promote, as well as all of the admin that comes with organising a large event.
I started the role in December 2022 and love working within this team. It is a very rewarding job in itself but I also love working for such a supportive organisation as a whole in PCP. One memorable moment is the Menopause event we held in October last year. It was heartfelt, heart warming and informative.
My role is solo but as a team I think we all support each other and definitely all work as a team. Although my role isn’t engagement I do find myself sometimes going to events to help out and speak to members of the public which is very rewarding!
Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP) are proud to deliver Healthwatch South Tees, a fantastic service that are here to find out what matters to the people of South Tees and help make sure their views shape the health and social care support needed.
Read Gaynor’s full staff spotlight here.