Staff Matters July 2022

Staff Matters July 2022

July 2022

Dear Colleagues

Thank you for your continued dedication to your roles. The fantastic events and activities that you’ve held over the past few months, as mentioned in this edition of Staff Matters are fantastic, but it’s also so important to remember that all the day to day things that you do; that kind word, ensuring people feel cared for and listened to, are just as important. In the past few weeks a number of our schools have had Ofsted inspections, both education and care, which have highlighted impressive and effective work, as well as some areas that need to improve. I’d like to thank you personally and on behalf of all the directors for your efforts. Success can only happen when everyone pulls together with a common objective. I’d also like to let you know about some changes to the Director’s team at Head Office in Derby. Mark Flynn, Chief Operations Officer has taken the decision to retire and will be leaving the SENAD Group on the 31st August 2022. I know you will all join me in wishing Mark a long, happy and healthy retirement and send huge thanks for his tireless work across the whole Group over the last 15 years.

I’m pleased to confirm that 2 new Directors will join our team on Monday 5th September.

Suzanne Pennington will be the Director of Education (DofE) . Some colleagues may remember Suzanne, after being Head Teacher of a large Ofsted ‘Outstanding’ special school in Buckinghamshire, she relocated to Derbyshire in 2012 and became the Head Teacher at Pegasus School, she then successfully commissioned and set up both Ecclesbourne Lodge and OneNineFive transitional homes as she struggled to find suitable adult provision for Pegasus School leavers. Suzanne then joined St Andrew's School in Derby as Head Teacher; a ‘Good’ school with a residential department that was judged to be ‘Outstanding’ at the first inspection under her tenure. Suzanne is passionate about coaching and mentoring staff to achieve the best outcomes - for themselves and for the young people with whom they work. Suzanne was a Director of the Derby Teaching School's Alliance, working across the City to provide high quality training for staff in all school settings. The focus was ensuring equality of opportunity and inclusion for learners with additional needs. Suzanne has worked for over 30 years in specialist settings advocating for adults and young people with SEND. She has been successful at leading schools, colleges and adult settings to become highly effective organisations, also contributing to the development of specialist educational services locally through focus groups and working parties, countrywide through DfE action groups; and internationally in Moscow and Japan. Mark Ryder will re-join the Group and be our Director of Children’s Social Care (DCSC). For those who don’t know Mark, he started his career as a qualified Social Worker and was then a Care Inspector for 11 years, 7 of which with Ofsted. In 2014 he joined Alderwasley Hall School as the Head of Care and was part of the team in getting the care provisions to ‘Outstanding’ at both the Lower and Upper School sites for three successive years. Mark has since worked with a large SEN provider as their Senior Regional Operations Manager where he was the Responsible Individual for 5 children’s homes and led on compliance for a further 27 homes. He was also the National Lead Safeguarding Manager for this group and more lately, he leads the care division with a group specialising in SEN and EBD children’s homes in the Midlands area. Mark has successfully registered a number of specialist homes and received good and outstanding Ofsted grades for newly created and developing services. He is committed to excellent outcomes for young people and is a strong advocate for them, Mark brings a wealth of experience to the role and is looking forward to meeting with and supporting both previous and new colleagues. I’d also like to congratulate our colleagues at SENAD Community and our adult homes who reached the finals of the 2022 National Learning Disabilities & Autism Awards. Award winners are: The Support Worker Award (Independent) Winner - Julianne Gallagher, SENAD Community Julianne has given 29 years’ service to SENAD Community, which clearly showed at interview. Julianne’s care and attention for the service users shown through and she demonstrated a huge commitment to Social Care and understanding the journeys of the service users in gaining their independence. The Complex Support Worker Award Highly Commended - Jemma Murray, SENAD Community Jemma is an inspiring individual who has a calming, patient manner and who has faced her own challenges, yet is able to apply a calming influence to the people who she supports. Jemma has gone above and beyond to rehabilitate individuals following COVID lockdowns and isolation. The impact here is truly heart-warming. The Lord Rix Supporting Older People with Learning Disabilities Award Highly Commended - RT Team Led by Temitope Adewale, SENAD Community The outstanding outcomes achieved by Temitope and his team have to be highly commended. The difference they make to their client’s lives is outstanding. Their approach to ensuring the best possible outcome is enlightening and their ability to look for the positive in people others have given up on is exceptional.

As we approach the end of the academic year I’d like to wish you all a lovely Summer.

Richard Atkinson Chief Executive Officer

Congratulations to Long Serving Aran Hall School & Rowden House School Colleagues

2022 marks significant work anniversarys for 3 staff at Aran Hall School. Andy, Head of Care marked 30 years service, Sian has worked for the school for 40 years, and Christine has been a member of the team for 35 years.Congratulations and a huge thank you for all you’ve done for the young people and colleagues.

Rowden House School has celebrated Pauline Pochin being part of the residential care team for 20 years. It’s a fantastic achievement and definitely something to be incredibly proud of. During this time, she has had a positive impact on the lives of numerous young people in our care as well as mentoring new staff who have joined the team. Pauline clearly loves her job and is never happier than when supporting our young people on the Zumba dance floor. An inspiration to us all! Thank you Pauline.

Congratulations to our colleagues from SENAD Community who won 3 awards at this years National Learning Disability Awards, ICC Birmingham. Julianne Gallagher won the Support Worker Award Jemma Murray was highly commended in the Complex Support Worker Award category and a service users team, led by Temitope Adewale were highly commended in The Lord Rix Supporting Older People with Learning Disabilities Award.

PENSION RE-ENROLMENT Our workplace pension re-enrolment is happening in October 2022 – DON’T IGNORE IT! If you are not in a workplace pension eligible staff WILL be auto-enrolled into the AEGON pension scheme in the October 2022 payroll* if you meet the following conditions: • Staff earning over £833 per month, • over 22 years of age • under state retirement age For further details of the AEGON pension scheme please contact SENADs pension administrators: Chambers Smith Financial Planning Services on telephone number 01332 501150 We are unable to accept your pension choice prior to re-enrolment in October 2022, however, should you wish to make a pension choice in October please e-mail the details to: [email protected] confirming your Name, DOB and NINO (after 1st October 2022). E-mails received in September will be returned un-actioned.

*Note: If you do not make a pension choice and you meet the qualifying conditions you WILL be auto-enrolled in the AEGON pension scheme in October 2022.

Fancy having an extra £1,000 in 2022?

Over 50 staff have taken advantage of this offer over the past year.

Why don't you?

Refer a friend for a Support Worker role & get a recruitment bonus of £1,000. Contact your local HR Officer for more details. T's & C's apply

All the fun of the fair! Another glorious day on our residential trip. The children have enjoyed more time on the beach, ice creams and the fair! They have been learning to wait for rides, choose foods and enjoyed time altogether as peers.

Happy 2nd Birthday Maple View ! Today we had great fun celebrating our All About Me day! We had activities, music, a parade, party food, a linked book and best of all an inflatable slide! At Maple View- it is All About Me and celebrating each individual person!

Thank you to all of you that made a donation to the SENAD Group DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

In total we raised £5,000. Thanks for your support.

GCSE Art Exhibition and Celebrations

S is our very first GCSE Art student at Aran Hall School! With Richard’s support, he has been working very hard to create a portfolio of work for his GCSE. Following a visit from the moderator, we were delighted to show his work in an

exhibition. His work has really inspired everyone. Thank you and good luck for your result in August. S says:

I really enjoyed displaying and exhibiting my artwork that day. I loved seeing people taking a look at my art and I also enjoyed seeing everyone smiling, laughing and having a good time. The fun and games kept everyone entertained afterwards as well. It was very kind of B to make everyone drinks too. My favourite piece of art to create was the abstract self- portrait due to it being very colourful yet very dark and highly unrealistic, plus it was very fun to do it. Everyone seemed to have a great day. We played cup-pong (beer pong without the beer), bingo and had tea and cake whilst chatting and laughing with each other. I would like to thank everyone at Aran Hall for coming to see my artwork. Thank you to all the teachers and staff for helping me get through my GCSE artwork, you have all been very supportive. I would especially like to thank my biggest supporter and mentor Richard: you helped me hone my skills and to focus more on my work. You taught me how to concentrate on the work I am currently completing rather than what I am going to do in the future, this helped me to have a better outcome not only in my Art but in every other subject and even in my day-to-day life so I would like to say a big thank you.

We were (almost!) speechless when we saw the final version of artwork pupils have been working on during their sessions with Richard this term. The design brief was to create a piece of Art for display in the Activity Room. Following some work by the School Council, the Activity Room has been updated and made to be more comfortable; we think the new artwork is the finishing touch!

Thanks so much to our very own DIY SOS team Dave, Lee, Connor and Kev for their amazing transformation of an unused room into Our Cafe!! It looks absolutely beautiful!! Thank you 😊

Students voted on their favourite cafe design from a choice of six, to help make it a space they will enjoy using

What a sports day that was! So much fun & competitiveness from everyone who entered!! Thank you to all the staff for supporting the students & residents to enjoy & take part in our annual sports day at Rowden House School, which also included residents from the Herefordshire Adult homes.

The Circus with a purpose! The Circus comes to town and didn’t we all have fun.

Thank you to all the staff for supporting the young people & residents on their afternoon & evening trips to Hereford. West Midlands Learning Campus is very privileged to be gifted tickets each year by local companies who support Circus Starr. A truly fabulous & entertaining show at King George V playing fields on Wednesday evening, a massive ‘thank you’ to all the performers and Chico the clown! �

Huge congratulations to Rowden House School on winning this year’s Scarecrow Competition. Well done to Alina for all her hard work in ensuring everyone looked like they were off to enjoy the Glastonbury Festival! Thank you to the Rowden entourage who enjoyed a great evening parading through Bromyard town – you all so deserve this win.

In OT sessions last week, the students finally got to see the end results of all of their hard work this year. We have herbs, garlic, onions and lots of potatoes! ���� In SLT sessions last week the students also used some of their gardening produce to make a meal for themselves and peers.

Four students visited Bearded Theory festival at Catton Hall for work experience. They help to set up the kids' village by putting up bunting and making sure everything was set for the grand opening on Thursday.

Students from KS3 enjoyed a 3 days and 2 night stay at Gradbach Scout Camp. Taking part in activities including rock climbing, abseiling and raft building organised by Acclimbatize, finished off with a BBQ and campfire. Our Primary students also joined in for a one night stay and enjoyed walking in 'The Roaches' to see Lud’s Church, a deep, moss-covered chasm. In the evening, they enjoyed a BBQ and roasting marshmallows by the camp fire. Students pushed themselves to new heights!

Transport news

The new Hyundai Santa Fe hybrid was delivered to Alderwasley Upper Site. Students from the Alderwasley Student Council were instrumental in the order of SENAD’s first brand new self- charging hybrid vehicle to its fleet and were excited to see the vehicle first hand.

We have also recently purchased two plug-in hybrids Ford Transit Custom 8-seat minibuses for Orchard End and Park House, in line with SENAD’s committment to move its fleet to hybrid electric vehicles and reduce its carbon footprint.

Queens Platinum Jubilee

Staff Discount Schemes 1.Discounts for Carers www.discountsforcarers.com

2.Discounts for Teachers www.discountsforteachers.co.uk

Both available for all staff across the SENAD Group, offering a wide range of discount codes for household and garden items, toiletries, clothes, accessories and holidays.

3.The Company Shop www.companyshopgroup.co.uk

Based in the Derby, Leicester and Birmingham areas. Membership is free and you just need to provide a payslip as proof of employment within the care sector. Surplus food, drink and household items at deeply discounted prices. 4.Too Good to Go App Download the App onto your mobile device free of charge. Shops, cafes and restaurants within your local area that have surplus food sell it at a discounted price at the end of the day.

5.Blue Light Card www.bluelightcard.co.uk

Available to all our social care staff, offering 1000’s of discounts on the High Street and with online retailers. You will need to personally register and become a member, the cost is £4.99 for 2 years. If you keep proof of payment you can reclaim this cost via expenses. Please pass to a senior manager or member of the HR team to sign off for you.

6.Costco www.costco.co.uk

Enjoy low warehouse prices on name-brand products online. If staff choose to become an online member and keep proof of payment, this can also be reclaimed as above via expenses. The cost of an online annual subscription / membership is £15.00. 7.Hudsons Plant Centre Wirksworth Road, Belper (Derby) shares the site with our Ecclesbourne Lodge care home and is offering 10% off all garden and cafe items, available to all SENAD employees – just show your ID card.