This episode of the Care CEO Success Story podcast features Zoe Fry OBE, founding director of the Outstanding Society, who discusses her journey in social care, from a care assistant at age 13, becoming a nurse, and eventually purchasing and operating her own home, Valerie Manor, in West Sussex.
Zoe created a culture focused on high standards of care, empowering staff, and making them feel valued. This led to happy staff, happy residents, and glowing CQC ratings.
Zoe outlines her success in being very hands-on as a manager and owner, leading by example, fostering teamwork and support amongst staff, recognising and playing to people’s strengths, and investing in staff wellbeing and training.
In this episode, Zoe shares her top tips and strategies on how she built and sold her CQC-rated “outstanding” home and now shares advice with other care providers including:
- “Empowering staff to come up with suggestions and improvements” because happy staff means happy residents.
- How Zoe’s vision was to provide a high standard of care that would be good enough for her own relatives.
- The importance of providing support and training while playing to you teams strengths and “providing the support for them and the tools to do their job very well”.
- How Zoe looked to create roles that played to the strengths of her team.
- Gaining managerial skills through working in the NHS and embracing new areas for learning in finance and HR with help from peers.
- Leading from the front and how Zoe would never ask anyone to do something she wasn’t prepared to do herself.
- Knowing your team’s needs, adapting support accordingly, making staff feel valued and promoting peer support and teamwork.
- Why Zoe sold her home to another provider committed to maintaining its culture.
- The formation of the Outstanding Society, which aims to support the driving up of quality across the whole of England, and how it helps other care providers through sharing their expertise.