Lynwood Care Centre

Nicola is the Care Centre Manager at Lynwood, having joined in 2007 as an administrator, and was promoted to manage our northeast care home in 2013. During her time at Birch Hill Care Home, Nicola achieved an outstanding rating with CQC during her last inspection in 2019.

Nicola transferred to Lynwood in 2021 and, since joining, has reviewed how we provide care to our residents and recently launched our Best Life Model of care.

A quote from Nicola

"Since joining the team at Lynwood, it has been my focus to deliver our Best Life Model of Care which we successfully launched in December 2023, my team are now focused on providing person-centred care to our residents and I look forward to continuing to support and improve our quality of care here at Lynwood"

Lynwood is a great environment for delivering care. What I like about it is how it’s structured into units, or as we call them ‘houses’, of 15 people. To me, it’s the ideal environment to enable us to care for people in a person-centred way and it’s one of the main reasons I wanted to work for Lynwood. Another thing that attracted me to Lynwood is the Best Lives Model of Care, which allows nursing staff plenty of time with residents, so we can use our clinical skills to the fullest extent. It means we have enough time to spend with each resident to ensure they are well cared for and that their needs are being met.

“I also like the fact that Ben is a charity because I know that we’re focused on delivering good care rather than on making money. The staff here are passionate about care and they have really good relationships with the residents in each house.

“Another thing I like about Lynwood is the space. It looks big when you first get here – it is a big building - but I like the fact that there is enough space to do activities, meet with families and visitors as well as provide care. It’s also a very homely environment. When you walk into each house, it’s very relaxed, everyone’s happy, it really is home from home. Residents tell me that they feel at home here and that they feel safe, which is exactly what you want people to feel when they are living in a care home.

“I think the Best Lives Model will help us deliver an exceptional level of care because we are training our carers to a much higher standard than in many other care homes. They acquire nursing skills and other training which means the level of care they deliver is truly exceptional. I believe this model, where nurses deliver their clinical care throughout the care home – not just to people who are in nursing care units – is the future of care and will adopted by other operators when they realise the impact it has on care quality.

“Lynwood is special because of the way it feels here, it’s got a great atmosphere. It’s also unique in the way it supports the staff, it’s the first time I’ve seen this in a care home; very few organisations offer that level of support. Staff are listened to, they are supported throughout the ups and downs, and there is always someone there for them to talk to."

I have worked at Lynwood since 2003, I joined initially as part of the care team, supporting our residents and relatives on a day-to-day basis and I was promoted to a house leader in 2015, in this role I managed a residential dementia house and it was my responsibility to ensure that a person-centred approach to dementia care was provided.

In 2021 I joined the management team in my current role of Head of Person Centred Care. Working alongside the Head of Clinical Care, I manage Dove, Kingfisher, Nightingale and Heron Houses, I support the residents and relatives to ensure our residents can live their best lives whilst in our care, whilst also ensuring that our staff team are supported in their role.