I am delighted to say that the bank have finally given us the go ahead for our new car park and landscaping at Valerie Manor. I am very excited to tell you that the work will commence on the 20th May and last approximately six weeks. The first two weeks will be spent completing the car park and the final four will be for the phase 1 landscaping.

During this time the workers access will be through the land next door to try to minimise the disruption. We will be losing two parking spaces for a short period on the existing car park – but I am sure you will agree it will be worth it in the end!

Phase 1 of the landscaping will give us our new pathway with seating areas, a rockery, and the groundwork prepared for planting. The trees, boules area and pergola will follow as and when resources and funding permit.

We discussed the plans at our last residents meeting and everyone is very excited with lots of ideas of flowers and shrubs to plant when the work has been completed. We have also had several kind donations for trees and relatives asking if they can plant a tree for their relative who are either currently at Valerie Manor or who used to be with us at Valerie Manor.

You can view the plans here.

I am delighted to say that we had our annual unannounced inspection in March 2013 from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), we met all the outcomes and I was thrilled with the report that has now been published.

They arrived at 09:00 and didn’t leave until 18:00. They spent the first part of the day meeting with residents, relatives and staff and also observed lunch. They then spent time looking at our paperwork and systems as well as residents & staff records to ensure we were compliant.

I am delighted to say that the inspection went extremely well and I couldn’t have been happier with the comments and feedback that they gave us.

The staff are thrilled to bits and I am very proud of them all. The inspector said that the staff showed real dedication and warmth to the residents and that the home demonstrated very high standards of care.

Thank you for all your continued support.

You can read the full report here.

Holly Waite is a senior care assistant with us at Valerie Manor and her son Toby has recently been involved in a cookery club at his school. To date he has made Scones, Cup Cakes, Puff Pastry Pizza (which I tasted as a special treat and was delicious) and pasta with sauce.

It is so lovely as every Thursday Toby and his mum come to Valerie Manor to see our chef Chris to provide him with a tasting session and get feedback on what he has cooked on that day. Chris scored his pasta 8.5 out of 10 – what a score to be proud of!

Toby aspires to feature on Master Chef in the future.

Good luck Toby with more culinary delights!

I just wanted to say a special thank you to Mike Dixon, the kind reader of the Herald who took the time to write a letter to the paper about Valerie Manor. The letter meant so much to not only myself as the owner and manager but to all the staff (and my Mum!) who were contacting me to express their delight with what they read last week in the Herald. His kind words are below;

“WITH so many reports in the media about the lack of care of the elderly in this country, I was delighted to read your recent report about Valerie Manor, in Henfield Road, Upper Beeding (Herald, February 7).

Having also looked at their website and having read their Care Quality Commission report, you can see why it is such a successful care home.

Well done to Zoe Bates, manager; and all her team.”

At the end of last month we received an unannounced visit from a food safety officer from Horsham Council. This was our first proper inspection since our ‘risk’ category had increased (due to the increase in residential numbers and the care group being a high risk category). I am delighted to say that we once again received the highest rating possible (5) and are now proud to display our new food rating certificate once more for all to see.

When employing Chris, who is a qualified chef he took over all the implementation of checks, monitoring systems and management controls for the kitchen and surrounding areas so I was very nervous as many of you may know I like to be in control! Of course – Chris has done a fantastic job along with the support of Steve and Martyn and I would like to thank them for their dedication, hard work and high standards to ensure the residents needs are catered for in a safe environment.

You can view our rating on the Food Standards Agency website here.

> Find out more about food hygiene ratings

As you can imagine we value our wonderful staff greatly and were pleased to offer a free NHS health check provided in conjunction with Horsham council. The idea being to take a look at general health and to offer an opportunity to ask questions etc about ways to improve it.

I am pictured here with the nurses who undertook the checks – having just finished mine!

As mentioned the above initiative is being supported by Horsham Council and similar opportunities are being proposed in the future.

What a very special week I have had at Valerie Manor. On Monday 28th January 2013 it was our 5th year here at the Manor and on Thursday we celebrated with the residents, staff and friends and families with cream teas, bubbly and a wonderful cake in the shape of a ’5′ made by our lovely chef Chris.

As you can see from the photos I have been thoroughly spoilt with flowers, cards, champagne, chocolates and wine.

I can’t believe the five years have gone so quickly and am so lucky to have such wonderful staff and a supportive family to assist me in making Valerie Manor the home that it is.

It seems like a long time ago when I first wrote the business plan which allowed my dream of running a care home to come true, but I can honestly say that this has been the best five years of my life and I feel so privileged to be here doing what I love with a fantastic team.

Here’s to the next five years at Valerie Manor!

I hope everyone has managed to keep warm over the past week – I know it has been disruptive but the residents have enjoyed looking out of the window seeing the beautiful scenery that we have around Valerie Manor whilst remaining nice and warm and safe of course!

I have to say how very proud I am of all the staff, everyone went out of their way to come to work and those who lived locally offered to step in for those who lived a distance away. One member of the night team even slept at Valerie Manor during the day so they were able to work the following night to ensure the residents were looked after and we were not short staffed.

Alan was, as always the knight in shining armour! He stayed late on Friday to take staff home as he has a four by four and was on call all over the weekend to pick staff up or take them home if they did not feel confident to drive. Thank you to all our staff that once again showed dedication and commitment to the residents here at Valerie Manor – very proud of them all!

We would like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from Zoe and the staff and residents of Valerie Manor. The local community and friends and families have been so supportive throughout 2012 and I wanted to say thank you to everyone as it means so much to us all here at Valerie Manor.

We look forward to a Happy and Healthy 2013 with you all!