Case Study: Care
LILAIN FAITHFULL CARE,
GLOUCESTERSHIRE
Lilian Faithfull Care
INTRODUCTION
A care group and charity providing care, support and a ‘home for life’ to the elderly in Gloucestershire. With five care homes, four in Cheltenham and one in Stroud, they provide assisted living, residential and nursing care.
Home Cooking
THE CHALLENGE
Home cooking is a priority across the Lilian Faithfull homes and plays a key role in the care of their residents; ensuring a nutritious diet, giving quality of life and making sure meal times are a highlight of the day. To increase control over the dining experience and continually drive up standards, Lilian Faithfull brought their catering teams in-house in 2016.
With this came the responsibility for providing accurate allergen and nutritional information for the food they prepare and serve. Manually preparing handwritten menu allergen and nutrition paperwork was incredibly time-consuming and the potential for inaccurate data to be recorded. There was also a likelihood of inconsistencies across the group.
Saffron Software
THE SOLUTION
Take up of Creed’s Saffron Nutritional Software, a tool that manages allergen information, recipes and nutritional values, has drastically reduced related administrative time. A four-week menu cycle can now be uploaded with ease and automatically checked against nutritional values and allergen information. Saffron is used daily across all sites, achieving the consistency they require.
Using Saffron in conjunction with their Creed buying list has also meant nutritional and allergen information matches the products they are buying and using, with no guesswork involved. Their nutritional advisor can now ensure the provision of allergen and nutritional requirements with absolute confidence. Headed up by Chris Wade, Group Catering Manager, their 18 chefs can now prepare nutritious and well-balanced menus each day, offering a wide range of options at every meal. Menus can easily be changed regularly to ensure constant variety and interest.
As a testament, in 2017 the care group made it to the final three in the national Care Home Awards for ‘Best for Nutrition, Food & Dining Experience’ run by Care Home Management magazine and Care England.
Our Lives Made Easier
THE FEEDBACK
“Saffron enables our 18 chefs to provide accurate allergen and nutritional information on a daily basis across all menus; from a full roast dinner right down to a cup of tea. Our residents aren’t just with us for a meal every now and again, they are here for main meals three times a day with cakes and snacks in-between, seven days a week.
We need to ensure we are providing a nutritionally balanced menu across the week, not just in one meal. Saffron enables us to do that in an easy to read format that our residents, families and staff can all understand. The Saffron system is easy to use, and we’ve always got the Creed team at the end of the phone should we have a question.
The Group Catering Manager and I spent two half days with Creed training on the system. This suited us perfectly and Creed was very flexible about the times and dates of training sessions. As we uploaded our own four-week menu cycle, our progress was then monitored by Creed with support on offer as and when required. Our experience with Saffron and the Creed team has been brilliant. Saffron has made our lives so much easier; we have absolute confidence in the nutritional and allergen information it provides and Creed are helpful and respond very quickly.”
Lucy Coombs
Nutritional Advisor, Lilian Faithfull Centre
