Cornelius House

I have worked in Health & Social Care for over 20 years and joined Cornelius House permanently last September as their Care Manager. Since leaving school, I have always worked in caring roles but gained my passion for working with the elderly when I returned to work as a care assistant in the community after having my children, working my way up into managerial roles.

I have a strong commitment to ensuring that our residents at Cornelius are enabled to have the best quality of life possible, ensuring that both their physical and psychological well-being are as important as each other. Our mantra is if we look after the physical health we are also looking after the psychological health and vice versa.

As a manager, I see my role as supporting my team to achieve the visions and goals of the home. We pride ourselves on creating a ‘home from home’ atmosphere, where everyone is part of the Cornelius family.

The last six months have been a time of transition for Cornelius, but with the support of the staff, residents and their families we have achieved so much in a short space of time. I can say with a strong conviction that I am proud of everyone involved and proud to be part of the team.

Here at Cornelius House it is like one big family, with our residents and staff it’s a home away from home, and I really enjoy working here at Cornelius.

I have been in care since I was 17, I left school and went to college to study health and social care. I have now been in care for 10 years and intend to stay here for as long as possible as it is where my passion is.

I started here at Cornelius House in 2018 as a Carer, within 6 months I was promoted to senior and then within the next year, I was made Team Leader and now have progressed to Deputy Manager. I am proud of my progress and the opportunities I have been given within the home.

I have always been passionate about giving the best care to the elderly for their lasting years and making it as special as possible. It is always a pleasure.

As a Deputy Manager, I am proud to say that we have an amazing team that will always jump to support each other, and nothing is too much trouble.

My name is Paul and I have worked at Cornelius House for almost nine years. I started my career on the YTS (Youth Training Scheme) at the end of 1985 at a college in Brighton. I was highly motivated to begin with but after a year or so, I left the catering industry to focus on engineering where I stayed for a number of years.

In the early 90’s I decided to do some travelling in the West Country and settled down in Paignton where I worked in a hotel as a waiter for a few years. After a while I decided to re-engage my love and passion for cooking by accepting my first job in a care home based in Birdham, near Chichester. I had lost a lot of techniques and flair for cooking but with encouragement I gained all of that that back rapidly with my passion for creating a flair for cooking traditional food for elderly residents.

Over the next few years I continued to build my portfolio by incorperating both new and old dishes to menus for all seasons and for all tastes.

In 2012 I joined Cornelius house as a part time chef and after 4 years I took over the as Head Chef with full responsibility of the kitchen. Since James and Gary took over as owers of Cornelius House in late 2020, I was at first a little apprehensive on what was expected of myself. I found out fairly quickly that the commitment that James and Gary have for the residents both at Greensleeves and now Cornelius are second to none. I am now leading a small team where i am managing a handful of dedicted kitchen staff whom also have a passion for caring about the residents dietry needs. As a team I am looking forward to the journey we are undertaking here.

Finally, a chef, no matter how good I can be, it's not good cooking for yourself; the joy is in cooking for others...it’s the same with music. To me, there's no passionate chef without a great team.