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Founder of Care Campaign For The Vulnerable, Jayne Connery was delighted to receive an invite to visit Shedfield Lodge Residential Care Home in Southampton this week. Jayne first met CEO Andrew Geach earlier in the year at the Hampshire Care Association Technology in Care Roundtable and had a promise to visit their care facility which had already adopted CCTV safety monitoring in all communal areas and was something Jayne was eager to know more about.

Jayne Connery with Andrew Geach owner of Shedfield Lodge and care staff- where CCTV safety monitoring is reassuringly present, bringing transparency and openness

Jayne said, . '' I met Andrew in April and remember sitting around a table with a few care providers present as well as many other care professionals. It seemed very evident from his talking that CCTV safety monitoring was something he and his team very much championed. It was really refreshing to hear how he viewed it as such a positive and in his words 'wouldn't now be without it. Andrew struck me as a caring homeowner who wasn't just about being a 'business owner' but very much a family run care home where passion and understanding towards the elderly who lived with dementia and other complex conditions were understood - including late-stage dementia where symptoms can be a lot more problematic. Predominately apart from two residents, everyone in the home had some form of dementia and a few had ' challenging behaviour' - though he was very quick to correct me, ' No one should be called 'challenging' - people with dementia can react to their environment and this behaviour is part of their communication .’’

Jayne was delighted to see the care home CCTV 'hub' and spoke to the Care Home Manager regarding monitoring of the CCTV throughout the day, the Manager told us all staff were' at ease' and understood the importance of CCTV' within the care home environment and how it acted as a 'care assist' tool and how they 'wouldn't be without.

Andrew explained at first, carers were worried CCTV would have a negative impact on the day to day running of their care home but soon, after working with it, those worries were put to rest. Andrew told Care Campaign ' Why if the care home is doing what it should be doing, CCTV is then seen as a negative? It's so important in a care home especially with vulnerable people and their carers that safety monitoring is implemented.

Transparency is so important and we are not by any means 'perfect' care home - there is no such thing. We strive every day to do the very best we can, CCTV monitoring in communal areas gives us some reassurance if anything like a fall or another incident should happen - we can give families and even CQC the answer to how it may have happened and implement solutions for it to never happen again. It also protects our staff against false accusations.''

Care Campaign for the Vulnerable would like to thank Shedfield Lodge for inviting in Jayne Connery and we wish them much success for the future.

'' Whilst it wouldn’t be right recommending care homes doing the work I do - I can, however, recommend care homes who see beyond what is required in a caring environment and who understand safety monitoring as something that is required for the protection and safeguarding of vulnerable residents and their dedicated hard-working carers, I, for one, will always champion care homes that implements this ethos and Shedfield Lodge Residential Care Home is one. '