I joined the team at Hurstwood View in June 2015 as an Activities Coordinator. I began working within the care industry 12 years ago, beginning as a support worker and outreach coordinator at Headway in Newick. This position paved the way to me attending the University of Northampton to work towards various qualifications within the Acquired Brain Injury field, which I am incredibly proud of.

Most recently, before joining Hurstwood View, I worked with the South East Coast Ambulance service as a full time Emergency Medical Advisor. I was the first point of contact for 999 calls to the ambulance service. This job was incredibly rewarding and fast moving, as you would imagine! In the November of 2013, however, my partner and I had the biggest surprise when we found out that I was pregnant with our first baby, Pippa, who is now fast-approaching the terrible twos. This lead me to find a role which was a little less stressful and allowed me more time to spend with our little girl, and this is how I came to work at Hurstwood View.

I am loving my career as an Activities Coordinator as I really enjoy the arts and crafts, am a keen baker, and love finding interesting places to visit. I particularly enjoy when we have the Pet Pals in, as the residents absolutely love seeing and interacting with the animals, as do I! In the past year we’ve also had many brilliant musicians in, which often leads to a little sing along and a boogie. One of my favourite trips we have been on is to our cherry tree in Northiam where, once a year, we get to go and pick cherries from our own tree, and get to enjoy a picnic in the great outdoors. We also bring plenty home for residents to share with friends! If you want to see more of the sorts of activities we get up to at Hurstwood View then pop by the Life at Our Home section on the website.

My name is Martin Harle and I am the Head Chef at Hurstwood View.

I have 40 years experience in the catering industry. It was in September 2012 when I helped to open Hurstwood View and I have enjoyed every minute of my work here. Working with fresh produce is both rewarding and interesting and helps me create seasonal menus which our residents enjoy very much. I also work with a very professional team that are both friendly and willing to support me in the day to day running of the kitchen. Hurstwood View is a beautiful place to work but more importantly offers excellent care,our home is also upbeat and we have lots of fun.

Staff and residents interact very well and there is very much a family feel to Hurstwood View. We also enjoy visits from family members who enjoy the ambience of Husrtwood View and the food. We have a full activities programme at our home and trips out,this all adds to the life we all experience here. In my spare time I like to go fishing, watch football. I am also a keen DYS person.

My name is Wayne Grogan and I have worked in the hospitality sector for over 12 years.

I started of running my own business in dealing with phones, this was for 4 years before I decided that I wanted to move into another career.

I worked in the hospitality field for 12 years at Heaver Hotel, the job involve ensuring that the conferencing facility and 90 bed hotel was run appropriately. I gained experience in customer care, health & safety and the well-being of the guests. I was facing the possibility of redundancy and when researching for a job, I saw the position at Barchester Hurstwood View and thought that I would take a chance and the opportunity and benefits that Barchester were offering gave me the push to apply. As I want to progress into higher management with Barchester and this sounded like the company that I could grow within.

The chance to have contact with the residents and the interaction is so great, when working at Hurstwood, no day is the same. It is also good to have resident’s ask me to deal with an issue within their room and have a little chat with them at the same time. I am enjoying working part of such a diverse team and ensuring the presentation and safety of the home is paramount in my day to day responsibilities.

During my time working at Heaver Hotel, I was voted Employee of Month, then Employee of the Site for the year and then got flown to Portugal and came 2^nd in the finals of the Employee Recognition programme and was awarded £2,500.00. This money I then used to pay for my honeymoon to the Dominican Republic.