Some of our new apprentice recruits joined forces with our HR colleagues to give the gardens of two Scottish care homes a new lease of life.
Sixteen apprentices from across Scotland and our Early Careers team worked their magic to renew the outdoor space at Nazareth Care Home on the outskirts of Edinburgh, as part of our Community Action Programme (CAP). They trimmed hedges, weeded, power washed pathways, painted sheds, and carried out leaf blowing across the site’s five acres of land.
The transformed areas will allow the residents to make much more use of the garden. Residents have already started to bed in new plants where the raised beds have been cleared. The paths are more accessible for those in wheelchairs, plus the painted shed has been turned into a nail bar and outside coffee area.
Meanwhile, 22 colleagues from HR, Training and Payroll donned their CAP t-shirts and headed to Glasgow to support Nazareth House. This purpose-built care home provides care to 70 residents and boasts stunning grounds and gardens to enhance wellbeing. The gardens were in need of a clean-up, with fence painting, pressure washing pathways, weeding flower beds, and planting on the day’s agenda.
Nazareth’s CEO, Regional Manager, Engagement Manager and delightful Sister Margaret joined the SGN team to make the onsite improvements.
Our CAP scheme gives our 4,000 people a day of company time each year to volunteer and help an organisation or charity of their choice.
Both care homes heaped praise on our teams – not only for their hard work and difference made to the grounds, but also in the respectful way they conducted themselves. They were all blown away with the amount of work carried out and the positive impression they have left of themselves and SGN.
Nazareth Regional Manager Josh Stallard said that the work undertaken by our apprentices surpassed all their expectations and they were absolutely delighted with the results. He commented that the apprentices need to know just what a difference they have made to the lives of the residents and how their efforts have also inspired not only the Bonnyrigg staff, but those in the care group across the UK.
Emma-Jane Stewart, our Employee Experience Manager, said: “Improving the grounds for the care home residents was such a privilege and our hard work didn’t go unnoticed by them – a new starter on the company induction session said his granny is a resident and she really appreciated all our hard work.”
