Lisa Hitchcox - working with Persona throughout lockdown and beyond

Hello my name is Lisa Hitchcox and nearly 4 years ago I took the opportunity to set up my own business Xceed Care Compliance, with the ultimate aim of working with care and support providers who did not want to only meet the
requirements of the Regulations but who wanted to take their service to the next level and beyond! Having worked and gained valuable experience over the last 12 years as Quality Lead for a large housing provider, the opportunity
arose for me to attempt to balance my new work commitments, my family and voluntary roles within the community.

The birth of Xceed Care Compliance led onto my involvement and partnership working with Persona.

I honestly love every minute, meeting great team members and seeing the services embrace change and drive forward service improvements. Being part of Persona's journey really has inspired me, seeing the commitment by all staff team members to deliver the highest quality of care and encouraging people to live their best lives!

I have also had the privilege of being a sponsor for the Persona Awards for the last 2 years and again this year for the 2020 Persona Celebration Day, which really is an absolute honour!

Life certainly has been very different since lockdown and I have taken every opportunity I could throughout the pandemic to support and guide clients through the minefields of new guidance, legislation and best practise to ensure that they were well informed in order to deliver the highest quality of person-centred care through the continuing challenging times; times of adversity and times of uncertainty for all.

Throughout the initial period of lockdown, I took the opportunity to implement some of my project management methods on my family, and much to the initial dismay of my two teenage boys, I instigated a weekly Family Lockdown Review Meeting. It soon became apparent that I was actually applying all of the tricks of my ‘trade’ to provide a caring, supportive, communicative, engaging, respectful, honest and structured approach to improve all of our lives, through the power of effective communication. It was a slow burn but eventually the benefits were felt by all. The meetings transitioned into daily updates by the power of social media platforms, so I could engage with the family in a way that I knew they would connect with and even, from time to time, respond to!

Like many others, home schooling was also a whole new challenge; having two teenage boys meant I had to transfer my skills over to keeping them motivated, engaged and communicating. Communication really is key and if you take
anything away with you from this article, keep on talking! Keep on communicating. It really is vital in every setting be that at home or work, with colleagues, friends, family and your wider networks.

There is no doubt that unprecedented challenges will continue across all sectors and services and as we head into autumn and winter periods, we all know that that the pandemic will continue to have an impact on everyone. How we all positively respond to the ongoing crisis will make a difference for people we look after, care for and support either at work or at home.

Thank you to all. To the carers, key workers and to everyone working in front line services.

You really are all true heroes.

You can read more about Persona's quality standards here.