On Friday, the 6
th March, me and my fellow Pixelbuilder Kristian had the pleasure of taking a trip out the office to visit our client Westward Care, at their Headingley Hall care home. This was no ordinary visit though… we weren’t there for a meeting, we were there for a party!
Photography taken by Elena Andone
That’s right, Headingley Hall care home in north Leeds, which is run by our client, the award-winning Westward Care group, was celebrating achieving ‘outstanding’ status following its recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), that’s the independent regulator of health and social care in England for those who aren’t familiar with CQC.
Now that’s impressive enough in its own right (and certainly well worth the celebrations), but perhaps even more impressive is that fact that this is not the first, but the second of three Westward Care facilities to achieve the outstanding status. So, as their Managing Director Peter Hodkinson quipped on the night, “two out of three ain’t bad” and all joking aside, he really is right, because that achievement puts Westward Care into the top 4% of care providers in the entire UK.
I have to say though, the fact that Headingley Hall has been praised as outstanding is really no surprise to us. Just tucked up Shire Oak Road, pretty much directly behind Red’s True Barbecue, Headingley Hall is a little oasis of beautiful gardens, peace and tranquillity, in the otherwise lively and bustling centre of Headingley. Those beautiful gardens are award winning in their own right by the way, winning gold every year since 2011 in the Leeds in Bloom “Business & Communities” competition.
Anyway, I digress, this blog is supposed to be about Friday’s celebrations and let me start by saying they did not disappoint! Headingley Hall was dressed to impress, and that refers to both the building and the staff and residents in attendance. There was a huge display outside showcasing their newly awarded outstanding status, fabulous gold balloons and a really “bubbly” welcome.
Photography taken by Elena Andone
This was the first time we’d had the pleasure of meeting some of the Westward Care team in person too and cliched though it may be, it really is nice to be able to put faces with names and that friendly and caring attitude CQC praised in their report definitely came across when we arrived.
After being served something to drink (orange juice for me and champagne for Kristian), we headed into the dining room, secured ourselves a rather strategic position between the salmon and cream cheese Bellini’s and the tower of sweet treats, ready for the speeches to start.
Photography taken by Elena Andone
As the CQC report praised the entire team of 75 staff members working at Headingley Hall, there were plenty of compliments and thank-yous to hand out and it was lovely to hear that every department had received their own special mentions in the report.
After plenty of clapping and quite a few hoots of approval from the residents and relatives themselves, we then had the chance to catch up with some of the people we work with most at Westward Care, as well as indulge in a few more macrons and champagne before we said our final goodbyes.
We can’t wait to see what Westward Care go on to achieve next and we’re sure we’ll be celebrating with them again very soon, watch this space!