Nightingales Golden Care Ltd

Hi everyone, my name is Sally, and I am the Clinical Lead here at Nightingales Golden Care.

Most staff will probably recognise me as the lady in the blue scrubs. I like to get out about doing welfare checks and to help to establish new care packages and monitor that they are working well. Staff will probably hear from me when updating their competencies in areas such as Medication, Moving & Handling, and Infection Prevention & Control (IPC).

I really enjoy working here at Nightingales, and I’m proud of the staff that we have and the difference we make to people’s lives through our work. Assisting people to stay at home for longer, enabling them to live in the way they want to and ensuring those at the end of their lives have everything they need.

Other than my three children and my 8 grandchildren, who I love very much, setting up Nightingales back in 2002 is the thing I am most proud of. It’s been through a lot of changes over the years, and I am proud of my son Ben and the way he manages it. Working with him has been a highlight of my career.

I’ve been working in care for more than 45 years and have trained as a Registered Nurse and a midwife and have a BSC in disability studies. Over the years, I have worked in hospitals, care homes and the community in many different roles and have enjoyed the variety of experiences that working in care can bring. I love being able to do enriching activities with service users, such as swimming with a lady with Cerebral palsy, cooking with a client with dementia, or riding bikes with a terminally ill man.

Ben joined the care industry in 2002, initially specialising in care recruitment, and since then has gained the skills and experience necessary to become the Registered Manager of Nightingales in 2009. Under his leadership, Nightingales has gained several awards, including The Home Care Manager Award at the Great British Care Awards, Carer of the Year at the Hampshire Care Awards and being named in the Top 20 Most Recommended Care Agencies in the South East for 4 years in a row.

Hi everyone, my name is Dan, I am the accounts and payroll manager here at Nightingales Golden Care. My main role within the organisation is to maintain the accounts, invoicing, and payrolling. I also have the unofficial title of IT Support which mainly consists of asking people if they’ve tried turning it off and on again!

In my spare time, I like relaxing in front of a good game, going to the gym and paddle boarding despite nearly drowning myself a number of times.

I’ve been with the company since 2007, and in that time, I have progressed through a range of roles from Coordinator, Operations Manager, and to my current role as Accounts and Payroll Manager. This has given me unique insights into the many dimensions of domiciliary care provision, enabling me to continually refine our processes. I’m also the go-to man if anyone needs an all singing, all dancing spreadsheet!

I’m very proud to work for Nightingales, as part of an excellent management team from all walks of life. Together, we’ve overcome a range of challenges within the industry and continue to push Nightingales forward to deliver a five-star service.

My most memorable moment from my time here was when there was water leaking through the office ceiling. Within a matter of minutes from noticing a small drip, the ceiling and lights came crashing down around us whilst we were grabbing all the paperwork and equipment we could. It was that day we truly learnt the importance of cloud storage.

Nightingales Golden Care Engagement Manager Charlotte has been working in Health and Social Care since she began her nurse training in 2001.

Charlotte loves working at Nightingales because she has seen the family business grow and evolve, continuously working to improve the quality service it provides.

Staff will usually hear from Charlotte when she is responding to their alerts or issues, or during their regular supervisions.

‘I know how hard the staff work at Nightingales and how difficult the role can be. I’m always trying to understand what the challenges are to see if we can make things run a bit smoother.’ - Charlotte

Charlotte is also responsible for interviewing and inducting new members of staff, auditing, creating content; communications and photography for our website.

Charlotte gained the nickname ‘textbooks’ for studying random subjects and also has a Degree in Nursing, a Master's in Medical Ethics and Law, and a Diploma in Human Physiology and Health.

Her most memorable moment in care came when covering the groups and teaching the service users how to play her favourite game ‘Monopoly Deal.’

In her free time, Charlotte likes to do very uncool things like knit and crochet and take pictures of her dog and cat. She has three girls and therefore spends a huge amount of her life doing washing.

Colette has been working in the care industry on and off since she was 16 and started working for Nightingales in 2019. Her knack for paperwork quickly making her an invaluable member of the team.

‘I am always very proud to say I work for Nightingales, as the standards of this company are so high, and I have never worked in a company where its heart was so firmly in the right place.’ - Colette.

Colette says that although her official title is Administrative Assistant, her non-official title should be “anything I can help with?” as her role has evolved over the years from mainly scanning, archiving and stuffing envelopes; to manning the phones, dealing with queries about the services we provide at Nightingales, field sales calls, and generally pointing people in the right direction.

'I cover basic admin tasks such as recording and tracking annual leave and try to keep everyone informed and up to date of any minor changes (the little things matter). I also liaise with other professionals such as GP’s and Social Services on behalf of staff and service users, which means I can spend a lot of time listening to “on hold” music! If carers or service users are not sure about who they need to talk to or how to complete any task or have a question about pretty much anything, I am always happy to help.

It’s a stressful industry a lot of the time, and people can be under a lot of pressure, but when you are privileged to be part of people’s personal lives, there is always room to celebrate the good things and have a giggle.'