The prestigious event was held on Saturday evening at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Park Lane. We had a fantastic night, with Steve Walls leading the entertainment, along with Ben Shepherd. But it was the award winners that stole the limelight and I would like to congratulate them all. It was an honour to present the award of Care Newcomer to Jacqui Preen of Sanctuary Care. Congratulations to the GBCA Team for putting on a spendid event.

One of the best things going on in the care industry at the moment is The Great British Care Awards. In fact we think it is so worthwhile that we’ve become a sponsor.

Not only does this mean we get to eat goats cheese and chicken at 9 regional awards dinners on consecutive weekends (mmmmmmmmmmmm) but far more importantly, we get to meet and hear about the amazing things for which people at the ‘pointy end’ of care are being recognised. In this time of austerity I think a public acknowledgement of carers efforts and achievement count for more than they ever have done.

Good luck to everyone who is nominated this year and if you still want to make a nomination you can do so here http://www.care-awards.co.uk/ at the care awards website.

Take care

Great news that our government can no longer resist funding more research into Dementia. But in the grand scheme of things and considering the growth in the numbers of people concerned with Dementia, isn’t another £30M or so in 3 years time a little on the ‘light’ side? No-one will say ‘no’ to more funding, but is it enough to make a difference or is it just a sticking plaster or, (one for the cynics) just a token to keep us all quiet for a little longer.

Will we now see a similar initiative to fund support and technology which is available today but not yet in place?

I can’t believe we’re getting to the of January already (and without snow!).  I am gearing up for next week’s conference at Event City in Manchester where Find will be exhibiting and I will be giving a presentation on enhancing the environment for people living with dementia on Thursday morning.  I will be really interested to see if this event attracts even more people this year as a result of the report published in December on the National Audit of dementia care in General Hospitals.  The report really highlighted the need for much more training for staff on supporting and communicating with people with dementia and also on improving the environment to make it enabling rather than disabling.  I have worked with over 100 hospitals where our signage and orientation aids have already made a huge difference to the quality of life for people  -  Bradford Royal Infirmary won awards last year for their ward environments.   Well that’s it for now, hope to see some of you at next week’s conference.  Karen

What a way to start a new year  -  we have just been accepted as a new member of the Dementia Action Alliance.  We have signed up to a National Dementia Declaration and set out our own Action Plan.  Anyone who is interested to learn more about the Group can visit their website dementiaaction.org.uk .  I will keep you informed through regular updates on what is happening within the Group and how successfully we achieve our aims.  Keep reading Karen

Dear all,

in the process of moving offices over the last few days, despite taking advice from BT and having all telephone lines in place and working….we are currently unable to accept incoming telephone calls. There’s nothing I can do about this except wait until BT get their ‘finger out’ and do what we need.

I know that calling a disconnected number gives a really bad impression (thanks BT) but don’t panic….leave that to me

Thankfully e-mail DOES work (sales@findsignage.co.uk)

My apologies for any further inconvenience. We’re at BT’s mercy for now but they promised they’d get us back on line as soon as possible, “certainly this week” they said.

Kind regards, Peter Rose

Many of you will be aware that something ‘hasn’t been right’ at Find over the last few weeks, and the ‘jungle telegraph’ will have played its part too! Being a person who doesn’t like gossip, I prefer to provide a straight story so there’s little room left for speculation.

So in a nutshell, Multimount (the company which owns Find) recently and unexpectedly found itself in a particularly difficult financial situation which threatened the continuity of the project. A  combination of incisive action, patience, determination, some great support and a bit of luck has resulted in the project now being able to move forward confidently, supported by Yorkshire businessman and entrepreneur, Anthony Cockcroft.

Not only does Anthony provide the support we need in the short term, but his experience, success and expertise will add the essential components Find and Multimount have always needed to fulfil their potential.

What this means to our clients and the thousands of beneficiaries of our project is that Find will continue to provide fantastic quality, fit-for-purpose products, developed and manufactured in-house and we can confidently pursue our hunger for constant development, improvement and service to you.

I look forward to sharing a lot more about our progress in the coming weeks and pleeease, if you have anything to feedback to me, please don’t hesitate.

Kind regards, Peter Rose

Dear Paul,

 Although we haven’t spoken directly since we hit a ‘spot of bother’, your kind sentiments were passed on to me and I can assure you that yours, and those of many other, were very welcome, reassuring and inspiring in difficult times.

 I don’t know how much you know about what happened and I’ll merrily give you the full story over a beer ideally!

 Suffice to say we were hit with a tidal wave of unpleasant surprises regarding our finances and by the time these discoveries were made we had a situation which needed drastic action.

 This was a huge shock considering how well Find has been progressing, and we are clearly being accepted by more and more people and organisations. Your support has been instrumental in getting to this point.

I was determined that Find was not going to fall over or disappear and 4 years of dedication to this project was not going to come to nothing.

 After some difficult days, we soon had a number of interested parties who wanted to work with me to pick up the whole organisation and get it working again with a better infrastructure and proper financial backing.

 This has now been achieved and the organisation was purchased in its entirety on Thursday last week.

It’s not going to be easy and we will have to work harder than ever but with a great team of people, much better support and some lessons learned, I’m sure we will not only pick up from where we left off, but then continue to push the project forward.

It made my day when I heard of your concern and good wishes, so I hope this greets you as good news too.

 Please feel free to circulate this anywhere you think it may be of interest.  

Kind regards

Peter Rose

Visioncare At Home have been appointed as Find‘s Scottish-based distributors. It’s important to have close contact with all our clients and we can’t realistically achieve this from our base in Leeds.

Although it’s a lovely drive, Scotland  is always a long way to go and it seems even further on the way back!!

Visioncare At Home are based in Glasgow (which is obviously much nearer to Scotland than Lees is) and enquiries are already heading their way. Please contact them on 0141 332 0057 if you are in Scotland and interested in Find products or services.

Guardian News Alzheimers Dementia article highlighting the environment some of the residents in care homes have, illustrated by  photos. We find these images distressing as care does not have to be this way.