Why Coneygar?
The whole team here appreciate and understand what a big step coming into care is. The feeling of loss of independence and moving out of home can be very difficult to come to terms and cope with.
As a family owned independent care home, our small & friendly team understand this and will provide the support needed, every step of the way. Providing a relaxed, friendly environment with staff that go that extra mile, sets us apart from many care homes and we welcome our residents as part of the ‘Coneygar Family’.
Delivering outstanding homely care
About
Coneygar Lodge has been a care home since the late 1980’s but was purchased by Wendy Cross and her husband Ted, in 1999. At this time, it only had 16 beds and was quite run down.
Wendy, a former RGN, had a vision to turn the home into somewhere that cared passionately about its residents and could offer a real home from home. An extension in 2001 took the home up to 22 beds thanks to all the hard work from Wendy and the team, gained a fantastic reputation locally for providing great person centred care.
In 2005, their son James joined the business as one of the directors. As a degree qualified engineer, he set about modernising the home by bringing in computerisation to help reduce the administrative burden of the care staff so they could concentrate more of their time on caring directly for our residents. He also provided support to the registered manager in the day-to-day running of the home.
In 2023, Carrie Pitts joined us as Registered Manager, bringing years of care experience to the role and having a real real passion and understanding of our ethos. Carrie has an amazing track record in bringing several previous homes she has managed to 'Outstanding' status. She has been instrumental in bringing the best out of our home and staff and we are very fortunate to have her managing Coneygar Lodge.
Today we have a fantastic team, headed up by Carrie and with amazing support from Sarah Crouch, our Deputy Manager. James is on site on a daily basis and Wendy & Ted are never far away with advice and help. Some of our carers have been with us for 24+ years and we have an incredible team who are both dedicated and passionate about the care they provide – almost like one big family!
Our Team
A care home can have all the most incredible facilities available but without an amazing team of staff with passionate leadership, there is no foundation to provide the level of care that our residents deserve.
At Coneygar Lodge we consider ourselves to be extremely lucky. We have a carefully selected team of local staff, all of whom share our passion to provide the best possible care for our residents. We value our staff and this is reflected in great staff retention (we have three staff who have been with us for over 20 years!). With excellent leadership from our Registered Manager, Carrie Pitts, supported by our Deputy Manager, Sarah Crouch, our motivated and happy team are one of the main reasons we achieved our ‘Outstanding’ award in 2018.
Wendy Cross – Managing Director / Owner
Wendy, a former RGN, had seen over the years the general poor conditions prevalent in many care homes when looking for her father who was suffering Alzheimer’s disease. She had a vision to create a care home that offered an amazing level of care with a homely atmosphere. In 1999 she purchased Coneygar Lodge with her husband, Ted, to put that vision into practise and is still very much involved with the home to this day.
Ted Cross – Director / Owner
Ted was a self employed electrician for over 40 years before ‘retiring’ to assist with renovations and repairs at Coneygar in 2004. He is still involved on the practical & maintenance side of the home.
James Cross – Operations Director
James joined the family business in 2005 from a background in design engineering to assist with the day-to-day organisation and was tasked to bring the business into the new century by embracing technology to help improve the home and reduce the administrative burden on the care staff. He works alongside the Registered Manager & deputy on a daily basis.
Carrie Pitts – Registered Manager
Carrie is a hugely experience care home manager, having performed this role for over 8 years and bringing two care homes up to 'Outstanding' ratings. During this time she received a Bronze award for 'Most Outstanding care home manager'. Carrie has over 26 years experience in care and is absolutely passionate about providing the best possible to our residents by providing expert leading our amazing team.
Sarah Crouch – Deputy Manager
Sarah joined us in 2021 as a senior carer assistant, bringing many years of care experience to the team. She soon progressed to Care Team Leader and then to Deputy Manager in 2023. Sarah provides amazing support to Carrie, our Registered Manager as well as to the whole team.
The rest of the team consists of senior care staff, care staff, activity staff, housekeepers, cooks and maintenance, all of whom play an important part at Coneygar and we all work as one team, putting the care of our residents first and foremost. We have an ‘open door’ management policy and welcome suggestions & ideas from anyone on the team to further improve our working practises.