Beaverbrook House – Milton Keynes
Beaverbrook House is situated about 15 minutes walk from central Milton Keynes and just around the corner from the little village of Bletchley.
Residents can walk to the shops in Bletchley to get their day to day shopping, groceries, pharmacy, post office and banking. For those wanting to venture into Milton Keynes itself there is a regular ‘PlusBus’ which stops at the apartments to pick up and drop off residents. There is an annual fee for this service of about £3 with an additional 30p return ticket to pay on the day.
There are regular trips out to various places of interest, e.g. the garden centres in the area and theatre trips. These are organised by Kathy and a dedicated coach is hired for such occasions.
The Social Life
On a day to day basis, life at Beaverbrook is very community spirited. Every morning residents are visited by care staff who ensure that all is well and take requests for doctors to visit etc. This daily interaction ensures that a good relationship is built up between residents and staff and indeed both enjoy this chance for a chat.
Residents are responsible for their own apartments but a cleaner looks after the communal areas and can be hired to do rooms at a small additional cost.
All apartments have a fully fitted kitchen. For those residents without a washing machine, there is a laundry room complete with washing machine and dryer available on a rota system.
Some residents prefer to keep themselves to themselves but social interaction is encouraged. To that end, Thursday is Coffee Morning, with table top sales and talks on various interesting topics. Residents come down to chat and participate or simply to have a cup of tea or coffee in the warm and comfortable lounge.
Friday Night Special
Kathy organises a Fish & Chip Supper every couple of months and this is well attended, as you can imagine. Friday nights are also special, very often a quiz is held and the residents bring food to share, or perhaps they watch a film. It is very much down to the residents to choose how they would like to spend their evening but it is very popular with a regular bunch of 15 or so getting together to chat and be entertained. The usual calendar events such as Christmas and Easter are celebrated by the residents with trips to the panto and visiting carol singers. In addition Halloween, Valentines Day and resident’s birthdays do not pass unnoticed! There are always residents on hand to join in the celebrations.
On an organisational level, there are are five members of staff, including Kathy, our trained warden, who is in overall charge. There is a maintenance man, a cleaner, and two care assistants, one for week days and one for weekends, to help Kathy on a day to day basis.
The atmosphere at Bletchley is warm and friendly with a real family feel. Residents’ privacy is always respected but help is at hand as and when it is needed. Kathy, our warden at Beaverbrook said recently ‘Yes, there is a real warmth about Beaverbrook. The residents are very happy and everyone comments on the family atmosphere here.’