Mrs Beverly Catlett is the Manager of the 40-bed, Bedford Carehome and has been so since 1992. She joined the home working a few hours per week, then a few more, then full time and has progressed to the point where she now manages the facility full time.

Manager is a very broad term. Can you be more precise?

Beverly Catlett My name is on the registration certificate, I am responsible for the care and well-being of everybody, the Health and Safety of the residents and the staff. In short, I’m responsible and accountable for everything that happens within the Home.

How long have you been working here and what type of establishment is it?

Beverly Catlett I have worked continuously since I started part-time in December 1988, gradually increasing my hours. I have now worked full-time since 1990.

When the ‘Care in the Community Act’ came into force, people who were entering into nursing homes, or dual registered homes were really different in their requirements. Many of the nursing patients were very poorly, and they sometimes stayed in the home for just a few months and then passed-away.  Others were entering as residents who were quite fit. Imagine you are a resident and quite well really and to witness the permanent departure of a succession of friends wasn’t very good for morale. So we decided to change back to a residential establishment in 1998 and, and as we no longer needed to employ nurses, my role changed back to Manager.

How many residents did you have prior to the change?

Beverly Catlett We were registered and had capacity for 30 residents. During the building work that was required to extend, we restricted the number to 24 so as not to inconvenience the residents too much.

So you had capacity for 30 residents before the building project started. How many staff did you need then and why was the decision made to develop the building?

Beverly Catlett It was because of demand and the ability to expand. This building is a Victorian house and when I first came here all we had was eleven residents. Our reputation has been  built up over the years until we were known to be very good. We took the decision to develop because of the demand. It became very frustrating because people were ‘phoning asking if we had vacancies. We were always turning people away, and we have never had to advertise our beds.

The building with what is now the main entrance was a private house that was next door to the original building. It came up for sale so, rather than build into the garden, we purchased and developed it. The number of our residents subsequently increased from eleven to seventeen and eventually to thirty. By then we had two large houses with a wide linked-corridor in between. The next thing was to develop the land between the two houses with a two-storey building. This has now given us ten additional bedrooms and some other facilities, including a hairdressing room, three offices and a very large dining room, instead of the lounge diner we had before. The existing kitchen was already very big and so far has done the job, however we did have to install a new boiler to service all the additional radiators.

Could you describe a typical bedroom?

Beverly Catlett All the new bedrooms are generous in their size and have en-suite bathrooms. They are all tastefully and individually decorated to a high standard. There are telephone lines installed, TV aerial sockets and a wireless nurse call system manufactured and installed by a firm called ARM. As it can be detached from the wall, it can be placed anywhere in the room for the resident to call for assistance; it is completely portable. 

Every member of the Care staff carries a receiver that tells them which room requires assistance, and there are discreet, visual signal boards strategically placed around the corridors that also highlight the call. An audible signal is also given out. We use divan beds normally; however, we can be allocated a hospital bed if the District Nurse thinks it is required for Health and Safety reasons.

...and the bathrooms?

Beverly Catlett They are all wet-rooms, with a shower, a sink and a toilet. They are fitted with thermostatic control valves, so that the water delivered never goes above 42˚C. We have fixed and mobile hoists and other equipment available to assist if the resident requires assistance.

How did you get on with the process of gaining planning permission for the extension and supervising the building work to completion?

Beverly Catlett The Planning and design process was handled by the owners. Obviously we had to alter some of the original ideas during the process etc, but in the end, it all went rather well. In the last phase, there wasn’t too much disruption. But when we were changing the shape of the original houses, there was some. The construction firm built a separate corridor round the back of the building and cut the work-in-progress area off so we couldn’t get access to it. When it was all complete, we obviously couldn’t take the extra 16 residents in one go, so we built-up in stages and it was a slow process to get up to full capacity. We recruited the additional staff six months in advance to complete their induction and training. It all went quite smoothly and thanks to the patience and hard work of the staff, we now have a waiting list again!

Fire protection. What systems do you use?

Beverly Catlett All fire doors are fitted with automatic closers, and if the fire alarm goes then they are magnetically released. The residents like to be able to leave their doors open; the system we use enables them to do that.

What other work did your have to do to accommodate the extra residents?

Beverly Catlett Not much; we built a new dining room. This enabled the lounge/diner to be converted into a lounge only. We already had the large conservatory – a real favourite and we have taken the opportunity to re-vamp the garden area.

What do you consider to be your catchment area and are you exclusively for private or publicly funded residents?

Beverly Catlett  We are a privately owned home and have a mixture of both. Our catchment area is mainly Bedford, but we have people here from Dorset and the rest of the country...

Why would a person come here all the way from Dorset?

Beverly Catlett Well, suppose you lived in Bedford and your mother was far away and you were worried about her, she could move here and you could look after her. That happens quite a lot.

Thank you Beverly for speaking to PIR Care Home Management magazine.