Feature Article
Working in partnership with a range of industry professionals & commissioners for the last 14 years – Cymorth Llaw continues to lead the way for the provision of care within in the private home care market of North Wales.
Cymorth Llaw asked Business Development Manager Craig Hogg to share his views on the quality services we provide the region with.
We asked Craig about the company’s attitude to employment, staff training & development and what the future holds for home care. Below are some of his remarks.
“As a family care provider & registered nursing agency we made a decision long ago to commit to offering the people of our region with both quality, value for money care, and long-term career opportunities to those people wishing to provide care services. We remain totally committed to that philosophy today.”
The workforce & training
“We certainly don’t cut corners here at Cymorth Llaw.”
“We demonstrated that when we made a large financial investment within the region some years ago, building our award winning Head Office & Care Worker Training Centre in Bangor. We did this to create further jobs and concrete our commitment to providing quality care to the region.”
Craig discussed the company’s workforce; “The people we employ are the reason we have a solid reputation for the services we provide. From our office staff, to our area managers, to our front-line care staff – it is our sincere belief that we employ the best local people, who do provide the best local care.”
Where training is concerned Craig explained that “All our staff receive a full program of ‘face to face’ tuition as opposed to on-line learning. Training is delivered by professional people with a long-standing back ground in Social Care work. Our staff have their course cost met by the company and they are also paid to attend all training provided.”
“This isn’t always the case in our sector as providers still put cost before quality. But the delivery of continuously high training, that goes beyond that expected to meet care standard, is something we feel very strongly about as a family company. It’s the foundation Cymorth Llaw was built upon. ”
Having held both Investors in People and Leadership in Management for over 12 years the company is held in much regard as a provider of care to the region.
Craig continued: “As well as teaching and updating our staff with the key skills they need to meet the present and foretasted demands of Social Care – We do feel we go way beyond minimum requirements at Cymorth Llaw.”
“For example – from our Carer Cadet program (that has created many jobs for young people and given them the skills and support to provide care), to our Welsh language skill development program (that has improved the skills of non-Welsh speaking staff in the locality), to our leadership & management training program, and with a 14 year commitment to NVQ/QCF learning & development (that accredits an average of 20 people per year to minimum level 2 in Health & Social Care) – you could argue that we’ve set the bar within the private home care market of the region.”
The Future of Care
With predicted increases in demand on care services as the population is forecasted to live much longer and, with the likely changes to service provision this would bring, we asked Craig about the future challenges our sector faces and how the company would likely cope.
Craig discussed that; ” There will undoubtedly be many challenges in the coming years for care provision sector wide. Challenges within the labour market along with the maintenance of skills in-line with the changing needs of people. This will be of much concern to other service providers I’m sure.”
“But we are very confident in our ability to cope and the positives we will bring.”
“Along with advancements in service delivery and patient care procedures, there will likely be many service improvement opportunities, along with other work opportunities for people in the social care sector as a whole. This will certainly be the case here at Cymorth Llaw and again we expect to be at the forefront of both in the future.”
“For example we have a very large capacity of highly skilled staff. It is very likely that Dementia will be a more prevalent condition in the future. Fortunately we at Cymorth Llaw already boast a complete workforce of fully trained Care Workers who are all trained in various dementia awareness levels to meet this need and standard. We recognised the need to accommodate dementia skills some years ago and a fully skilled dementia aware workforce has been the case within our organisation for some time now.”
Growth and continued employment
“We continue to see much growth as a provider as interest in the unique care we provide remains very positive indeed. This safeguards employment but also creates further job opportunities for others.”
“We also have a very good reputation as an employer and we see many successfully candidates placed from not only outside the sector, but from within it to – for example we see many applicants placed from our local competitors. This says a lot about the work we are doing here at Cymorth Llaw and the high regard people hold our family company in.”
Craig noted that “We have never professed to be care industry experts, even with the track record we have for service provision. But we do feel we are more than well placed to meet the future demands of social care and can readily achieve this in a manner that is effective and efficient.”
Craig finished “Not much will change from our service delivery point of view and we plan on delivering services to this wonderful region for many, many years again.”
Making a difference to peoples lives