New Barnsley care home provides specialist care and creates jobs

17th October 2014

The opening of a new care home in Barnsley, funded by Yorkshire Bank, will create more than 40 jobs and deliver much-needed care for the elderly and those with specialist needs.

Ward Green Lodge Care Home, near Worsbrough, south of Barnsley, is a purpose-built care home able to cater for 64 residents and is being delivered by one of the UK’s leading psychiatrists, Dr Darryl Britto.

Ward Green Lodge Care Home, owned by the Britto family, opened in September, having been supported with a seven-figure funding package by Yorkshire Bank. The deal was delivered by Gail Fielding, Yorkshire Bank’s healthcare business development manager in the East of England.

The care home provides high quality residential and dementia care with 64 en-suite bedrooms, each equipped with flat-screen televisions, DVD players, and mini-fridges. The dining room area includes a kitchenette for residents. A landscaped sensory garden with raised flower beds is available to be tended by residents, to help sensory stimulation and behavioural activation.

The home boasts innovative training for care staff to empower them with ability to care in a compassionate manner yet be assertive and proactive to address any faults and shortcomings within the organisation. This approach is based on a desire to build a culture of candour ‘the residents come first’, vital to provide good health and social care.

Dr Darryl Britto, Managing Director of Britto Healthcare, had been looking to buy and operate a specialist care home for several years before buying Ward Green Lodge from a local operator Ideal Care Homes, for an undisclosed sum, given their progressive and innovative ideas of empirical and scientific care for the elderly and those suffering from dementia.

Dr Britto is well-known for his expertise in the assessment and treatment of mental health conditions in adults, and will bring his 26-year career in mental health, to provide specialist services to the Barnsley and South Yorkshire communities.

Dr Britto said: “It has long-been recognised that the UK population is, on average, growing older and living longer. The demand for specialist healthcare services for the elderly and those with chronic physical and mental healthcare needs is growing but needs a compassionate, yet firm and sympathetic approach to improve the quality of life for dementia sufferers.

“Ward Green Lodge will provide services in a high quality, professional and welcoming environment and would like to thank Yorkshire Bank for its support in helping to provide much-needed quality services to the local area. We are currently building up a team of around 40 highly qualified and experienced healthcare professionals as we look forward to the care and well-being of the first few residents who have already benefitted from the high quality physical, environmental and psychosocial interventions.”

Gail Fielding, healthcare business development manager for Yorkshire Bank, said Dr Britto’s reputation in the specialist mental healthcare field, and above all his quest to improve quality of healthcare should bring improved service provision to the local area.

Gail said: “Dr Britto is highly regarded in the region and across the UK and we are confident Ward Green Lodge will provide an outstanding level of care for its residents with specialist needs.

“Care home owners and operators across the UK are looking to the future with optimism. Many are investing in their homes to provide the high quality care and accommodation which is being demanded as our ageing population grows. Ward Green Lodge will provide that high quality care, create more than 40 jobs for the local area and above all, aims to set a national example of modern, scientific practice in the delivery of care to the elderly.”