Scarborough's St. Cecilia's care home celebrate overseas staff with special evening

Saint Cecilia’s Care Group has employed 28 staff from India, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Nigeria since September.

And at a special evening event to celebrate their contribution, the company’s managing director said a huge ‘thank you’ for their efforts.

During a party at the Group’s Normanby House care home in Scarborough, the overseas staff brought in food that was native to their home country to share as part of the celebrations.

Saint Cecilia’s Managing Director Mike Padgham said: “We cannot thank our overseas staff enough for the amazing contribution they have made to Saint Cecilia’s Care Group over the past 11 months.

“They’ve made a fantastic difference by strengthening our care and nursing team and helping us to look after our residents and we couldn’t have got through the past year without them.

“But more than that they have brought so much in terms of adding cultural diversity and bringing in new personalities and fresh energy to our care centres.

“Their contribution has been amazing and the event at Normanby House was a celebration to mark what a huge difference they have made to us.”

Saint Cecilia’s overseas nursing recruitment was helped by a ground-breaking partnership with York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Drawing on the previous experience the Trust had in recruiting via these channels has saved the care group countless hours and streamlined the process enormously.

A pilot scheme – to enable social care providers to access health trust facilities for staff to study for and take their Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) – was a lifeline for Saint Cecilia’s and for the nurses it has recruited.