Craegmoor Work Experience Rewarded

Craegmoor’s Conquest House, part of the Priory Group, is celebrating after its ‘Work Experience’ initiative earned a national award.

The care home, based on Straight Drove in Farcet, has been recognised with a Priory Pride award for its strategy in encouraging independent living through work in the local community.

Rising to the challenge, the team at Conquest House has been successful in engaging external employers to help support more than a third of resident service users into some form of work experience or employment.

Despite challenges and lack of confidence, one service user has succeeding in finding the right work environment to suit her talents and another has undergone a significant journey from “I haven’t got a brain” to making effective contributions to a local florists.

Conquest House, part of Craegmoor, supports adults with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour.

Paul Steward, Manager at Conquest House, said: “Everybody here at Conquest House is honoured to receive this prestigious award. The many benefits of work on both physical and mental health have been well documented and this project has demonstrated a way forward in developing high quality work experience as a stepping stone to independent living.

“Service users need to have their views and experiences taken into account on an ongoing basis to have a real choice and control in decisions that affect them. At Conquest House, the team have a very person centred approach. We are very proud of this initiative and will continue to work with local businesses to create more opportunities for our service users.”