A luxury hotel with care
Date of news/blog: 25th September 2023“It’s like a luxury hotel with care.”
That’s how Home Director Shann Thomas perfectly summarises what it is like living and working at Brockington House.
Shann should know what good care and good hospitality looks like, having spent her career in both sectors.
She left school aged 16 to follow her dream of becoming a Nurse and went on to become dual trained, working for the NHS in both general nursing care and psychiatric nursing care.
When Shann met her husband James, who also works for Dormy Care Communities as our Executive Chef, she gave up nursing to run a country pub, working front of house whilst James was in the kitchen.
Shann then returned to nursing in the private sector, and soon become manager of a residential care home before the couple – along with their two children, emigrated to South Africa where they ran their own successful businesses, in Shann’s case, making bespoke cotton linen.
When the family decided to return to the UK, Shann returned to residential care, initially working as a Care Assistant so she could see how the company that owned the home was run, and then Home Manager for four years.
And then her friend of over 30 years, Helen Davies-Parsons, made her an offer she couldn’t refuse.
Shann explains: “Helen is a qualified Nurse and we used to work together, and she always said she would run her own company one day and I never doubted her for a minute.
“When she set up Dormy Care Communities, she asked me to be Home Director at Brockington House and I didn’t hesitate in saying yes.”
Brockington is the newest of the current four Dormy homes (Shann describes it as “the baby”) and she got to see it through from being built to welcoming the first resident.
“It was amazing seeing the home take shape, opening the marketing suite and being able to do thigs like choosing the kitchen colours,” Shann recalls.
“Our very first resident came from the previous home I worked at, along with seven of the staff from that home, and some of the other early residents are still at Brockington today!”
Shann has a good way of describing Brockington to people.
“It’s a luxury hotel with care,” she explains.
“When people walk in, they immediately feel calm, and you would never know there are 60 people inside at any time of the day.
“It’s very person-centred. People can get up or go to bed when they want; there are no rules, we welcome visitors and pets, and we have a great activities team who put on some amazing activities for our ladies and gentlemen.
“We are like a family and I pride myself on my team. Helen always said she would look after the staff as much as we do the residents, and that’s very important.
“It’s what makes Brockington so special.”