Pendennis is all about people, people who care. People with heart who genuinely want to make a difference to those living at Pendennis. 

We are a small home with a big heart which we feel enables everyone to know each other. And that makes a difference, enabling the team who work at Pendennis to be able to notice when your loved one needs that extra little bit of interaction and support. To see the difference is lovely and one that we cherish and encourage. 

Sam is the Manager at Pendennis and she takes the time to ensure everyone feels welcome; residents, families and the staff. Also, our suppliers, local GP’s and the wider community are interacted with regularly by Sam and her team, this helps create a wider sense of belonging and community.

Many of the team feel that Sam provides a level of support that often only family members provide. Sam sees it that Pendennis is a large family and one that she loves.

Pendennis has a varied range of en-suite accommodation. all the bedrooms are different, they can be decorated to meet the preferences of your loved one. With the understanding of their life histories, like and dislikes we can help with decoration of the bedroom and what they can bring into Pendennis to provide important visual and sensory features to help bring familiarity and positive points of reminiscence where appropriate. 

Our compliance manager Kate Bryan has written a short statement regarding openness and transparency for our staff team. It’s something we are proud of:

As an organisation we should all be working towards the same goals, values and outcomes.

These goals and values should be clear from the very start.   We should be encouraged to ask questions and take part in continuous open dialogues regarding what best practice and high quality looks like as we gain experience and knowledge in our roles.  Best practice should be shared throughout the whole organisation with clear communication, guidance and support.

When things go wrong and there are lessons to be learned,  these should be shared with total transparency with the whole team and other relevant parties.  Lessons learned activity should be undertaken with openness, honestly and with real reflection, it should not just be quickly written on a form and put in a folder for no one to see.  It should encourage and promote learning at not only a managerial level but at every area of the organisation.

How can lessons be learned if this information is only shared with people at management level?  By not sharing this with the team as a whole we are preventing real learning taking place. This could have disastrous consequences or at the very least may have negative impacts on our continuous aim of high quality.

A culture of ‘no blame’ is essential and we should feel confident to be able to admit mistakes and errors made as soon as they have happened, without fear of blame and retribution. If a mistake has been made then with the right approach and an attitude of honestly and transparency there is always a lesson to be learned.

On the other hand it is essential that if a colleague gives feedback in to ways you are not working to best practice this should not be taken as a criticism. It is an opportunity for personal role development. It is about learning from each other.  Feedback and guidance is given in a non-judgemental, supportive environment where everyone wants to see each staff member shine!

 It is also very important that if you do see something that concerns you then you must not keep this to yourself but share this with the appropriate people. Again this is not about ‘getting someone into trouble’ but doing what we all have a duty of care to do. Issues and concerns must not be covered up. This would be a failure of our duty of care to our residents, visitors, stakeholders, staff and the community and goes against every single thing we stand for personally and organisationally.