Renaissance Care Christmas Newsletter

Inside your staff newsletter:

December 2023

OUR

NEWS A very warm and personal welcome to you all. I start with a sincere thank you to everyone for the dedication and hard work displayed throughout the year to ensure our much-loved residents are healthy and happy. Their wellbeing is paramount and it’s our number one driving force in all that we do.

I am extremely proud of all our people and I am very honoured to be your Chairman. I strive every day to be worthy of the position and the responsibility that comes with it – it’s not a role I take leniently but it’s one that I am very passionate about.

One thing I always love to see each year is resident and staff achievements – they never fail to make me smile and inspire me greatly. A personal highlight for me in 2023 must be welcoming Riverside care home in Aberdeen into our Renaissance Care family – it’s great to have you all onboard. It’s also been fantastic to see our values being embraced each day across the group.

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A review of 2023

As we approach the festive season, it becomes a time of reflection, gratitude, and togetherness, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share this message with you.

This year, we have experienced many triumphs and challenges, at the same time, the world has been facing unprecedented circumstances and uncertainties: wars, rising cost of living, covid inquiry, labour shortages to name a few. However, it is during these trying times that we have seen the true strength of our organisation and the resilience of our teams. Together, we have adapted, innovated, and supported one another, demonstrating the power of unity and collaboration.

As we enter the holiday season, I encourage you to take a moment to rest, recharge, and enjoy quality time with your loved ones. It is important to prioritise self-care and find joy in the little moments.

Let us reflect on the achievements and milestones we have reached, personally and collectively, and carry that sense of achievement into the new year where we celebrate our 20th anniversary.

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Embracing our values p8-9

The festive season can be tough for many, so I urge you to reach out to your colleagues, friends, and family, and spread kindness, compassion, and joy. We never know what someone else is going through so let us be there for one another, supporting and uplifting each other in any way we can.

Finally, I would like to again express my gratitude to each and every one of you for your unwavering support and dedication. Your passion and commitment have been the driving force behind our success, and I am confident that together, we will continue to achieve great things in the coming year.

On behalf of the entire organisation, I wish you and your loved ones a joyful and peaceful Christmas. May this festive season bring you warmth, happiness, and a renewed sense of hope for the future.

Warmest regards, Robert D. Kilgour, Chairman NEXT

Finance update

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Operations overview p2-3

THE POWER OF PEOPLE: OUR JOURNE Y TO SUCCESS

2023 has been the year that we have seen our care homes get back to the ‘new normal’. While COVID outbreaks have occasionally disrupted operations, we have successfully implemented a balanced approach to safety measures whilst ensuring meaningful contact remains for all residents. The rebuilding of relationships with families and loved ones has been a key success story, fostered by mutual understanding, communication and respect. It’s so lovely to see the many compliments and thank you cards homes received – it’s a constant reminder of why we do what we do.

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CELEBRATING SUCCESS AND KEY ACHIEVEMENTS We have seen our staff turnover and sickness absence reduce, a positive sign that people are happy at work, which I hope has a lot to do with the extra attention placed on staff health and wellbeing this year. It’s been a genuine priority to create great places to both live and work and I hope to see these trends continue into 2024.

We have rekindled our personalisation journey in earnest, which is so important for all our people including residents,

This year we welcomed Riverside Care Home to the group, bringing our total to 17 care homes. This transition is always a difficult one, but our teams have been incredible and resilient in their approach, thank you to everyone involved. When I started five years ago, the group totalled 12 homes – with a plan to grow and invest. This growth strategy remains and it will be good to see additional homes continue to join the group. Increasing our portfolio brings greater opportunity for all homes within Renaissance Care through efficient economies of scale, shared experiences, increased bargaining powers and possible investment opportunity.

TECHNOLOGY AND OUR FUTURE Nourish has now been successfully implemented across all our Homes.

“The year ahead will no doubt be another busy one but it’s absolutely one that we’re looking forward to, with confidence that we have the right people, beliefs and values in place to achieve our vision.”

And as always, operational focus will be to continue to develop and improve the quality of care that we provide. Maintaining occupancy and growing it where possible, retaining and investing in our people; whether that be leadership development programmes, CHAPs training, specific clinical skills or personalisation courses; and supporting home improvement plans to develop our environments.

The year ahead will no doubt be another busy one but it’s absolutely one that we’re looking forward to, with confidence that we have the right people, beliefs and values in place to achieve our vision.

Louise Barnett, Managing Director

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Thank you for all your care and support in 2023 and I wish you and your loved ones, a very Merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year.

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We recently celebrated The Cowdray Club being awarded grades of 5 with one 6 for statement 1.4 from the Care Inspectorate, a very commendable achievement for the whole team and an accolade of a 6 shared with Glencairn. We believe in all our homes and are focused on continual development, supporting homes to deliver the very best care for residents.

This was a major change to how we work and has taken a lot of time and effort but, after a few glitches, has been received well and the feedback has been positive.

Technology is helping to transform our business and we will continue to look at new ways this can help us grow and develop – we are already looking at Emars, pain assessment tools and resident assist technology – this will be a key focus for 2024.

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F O R A E Y A T N E M P O L E V E D E C N E I L I S E R D AN

relatives, and staff. It’s what makes us different and supports our values around inclusion and acceptance.

THE POWER OF PEOPLE: OUR JOURNE Y TO SUCCESS

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One of our core beliefs is that care across the sector should be firstclass, and people should be able to live their lives to the fullest. This includes engaging in the activities that people receiving care had previously enjoyed, helping to ensure they are fulfilled, happy, and content. This is where we, at Renaissance Care, can really do things differently.

wellbeing through music. These sessions can be conducted as independent or group activities and can be tailored to accommodate a range of abilities within our homes, it’s already having a positive impact on resident’s wellbeing with reductions in falls and fractures across the group.

The outcomes from the consultations were insightful and innovative. They resulted in the reframing of their job titles to ‘wellbeing leads’ with a development and support system in place to promote the use of NAPA, CAPA , Helen Sanderson tools and Jackie Poole’s PAL approach.

It is important to us that we promote meaningful contact for all our residents, regardless of perceived ability. Our lifestyle and wellbeing programme is adaptable, incorporating outings and events but never forgetting that 1:1 personal contact with an individual is equally important.

Even something as simple as an informal conversation can have positive outcomes for many of our residents. These can take place with all members of the team; cooks at mealtimes, maintenance when passing a room, housekeeping when sorting laundry – each moment has an opportunity to make a difference.

New technology has led the way with DanceSing in all our homes – a virtual and interactive platform that facilitates physical movement and exercise classes, mindfulness sessions to promote positive mental

It’s this human touch that is still paramount at Renaissance Care.

While technology takes us forward, we still value the basics of personal connection, friendship and the gift of a person’s time.

Yvonne Richardson, Operations Director

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Rising energy costs saw our electricity bills increase by over 200%; or by £750,000 per annum.

Food inflation continued to climb, and this saw the cost of provisions for our residents increase by over 20%; or £230,000 per annum. I am pleased to see food inflation has started to stabilise in recent weeks.

Over the last year, we have not left any stone unturned to try and drive out savings for the group to offset these significant increases. This has included changes to our food suppliers, mobile phone contracts, stationery supplier and uniform supplier. We are currently reviewing our waste provision which I am confident will also deliver savings for the group.

conclusion. The largest element of this program was the new payroll and rostering system, which is now fully operational and involved Operations, People Services & Finance. Alongside this we introduced many other Finance specific upgrades and enhancements which will deliver time and cost savings. Examples of these include:

• emailing of financial documents such as sales invoices, remittance advices and payslips, documents which would previously have been mailed.

• the Yordex debit card system which enables homes to make speedy purchases without having to wait for cash to be transferred from head office first.

• the new improved accounts payable process where invoices are barcoded and scanned into the system rather than sent to and from homes via mail.

With these new upgrades in place, we are now in a position where any new homes joining the Renaissance Group can be integrated quickly using our existing platforms and technology.

Our gas contracts come to an end towards the end of 2024, so it’s important that we ready ourselves for what will likely be an expensive renewal.

The last twelve months has seen our IT implementation and upgrade program come to a successful

Liam Bain, Finance Director

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That is where our attention will turn to as we move in to 2024. Having made significant investment into the infrastructure over the last 18 months, I now believe Renaissance Care has the ideal platform to grow the number of homes we operate. It was great to welcome Riverside Care Home to the Renaissance Care family earlier this year, and I hope this is the first of many new additions.

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Earlier this year, we consulted with our activities team to understand how we could better approach lifestyle and social inclusion across our homes and gain understanding of how things could be improved.

Our number one finding was that the traditional activities coordinator role was outdated with now more emphasis given to enhancing social and mental wellbeing by providing physical, emotional, educational, and spiritual support for residents every day. Our team play a lead role in enhancing social inclusion and reducing isolation – a key factor when promoting health and wellbeing in older adults.

FINANCE UPDATE

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: E R A C N I G N I V I THRwit h our lifestyle and wellbeing approach

THE POWER OF PEOPLE: OUR JOURNE Y TO SUCCESS

3 2 0 2 f o w e i v e r A Our People Services team has had another busy year, welcoming Heather Bruce as Business Support Coordinator in June. We’ve worked hard on transitioning to our new HR and payroll system (Civica) alongside other colleagues at Central Support.

While there have been challenges, we appreciate your patience and understanding during this change.

We’re excited to continue integrating Civica and roll out the self-service features, including a mobile app that lets you manage your annual PREVIOUS

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Earlier this year we developed our People Strategy to support the mission and values of Renaissance Care. This strategy aims to ensure that we promote positive, inclusive and supportive environments where staff are happy, engaged and able to thrive. This therefore enables delivery of positive outcomes for our residents that we can all be proud of.

We will continue to deliver against this strategy through 2024.

STAFF RECOGNITION AND WELLBEING We genuinely care about the wellbeing of our people, and we’re always looking for ways to support

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In April this year we launched our revised Reward and Recognition policy to help us recognise the achievements of our people, as teams or individuals. We have seen an increase in the number of above and beyond nominations since this launched and I am pleased to see there have been over 70 this year so far along with over 200 long-service anniversaries

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being recognised – these are now celebrated at various intervals between 1 and 35 years.

LOOKING AHEAD TO 2024 In 2024, we will be reviewing our policies and procedures to help set out and uphold our high standards, nurture positive environments, embrace diversity, and promote inclusivity. We cherish all our team members and are dedicated to enhancing engagement opportunities to help develop our offering. We’re exploring ways to amplify your voice, including inviting home representatives to share their feedback with our board and senior leadership team. We’ll also evaluate our survey process to ensure it effectively captures your valuable insights and guides our actions.

In closing I would like to thank you for your efforts during what has felt like a very quick year and hope you all have a wonderful festive season – we are wishing you all the best for 2024.

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Anya Neilson, People Services Director

“In August we were delighted to support with the acquisition and integration of Riverside care home which saw the number of employees grow to over 1300 and we hope to be able to support the business to grow further in future.”

In August we were delighted to support with the acquisition and integration of Riverside care home which saw the number of employees grow to over 1300 and we hope to be able to support the business to grow further in future.

you – we will be asking for your feedback on this soon. In the meantime, we’re thrilled to offer you access to a new app, Wisdom, recently launched by our Employee Assistance Programme provider, Health Assured. This brand-new app helps you track your wellness, improve your mental health, and stay resilient during challenges.

You should see more information about this via email or if you have any questions about the app or other resources/ services available from our EAP then please speak with your manager or contact People Services.

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leave, view payslips, and access important policies.

G N I C A R B EM : S E U L A G V N I G R N O L BE D OU N A E S

2023 A B B E YO N D O V E A N D RECIPIE NTS

O P R U P F O Y E N R U A JO

AB OV E AN D BE YO ND

AW AR DS

• We have launched our Above and Beyond and introduced long-service awards, recognising and celebrating individuals who exemplify our values in their daily work.

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Kirstene Feenan Head of Marketing

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• We have produced engaging videos showcasing our values in action, bringing them to life in real-life scenarios.

TH LY PE RS ON AL IS ED M ON TE S DA UP CO M M UN IC AT IO N

• We have introduced personalised monthly communication updates, ensuring that our values are not just words on a page but a guiding force in our interactions.

As we move forward into 2024, our commitment to embedding our values deepens. We will continue to place them at the core of our decision-making processes, ensuring that they encompass every aspect of our organisation, from our boardroom to our team meetings. Our values are not just aspirations; they are the foundation upon which we build our success, creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and inspired to make a difference.

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• Our board members have stepped forward to share their personal stories and what matters most to them, demonstrating the authenticity of our values and them as people just like you and me.

VA LU ES IN AC TI ON

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Our journey to identify and launch W EL LB EI NG FU ND our company values has been a transformative one, shaping our identity, • We have invested in our staff rooms through our wellbeing fund, influencing our decision making and creating more relaxed and inviting guiding our actions. By placing people spaces to rest during breaks – at the heart of our business, we have essential for wellbeing. created and nurtured a culture of inclusion, acceptance, fun and respect – setting us apart as Renaissance Care.

FL EX IB LE W OR K AR R AN GE M EN TS: This year, we have embarked on a • We remain committed to our mission to bring our values to life, flexible approach to the working adopting creative ways to showcase week, empowering our team them across the group: members to achieve a healthy work-life balance.

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THE POWER OF PEOPLE: OUR JOURNE Y TO SUCCESS

CELEBRATING OUR ACHIEVEMENTS

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THE POWER OF PEOPLE: OUR JOURNE Y TO SUCCESS

Let’s celebrate 20 years of Renaissance Care In May 2024, we as an organisation, will be celebrating 20 years of Renaissance Care. This is something we are incredibly proud of and something that many businesses can only dream of achieving.

We operate in a challenging sector. Health and Social care have faced many turbulent times of late and currently continue to face the cost-of-living crisis making the cost of operating care homes extremely difficult.

This makes our achievement something to celebrate!

ANNOUNCEMENT COMING JANUARY 2024

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