Saint Cecilia's Nursing Home

Winner of the Nurse of the Year accolade at our awards night in 2023, Dani has been described as “an angel” for the way she delivers compassionate, person-centred care.

Previously Clinical Lead, it was Dani’s role to manage the home and ensure the team was providing the best nursing care for those who needed it at our home.

Dani trained to be a nurse in her home country of Portugal before taking the very brave decision to move, with her boyfriend, to the UK in 2015 in search of greater opportunities.

She began at the nursing home as a care assistant, whilst she found her feet and got to grips with the language and the way we deliver care in this country. She soon settled in and her excellent nursing skills and empathetic nature saw her rise through the ranks as a nurse, senior nurse, clinical lead and now manager.

“We help and support each other, which is very important in ensuring we deliver the right care for our residents,” says Dani. “That idea of creating a family atmosphere is really important. When residents arrive, they might feel lonely as they have left their homes and familiar surroundings. We work hard to transmit a family welcome to them to help them to settle in and feel happy, safe and content.”

She now describes herself as ‘part of the furniture’ and says she loves her work and the opportunity to properly get to know the residents, which is less possible in a hospital environment.

“It makes it so much easier to provide the proper care when you have known a resident for a long time and they know and trust you,” she adds. “No day is ever the same and it is a very rewarding job, providing care for someone. Often it is the little things that are important, stopping to have a conversation and a laugh with a resident can make their day. For me, knowing you have made a difference in someone’s life gives me the greatest satisfaction.”

Of all our team, Laura Fielding is one of the most important as we believe providing our residents with tasty and nutritious food is vital.
And the catering couldn’t be in better hands than those of our award-winning chef and Catering Manager, Laura.
She is passionate about good food and about giving the residents choice. On a typical day Laura will prepare, from scratch, lunch for 42 residents and around 20 staff.
Residents get a choice of three main courses and if they don’t like those, Laura will prepare something different - if you fancy fish and chips, then fish and chips you will have!
“Meals are a really important, social part of the day and the residents really look forward to them so we do everything we can to give them a good choice of tasty, nutritious and enjoyable food,” she says. “We take into account every dietary requirement and personal preference to tailor a menu for each individual so that food is another area where our residents feel cared for and valued.”
That dedication earned Laura the Chef of the Year Award at the Yorkshire and Humberside Great British Care Awards in 2020.
She takes every little detail into account – right down to individual residents preferring one vegetable against another and is passionate about food being made properly.
In how many nursing homes would the toasted teacake at teatime be made from scratch – flour, sugar, yeast, fruit and so on?
We love a celebration and Laura will knock-up a mouth-watering buffet (with homemade scones, quiches, pizza, doughnuts and cakes of course) or create a themed birthday cake, at the drop of a hat. She creates cakes for anything from a Royal Wedding to the FA Cup Final.
Laura splits her time between cooking at the nursing home and supporting the cooking staff at Saint Cecilia’s other homes in her role as Catering Manager for the whole group.

Ghana-born nurse Evans Sarbeng is one of 32 staff recruited by Saint Cecilia’s Care Group from overseas in the past year and is playing a vital role in delivering care in our centres.

Evans grew up in Duayaw Nkwanta in southern Ghana and after school went to a nurse training college in Berekum.

Following three years’ training he did the mandatory year of work for the Government at the St John of God Hospital in his home town before going to work at the Mount Sinai Hospital in Kumasi.

Evans was tempted by the job at Saint Cecilia’s by the opportunity to take up a new challenge and progress in his profession. After an interview across Zoom, he arrived in this country in November and after a month’s training started at the nursing home in December. He is thoroughly enjoying working at Saint Cecilia’s, particularly getting to know the residents well.

“They are amazing,” he says. “A pleasure to look after. We lift each other – if they are feeling down, we lift them up and if we are feeling low, they cheer us up too.”
Away from the nursing home, Evans has thrown himself into football, joining Aaron and Jordan Padgham playing for the Goal Sports team.