The Directors of Sunridge Court and the Trustees of Jewish Care have last week announced that they plan to come together in a merger that would see Sunridge Court form part of Jewish Care. Residents, relatives, staff and other key stakeholders have all been informed of this important development. Sunridge Court, who have an enviable reputation in the North West London community, has been providing high quality care to its residents for over 50 years. The home prides itself on not only the excellent care it delivers, but the welcoming family feel that has been created alongside the strong sense of community that exists at the home between residents, relatives, the staff and volunteers. Sunridge was founded by a group of families from the Liberal and Reform Jewish movement and today we still honour the vision they had for Sunridge as a non-orthodox home from home. Several of the board members today are descendants of those families, and the home maintains very close links with both communities.
Under the plan, the two organisations will come together, seeing Sunridge Court join Jewish Care’s strong existing portfolio of excellent care homes, whilst retaining its ethos and practices. Jewish Care offers a wide range of high-quality care which includes residential, nursing and dementia care, in addition to end of life care. Jewish Care is the Jewish Community’s largest provider of social care in the UK, with 9 care homes, 2 retirement living sites with a 3rd opening this month, in addition to community services which include community, dementia and day centres and a helpline and social work team that touch the lives of over 10,000 people each week.
In meetings held last week with staff, residents and relatives, the Sunridge Court senior management team and Board of Directors stressed that their priority over the coming months is to ensure that residents, relatives and staff are fully informed about the plan and reassured that any changes as a result of this exciting partnership with the largest care provider to the Jewish community will only enhance the excellent care and surroundings they already experience at Sunridge Court.
The proposed plan would see most staff at Sunridge Court retain their jobs ensuring the continued strong relationships and level of care that exists continue into this partnership.
In a joint statement, Sunridge Court Executive Director, Rachel Jones and Jewish Care Chief Executive, Daniel Carmel-Brown said:
“People in the community can look forward to living longer than ever before. More specialist care will be needed going forwards. At Sunridge Court and Jewish Care, we understand these changing needs and increased expectations of our residents and their relatives. We have ambitious plans and want to provide an even wider spectrum of care to our residents and the community with them having access to a wider range of care support from residential, nursing through to dementia and end of life care, We are driven by the needs and aspirations of the growing number of older people in the community and providing them with the continued excellent care they have experienced and can expect from us long into the future.”
Linda Stone, Chair of Sunridge Court said:
“By our two organisations joining forces, Sunridge Court will have access to greater resources to provide a higher level and wider spectrum of care now and in the future for the community than we would by remaining separate organisations. It would also enable Sunridge Court to maintain our unique ethos of offering the most personalised care and unique and individual experience for those in our care. It will also provide us with the opportunity to offer better career options for colleagues and importantly help us attract and retain more talented and excellent people delivering care at the frontline to join our excellent teams.
Sunridge Court are now sharing our plans and are in close conversations and discussions with our residents, relatives, staff and stakeholders and hope to complete the partnership with Jewish Care later in April.”
Jonathan Zenios, Chairman of Jewish Care said:
“As the community knows well, Jewish Care itself is an amalgamation of many welfare organisations that have come together over the last 30 years.
We’re delighted to welcome Sunridge Court as the newest member of the Jewish Care family which we hope will increase the breadth of the community we can serve and allow us to achieve more together in the future. The environment we are working in has changed dramatically and I know the community expects us to find more ways to collaborate, coming together in this way is welcomed by us all.”
