Greenbanks News No 20

 A quarterly account of what has been happening at Greenbanks and what is planned with and for the residents and their families.

 Springtime…or is it?

 Certainly the weather over the past month has not been very spring like. March also brought with not just high winds but also a nasty Novavirus which made for a pretty unpleasant time! But things are now back to a more healthy normal. There have been a number of parties with more to come. There were two outings to Grease shortly after Valentine’s Day dinner (coincidence?), egg hunts and bowling at Easter and Golden Jubilee celebrations coming soon plus two more shows. The first holiday group set off on May 6^th for Fuerteventura, with Pontins’ at Camber Sands and the Southend Beach Hotel to follow.

Staff

 Debbie and Viv are both back at work after long bouts of sickness. Brian Read (Pauline’s husband) has joined the team as handyman, replacing Les. He will also work a weekend day to help with outings.

 The appraisals are all done.

 There has also been a strong bout of training covering Mental Capacity, Infection Control Moving and Handling with First Aid and Fire Awareness to come. Making sure understanding and skills are up to date is a vital part of ensuring that the quality of care remains high.

 The House

 Our on-going programme of improvement continues. The basement area is now complete and within the next month, the new office and medical room will have been finished and the painting of the exterior will resume once the weather improves. (Many thanks to Ray and Dianne Millard for their generous help on the medical room.)

 Next on the interior list is decorating the long hall on the ground floor extension and slightly enlarging Lucy’s room.

 We have taken delivery of some new sofas for the day room. Very nice they are too. We have freshened the paintwork in the laundry room, the kitchen and the utility area, serviced the boilers and bought new laundry equipment

 Overtime, the next interior project to consider will be the extension of the dining room as previously reported. We have pushed ahead with planning consent but the cost is high and sadly the Fifth Trust has been unable to raise money for the project so far which leaves us with some difficult decisions as another priority is a new small vehicle to cope with mobility needs.       

 Finances

 The annual accounts reveal that our finances are sound despite the various challenges we face. In fact, despite our best efforts, we made a small profit as we failed to pick up a shortfall on the funding which became a debtor! We are also hoping to claim back some back tax which might help with the dining room. KCC have also announced a 1% increase for this year.

Fifth Trust

 All is going well despite some sickness issues in the horticulture department. There are now 42 external students. Despite the weather, the tea shop, plant centre and horticulture continue their good work.

Please remember the AGM will be on July 15th

Stephen Whittle on behalf of Dominic Appleton, Jenny Gurney, Alison Howard, Brian Kelly, and Robbie George.

April 2012