1. What impact have your team felt from HWL?
“One of the things I’ve been most proud of is the intrapreneurial spirit that we’ve seen. We’ve all got great ideas and just haven’t had the chance to make the most of them. It’s been key that we have spent time together to understand what we can bring to each other.
Everyone is now excited about the next stages and how ideas are developed.”
2. What’s your role?
“I like to think of myself as a ‘Creative Producer’ … essentially facilitating people to come together, embedding ourselves within the community and helping to provide better care. We have around 325 residents with over 500 staff, with only about 30 of those who are not front-line. The remainder are all, in some way or other, delivering care.”
3. How have your staff been involved in the HWL work?
“Everyone has really taken to co-design … it’s been the real highlight of the whole process … with the HWL team really listening to staff and understanding their needs.
People were really up for being heard by someone different …. they are all brimming full of ideas … and the process really made them feel confident enough about coming forward … a huge amount of that was because of the interactive nature of the work.”
4. What's the key to making change stick?
“It’s clearly challenging, how to make changes sustainable? Firstly, and maybe most importantly, you’ve got to want to make it happen and to have the creative energy to do that. Also, it doesn’t always go right so having a learning culture is key … moving away from a blame-based to an improvement culture.”
5. Tell me about your culture and how you see the benefits coming through?
“For us it’s about having a family approach, essentially having a sense of belonging … we’re easily half-way there because of the family aspect of our business. I believe it comes from a place of kindness, compassion, authenticity and honesty with people. You need to share all the time … over-communicate … and tell people what you believe in.”
6. What are your hopes and ambitions for the future?
“Of course, it’s a challenging sector. We are vulnerable to the unknown … something you’ll always get when you are working with people. However, our communities have been key to get through the challenging times … we’re a small group, family run … and our aspirations are to continue to do well, and keep developing innovative ideas to produce even better care.
We’re all going to have to think differently in the future.”
The Abbotsford approach - Karen McKechnie, Director
We at Abbotsford have been on the go since 1987 when we opened our first home in Milton Road, Kirkcaldy. Over the years we have developed our services adding homes in Glenrothes, Kinglassie, East Wemyss, Cowdenbeath, Methil, Newburgh, Dunfermline, and we opened our newest home in Kirkcaldy in August 2015.
Like all families we have grown up together over the years. At our recent service awards it was a great pleasure to congratulate over 150 staff that have provided a continuous high standard of care to our residents for 5 years or more with some of our staff having 25 years' service. The staff are the backbone of all we provide and we believe it is this which is the strength of the community we promote.
“Our residents are our priority and offering a varied selection of activities and social events is important to ensuring a quality of well-being. The staff teams provide the support from in-house parties to day outings and even holidays away to caravans, lodges or hotels, near or far.
As an organisation our primary objective is to make the people we care for feel safe, secure, happy and content. We have a staff team dedicated to meeting the needs of our residents and by working together we aim to ensure an Abbotsford experience is one which respects individuals, encourages talking and listening to each other and building a family ethos of support and guidance wherever it is needed.
Our management and care teams are readily available to discuss the services Abbotsford care provide and will welcome your involvement in ensuring a care package is designed to meet the personal requirements of each individual.
Our first home was an old Victorian villa which has been extended and refurbished to meet the needs of our residents using state of the art equipment and all our other homes are purpose built to this high standard.
Family and friends are invited to participate in any of our organised events and regular newsletters are sent out to share information giving the opportunity to comment and make suggestions on the services we provide. Regular surveys are also completed with residents, relatives, staff members, visitors and professional bodies to help us identify areas for improvement.
We offer excellent accommodation and services for older people and adults where both nursing and residential care can be provided for.”