With 33 years’ credible experience within the health and social care sector, Clare Silvester has joined Runwood Homes at its head office in Hadleigh, Essex, to become head of quality and governance.
Beginning her career as a carer, Silvester’s passion and drive for good quality care has seen a natural and significant progression within adult and elderly care, gaining valuable hands on experience and knowledge along the way, to become an expert in senior care quality and governance.
As head of quality and governance, her role will ensure a robust framework to evidence the delivery of personalised, safe, effective, caring, responsive, well led, high quality healthcare. She also monitors Runwood Homes residential care and nursing home services and continuously strives to improves care standards across the portfolio.
She says: "Initially my priorities will be to review what current systems are working well and looking at immediate opportunities to improve our services. My longer term strategy will be to ensure Runwood Homes is always proactive and forward thinking with all our approaches to care delivery and governance.”
Silvester’s previous employment includes working for West Essex CCG in day care and acute elderly wards, advancing to long term employment with Essex County Council with successful roles in adult social care inspection management and quality improvement. More recently, she has taken on independent consultancy work, acted as area director and was a specialist advisor for the Care Quality Commission.
She continues: "The future holds exciting challenges for the sector; quality and governance will be more than just monitoring the overall operations of the business via key performance indicators. We need to provide the entire workforce with appropriate and robust information that can be used consistently up and down the line to ensure everyone’s performance directly supports key objectives and strategies of the business.”
Chief operating officer at Runwood Homes, Gavin O'Hare-Connolly, adds: "I welcome Clare in this pivotal appointment as we progress our services to a level leading the sector. The provision of high quality nursing and residential care is both expected and standard across our organisation and the investment in quality and governance only cements my clear vision of excellence as standard.”
