As we head into the festive season once again, Augusta Care’s head office team decided to continue the tradition of donating to the local Food Bank instead of operating a ‘Secret Santa’. Our donation has now been sent off to the Food bank so that it can hopefully be put to good use ahead of the big day.
If you would like to know more and find out how you can get involved, please visit: https://peterborough.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/
This week marks the 25th anniversary of Augusta Care. The company has changed a lot since it was founded in 1998 with our supported living services continuing to grow across Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk.
Today we invited our service users to join us at Head Office to celebrate the occasion with a variety of activites including bingo, cake decorating and arts & crafts as well as some well deserved refreshments. A fun time was had by everyone who joined in and a thank you goes out to everyone who got involved. Some of the service users who joined in today have been with us from the very beginning and we are so proud as a company to be a part of their lives.
Our service users have been busy over Halloween, with lots doing arts & crafts, carving pumpkins, decorating their homes and even a Halloween themed birthday party too! Here is just a selection of the wonderful photos that have been sent in…
The winner of our Halloween competition will be announced shortly now all the entries have been collated.
We’re inviting all service users to get crafty for Halloween! Please send photos of your Halloween crafts to your service manager and team leader who can enter you into our competition to win a SPOOKTACULAR prize! Entries close 31st October 2023.
In February 2022, Augusta Care began the application process to become a ‘Sponsored Employer’ with the Home Office so that we could offer employment to those applying from outside the UK and those who were seeking a change to their existing visa status, such as those who had finished their studies.
A few months later we were awarded our Sponsorship License and so we could begin offering Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) to successful applicants.
Fast forward to just over 14 months later, Augusta Care has welcomed a new cohort of staff from both overseas and within the UK changing visa status and have recently began celebrating 1 year service of our new recruits.
Our International Recruitment Project has proved to be incredibly invaluable to the organisation, providing much needed staff support in an ever difficult to recruit to industry.
We have just conducted our final ‘wave’ of recruitment where we offered CoS to applicants and hope to review the project again in 2024 with the potential to open up the project for further applicants.
It has been a long standing tradition at Augusta Care to run social events for it’s service users, however the Covid pandemic sadly bought that to an abrupt halt in 2020. Throughout the pandemic we were asked by our service users when the next event would be, but as we needed to put the wellbeing and safety of our service users and staff teams first, we weren’t able to commit to any social gathering.
As we’ve moved on from the pandemic, the topic of social gatherings was again bought up by our service users and ideas for our first event post Covid were discussed within the Senior Manager’s meeting at Head Office taking onboard the input received from service users. A popular event in previous years had been the Sports Day held in the summer at Ferry Meadows. We all thought this was a perfect idea – we were able to get everybody together, but still remain safe outdoors.
As planning moved on with meetings held with the Operations team it was agreed to host a Picnic & Games event at Ferry Meadows in July. It was then that Augusta Care received a telephone call from Anneka Jones, Social Value Coordinator for Countryside Partnerships South East Midlands who are building locally and selling under their Bovis Homes brand. Whilst this telephone call came out of the blue, it couldn’t have been better timed or better suited for what we were trying to achieve.
“The opportunity to support Augusta Care came about through a survey inviting the neighbours of our Bovis Homes, Orton Copse development, for their suggestions of how we could support local causes. After speaking with Michael, we were delighted to be able to support the picnic and games event, a well-deserved afternoon of fun for their service users and staff, especially after a period of social drought through covid.”
The incredibly generous offer from Bovis Homes meant that a whole host of equipment could be purchased to not only be used for the Picnic & Games event, but throughout the summer and for future events too.
Invites were sent out to all our services and to the homes within our sister company, Hereward Care Services. There were some last minute changes due to the typical British weather, but this was done with everyone in mind so that we could have a fun, safe and enjoyable afternoon.
The Head Office and Operations team took to Ferry Meadows on 6th July and set up the event which included:
In addition to this, we had gazebos and picnic blankets for everyone to use as well as a plentiful water supply to keep everyone hydrated.
The event was a big success and was enjoyed by service users and staff alike. It really bought home a sense of what we believe in as a company, everyone getting together and getting involved regardless of ability or disability.
We hope this to be just the start of our events and we are already looking to plan the next one – any feedback or suggestions from service users and staff are greatly welcomed.
A final big thank you to Countryside Partnerships/Bovis Homes and the staff teams at Augusta Care & Hereward Care Services for making the event what it was.
We invite you to learn more about the Bovis Homes developments in Peterborough:
Bovis Homes have two well located developments on the outskirts of Peterborough city, in Orton Longueville, close to local amenities, great transport links and a short distance from the city centre.
Bovis Homes in Peterborough offer a variety of designs and layouts to choose from to suit different lifestyles and price ranges. Whether it is an open-plan, family living space, bungalow living, room for home-working, or the privacy of a master en suite, a new Bovis Home offers contemporary properties built to our traditionally high standards, which you can personalise to suit your style.
To find out more about current offers and available schemes, please visit https://bit.ly/WoodstonMews & https://bit.ly/Orton-Copse or call the sales team directly on 01733 910 415
We invitied our office and management teams to get involved with #WearItGreen Day today – raising £26 for the Mental Health Foundation. Its a small contribution to the amazing work the foundation does and we invite you to find out more at: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week
We’re proud to be supporting @mentalhealth this #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek – 15 to 21 May. Join in and help to create a world with good mental health for all. Find out more and get involved https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/mhaw #ToHelpMyAnxiety
Our staff team are able to access the EAP (Employee Assistance Programme) if they need additional support, please login to the staff area or speak to your line manager for further information.
We will also be joining in a national ‘Wear it Green Day’ on Thursday 18 May and we’re encouraging all staff and service users to get involved. For more information please click the link above.
World Autism Acceptance Week is back from 27 March to 2 April 2023, raising awareness and support of the 700,000 autistic people in the UK. There are lots of resources on the National Autistic Society website with fundraising ideas, how to best support people with Autism and stories from people with lived experience. Find out more at https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/raise-money/world-autism-acceptance-week-2023/fundraising-resources
International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.
As an organisation, Augusta Care has a strong equality & diversity policy, that no only protects sets out protection for all our staff and service users, but also promotes equality to all regardless of gender, race (including colour, nationality or ethnic origin), disability, sexual orientation, marital status, age, religion or belief.
“The Company is committed to providing a working environment in which employees are able to realise their full potential and to contribute to its business success irrespective of their gender, race, disability, sexual orientation, marital status, part time status, age, religion or belief. The Company values the differences that a diverse workforce brings. This is a key employment value to which all employees are expected to give their support.“
Mary Seacole was born to a Jamaican mother and Scottish father in 1805, and is widely considered to be the world’s first nurse practitioner. Growing up in the Caribbean she studied herbal medicines, and travelled to Britain to offer her services at the start of the Crimean war.
At the war office she was met with prejudice due to her gender and heritage, and was told she wasn’t needed. Undefeated, Mary travelled to Balaklava herself, and set up her own refuge for injured and sick soldiers called the ‘British Hotel’.
She was also known to go to the battlefield – risking her life to tend to the wounded.
After the war she returned home to nothing. To show their gratitude for her bravery and compassion, service men organised a money-raising gala for Mary in London, attended by over 80,000 people, including royalty.
