THE owner of a care home near Wrexham in North Wales and his son have both been honoured in major national awards for their high level of skill and dedication.
Peter Greenwood, 53, took over Llanerchrugog Hall in Rhosllanerchrugog in 2007 and has since used over 30 years’ experience as a teacher to completely turn around its fortunes.
And helping him every step of the way has been his 20-year-old son George who, as a support worker, frequently goes above and beyond his normal duties to make sure the home runs smoothly and its residents are happy and fulfilled.
It is their deep commitment to the job that landed both men places place in the final of the 2013 Wales Care Awards.
And at a glittering presentation ceremony at the City Hall in Cardiff there was a triple celebration when Peter took the gold award in the Commitment to Training and Workforce Development category, sponsored by Pearson, along with the bronze award in the Excellence in Learning Disability and Mental Health Services, sponsored by Barchester Health Care, while son George landed the silver award in the Exceptional Newcomer category.
The awards, now in their 11th year, are in association with Care Forum Wales, a not-for-profit organisation set up in 1993 to give independent care providers a single professional voice with which to speak on one of the most important issues of our time – how to provide better quality care for those who need it most.
Peter’s own company, Lifelong Learning 4 Living Ltd, took over Llanerchrugog Hall six years ago and he now lives there and runs it alongside his two sons, George, and 25-year-old Oliver.
Originally from Portsmouth, Peter had previously been headteacher of two Hampshire special schools, first in Bordon and then Waterlooville, later becoming consultant head of a third Hampshire special school in Farnborough.
He said: “Llanerchrugog Hall had been an old-fashioned residential care home and was in danger of being closed.
“With the help of a fantastic team of staff, I believe I’ve managed to improve things beyond all recognition.
“We now care for a group of 13 people with learning difficulties who range in age from 23 to 73. Looking after them we have 14 full and part-time staff.
“Our housemates, as I like to call them, live either in the main hall itself or in a number of flats adapted for semi-independent living which are attached to it.”
Since he has been in charge Peter has put the emphasis firmly on staff training and development.
This has led to the hall winning a number of accolades, including an Investors in People Bronze Award, bronze and silver awards in the Welsh Government Healthy Small Business Initiative and places in the finals of both the 2011 and 2012 National care Awards.
Courses being attended by staff as part of the current year’s packed training programme include autism and diabetes awareness, managing loss and grief, relationships and sexuality and visual impairment.
All this adds up to the impressive fact that Llanerchrugog Hall is providing about 180 days of training a year for its team.
Peter said: “My ethos is very much that you only get out of people what you put into them. Ensuring that people receive the proper training is the best way of getting a return from them, which is most important for our housemates here at the hall.
“We now have just one more of our support workers to finish a Level 2 in care and we will then have 100 per cent of our full-time core staff with that qualification, which isn’t bad when the national average is 45-50 per cent.”
Speaking of the presentations at Cardiff City Hall, Peter added: “It was a fantastic night. To get the gold award for training was a mark of recognition from my peers in the industry that I have been doing a good job.
“It was also a reflection on the high quality of my staff at the hall who have undertaken all the training to make things better for our housemates.
“To also get the bronze award for excellence for myself and for George to get the silver in his category was just amazing.”
George Greenwood says he does his job as a support worker at Llanerchrugog Hall for love rather than money.
It’s this selfless attitude that saw him shortlisted in the Exceptional Newcomer category of the awards sponsored by Coleg Cambria.
George grew up in Portsmouth, where the Greenwood’s are originally from. He attended Springfield School in the Hampshire town before going on to gain three A levels at Havant College in Portsmouth, one of which was in health and social care.
When father Peter took over at Llanerchrugog Hall he followed him to Wales and became a support worker there just under two years ago.
For the past year George has been in charge of food activities throughout the home, which not only means cooking for residents, who range in age from 23-73, but also providing instruction on how some of them can plan and prepare their own meals.
But this is just the start of the young man’s responsibilities, most of which he has volunteered to take on for no extra pay and in his own time.
He has recently started to give support to the hall’s deputy manager, Gwen Williams, with the increasingly complex administration of medicines.
George found that the system which had been in use needed refining and is currently working on a new format for drug dispensing which is computer based and should reduce the risk of any mistakes being made.
Through his own development plan, he has attended no less than 18 short courses in everything from food handling to fire safety.
He has already completed his Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care and will be starting his Preparing to Teach in the Lifelong Learning Sector (PTLLS) Level 3 course next April.
A recent incident showed how George is prepared to turn his hand to anything to benefit residents when, at the end of his late shift, he noticed the drains were blocked and spent an hour sorting them out.
Using his qualification as a pool lifeguard, he leads groups of residents on regular swimming trips to the local baths or the pool at a private gym and the same qualification is also a reassurance for the residents he leads on monthly kayaking expeditions to Bala Lake in North Wales.
But despite all the extra duties he performs, George himself reckons it’s in the kitchen at Llanerchrugog Hall where he’s really at home.
He said: “My great passion is food and I try to impart my knowledge to the guys at the hall.
“My aim is to get them to the stage where they can plan and prepare meals by themselves and it’s great to see them doing that.
“Two or three times a week I give a lot of our people the chance to choose what’s on the menu for all the residents. I’m a big believer in buying locally and a few of us will walk to the local farms to get fresh produce.”
George has worked for the past two Christmas days and has rustled up a full Welsh breakfast for residents with Bucks Fizz variants.
Speaking about his attitude to work, George explained: “Money is not what motivates me, and I do the job and all the extra things for the love of it.”
Mario Kreft MBE, the Chair of Care Forum Wales, said the standard of entries for the Wales Care Awards was extremely high.
He added: “There are only winners here tonight so it is only fitting that the finalists will receive a gold, silver or bronze Wales Care Award.
“I trust that they will continue to inspire those around them as role models and encourage others to aspire to even greater heights in the months and years to come.
“This awards ceremony is our opportunity to pay tribute and to celebrate the talent and commitment that is improving the quality of life for thousands and thousands of people throughout Wales.
“We take our hats off to them.”
