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Registered Manager Jason Denny reflects on how his team are responding to the COVID-19 crisis

27 Mar 2020

Jason Denny


  • Leadership

Registered Manager Jason Denny and his team at Old Hastings House won a Skills for Care Accolade for their work. Here he reflects on how they are responding to COVID-19 crisis.

Registered managers feel the responsibility the greatest of all and want to lead their teams. Of course, leadership is a behaviour, where we lead in the moment, regardless of formal role, but there is special commitment from anyone bold to become a registered manager in this day and age given the increasing expectations.

Morale is remarkably high here. If there’s a positive to come out of this then I think it will be seen in better team-working across services. People have to pull together and communicate more effectively to get the best out of one another, and keep the show on the road.

There is still an important job to do, regardless of the Coronavirus, requiring more creativity, whilst we currently have only have 12 of our 100 staff absent we are already starting to see job diversification as more staff step slightly out of their normal marked roles. This will ultimately bring greater appreciation of each other and skills development.

It’s been sad to see a slight dilution in the quality of outcomes as many of our usual activities have needed to be suspended, such as daily minibus trips, visiting speakers, entertainers, therapists and we have a depleted in-house activity team, but others are stepping up and being creative. That said, I won’t be doing haircuts but my Head of Care will be. Short of our usual visiting pianist today our newest resident stepped up instead, and delivered several Frank Sinatra classics among other things. Fly me to the Moon is a tempting thought but I think it would lack the atmosphere of this place!

We are discovering hidden skills in the team. As we said in a team meeting today: ‘Each morning brings us one day closer to the end of the ordeal.’ Bear this in mind when you open the curtains or blinds each day.

Do what you can, because you can, because it’s good for you and it’s probably good for everyone else too.

Keep up to date with our 'COVID-19' page.

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