In February of this year, Hallmark Group comprising Hallmark Care Homes, Savista Developments and Santhem Residences launched their Care Accelerator inter-company leadership and innovation programme. This exciting programme was designed to provide its participants with the opportunity to develop and implement innovative ideas that would deliver improvements in later living care.
The collaboration, which for 2021 included Hallmark Care Homes and Savista Developments, combined expertise from both companies to generate a wider range of ideas. Furthermore, the programme sought insights from both customer facing roles and central support staff, enabling innovation across all business processes.
17 participants across the 2 companies rose to the challenge of working on 3 very diverse innovative ideas. Each concept was linked to a business strategy and championed by at least one board member. The projects were:
- Innovative ways to recruit, retain and develop nurses for the care sector
Championed by Elizabeth Fairchild, Director of People & Performance and Julie Rayner Care Quality, Governance & Compliance Director at Hallmark Group - Innovative ways to operate care homes in an environmentally sustainable way
Championed by Aneurin Brown, Director of Operations at Hallmark Group with Martin Murphy and Neil Lancaster, Regional Operations Mangers at Hallmark Care Homes - Innovative ways to provide building operations that are carbon neutral
Championed by Kevin Shaw, CEO of Savista Developments and Santhem Residences
Previous successful ideas, that have been born out of similar internal programmes such as the Savista Developments Innovation Challenge, include a unique dementia bedroom design and ways of enhancing safeguarding within later living developments and care homes. Due to this year’s success, the Care Accelerator Programme will return next year including all 3 group companies, inspiring and motivating a new team to get their thinking caps on.
Hallmark Group supported its Care Accelerator Programme members with added insights from Barclays Eagle Labs, a Barclays Bank initiative that provides mentors and learning tools to assist ambitious, forward-thinking businesses. External speakers were also invited to address to the group and share their knowledge, including a presentation on leadership from Avnish Goyal, Chairman of Hallmark Group.
Claire Johnsen, Head of Innovation for Hallmark Group said: “I am proud of the 3 teams who worked extremely hard to find innovative solutions which will be integrated into the business. I’m already looking forward to 2022!”
Claire Collen, Head of Learning & Development said: “It was a pleasure to support the 3 groups and facilitate some exciting conversations that will shape the future of our business and our sector. Watching the teams drive their concepts to completion and seeing individual development has been an incredibly rewarding journey.”
The Hallmark Group charter states:
- We can be counted on to bring innovation and flexibility to meeting the changing demands of our communities and regulators.
- We encourage creativity, ingenuity and the entrepreneurial spirit and celebrate our accomplishments along the way.
The Care Accelerator Programme harnessed the culture of the group by taking action to deliver on their promises, continually striving for improvement. These initiatives will play a part in reducing business costs, reducing carbon footprints and increasing business revenue.
The Care Accelerator Programme culminated in a graduation ceremony last month, where the team’s proposals have been approved by the board. Their ideas will now become reality, being integrated into future projects. We’d like to congratulate every member of the team for their hard work, dedication and vision.