Alex Turner meets SUE LACE, MD of Stocks Hall Care Homes

IT IS fairly common for interviewees to comment on a reporter’s shorthand notes, and say “I wish I could do that”.

But not Sue Lace, who said: “I can do that”. That’s because, before being part of the founding management team of Stocks Hall, she was a secretary.

A HNC in business studies was her preparation to take charge when she and her three fellow directors – two of whom are builders – decided to take a plot of land they owned in Ormskirk and build a residential home on it. It opened in the winter of 1987, with capacity for 27 residents.

“It was a bit scary,” said Ms Lace, managing director of Stocks Hall. “We appointed a manager, but for about two years I was doing the cooking and some of the caring.

“I was learning the business from the ground up. My philosophy was don’t expect someone to do something you weren’t prepared to do.

“It was a massive learning curve, driven by a desire to give the best quality of care. It’s a constant learning curve really.”

After a year, the home was extended to cater for 45 residents, while the challenges they were facing opened up growth opportunities.

The company opened a second home in 1990 in Burscough, followed in 1993 by a home in Skelmersdale, specialising in caring for people with dementia.

It has since added homes in Nelson, in 2002, and most recently St Helens, in 2008.

Ms Lace admitted that, to begin with, it was difficult not to get too involved with the day-to-day events of the business.

“It’s something I have had to work at,” she said. “In the early days, I would constantly be in the three homes. It’s a matter of managing things in a different way, not physically.

“It’s a matter of delegating to other people, but making sure they are fully aware of what we are asking, rather than being physically there.”

With the constant scrutiny facing care homes – no more intense than at the moment with the financial problems facing Southern Cross and the care problems unmasked by BBC’S Panorama last month at a Bristol care home – Ms Lace is as committed as ever to maintaining the highest possible standard.

She said: “We very much believe that our staff are the tools of our trade, a continual development is the only thing that keeps the quality of care up to scratch.” That includes an initiative called the Butterfly Project which has been under way for more than a year, with Stocks Hall working with care consultancy Dementia Care Matters to achieve a level three kitemark for its care of patients affected by dementia.

Ms Lace said: “The Butterfly Project goes against task-oriented care. It’s spending time with the person to understand the emotion of that person. Although the cognitive skills aren’t there, they still have the emotions.

“It’s understanding how to react – if they see a simple thing like ‘I want my mum’, ‘I want to go home’, it’s understanding it’s the comfort that those things bring, and giving them comfort.

“It has been a culture change for a lot of people, but it’s about nurturing. We have to nurture ourselves and our staff for them to be able to connect with the people that live here. There’s a lot of support that goes on.

“It’s very draining. You are filling those people with love and comfort and the staff can feel ‘who is there to do that with me?’.”

Although a lot of that work is, by its nature, ad hoc and informal, the company has also completed formal processes to ensure it maintains high standards.

“We have had Investors in People since 1995, and we are now one of the homes in the country with a gold standard award,” she said.

“I started the business because I was passionate about providing the highest standard of care available to those that needed it.

“We believe that quality care can only be achieved through well motivated staff that are committed to our core philosophy and values. Achieving the gold standard has made me so proud of our staff, who are a dedicated team of professionals.

“It confirmed to me we had managed to make that transition from one to five homes.”

That transition is not just about getting the right staff and keeping them motivated, but it also requires the company gets the balance right between people and profits.

“We work together with our managers to understand the financial restraints,” said Ms Lace.

“Our approach has been it has to be right for the people we are looking after. But we have to be financially viable to achieve that for the staff and for the people that live here.

“There’s always the financial balance. It’s very difficult – with most services and commodities, you just put a margin on what it costs to make it.

“We are dictated to by social services and primary care trusts, and what they are prepared to pay. There are other costs that are out of our control.

“This balancing act is becoming more and more difficult. The last thing we want to do is damage the standard of care we provide, we don’t want to stop training out staff or keeping the homes looking nice.”

Changes in funding have raised concerns among care homes and associations around the country. Paul Simic, the chief executive of Lancashire Care Association (LCA), which acts as an umbrella organisation for care providers, went on the record as saying that the prices set across the North West were endangering businesses within the sector.

He said: “They are so far adrift from the actual costs that anyone who takes them will be putting their business at risk.”

Ms Lace, who has previously been chairwoman of the LCA, agrees that the situation is precarious, both for businesses and patients affected by the changes.

She said: “The idea around the continuing healthcare should be the needs of those people are higher than the normal nursing rate because of their dependency.

“In the past, we would cost out that care on an individual basis but there are moves for the Primary Care Trust to set a base rate they are prepared to pay which is currently lower than the current nursing rate, which is financial suicide.

“We have put in a realistic rate which will mean we are now on the reserve list of preferred providers because we can’t afford to go at that rate.

“It’s worrying what kind of care people will be receiving.”

These changes are not putting off Stocks Hall, which is looking to expand in the years ahead.

It has acquired a second site in Ormskirk which is currently going through the planning process, while plans are well-progressed to convert an old hotel in Mawdesley, West Lancashire, into a home with a swimming pool and a gym that would act as a place for residents of other homes to go to for short stays.

But whether it is one, five or seven homes, the vocational aspect of the job doesn’t get diminished, and continues to provide its own reward for Ms Lace and her team

“It can make you cry at times, the results you get, the change in people. It’s that that keeps you going.”