Each month we bring you behind the scenes to put the well deserved spotlight on our staff that help us make a difference to communities throughout the North East. This month meet Joe Berry, Facilities Supervisor!
I'm Joe, Facilities Supervisor at the Pioneering Care Partnership (PCP). I work with Colin, Ian and Tony, Caretakers at the Pioneering Care Centre in Newton Aycliffe. I work full time, mostly with internal staff, though my work predominantly has me working with contractors and service providers. My duties primarily involve the upkeep of the Pioneering Care Centre (PCC), we have a Café, hydrotherapy pool and variety of tenanted services. I also support to ensure operational practises meet ISO, CHAS and a variety of other audit standards. I work with contractors to ensure areas like the pool plant room and garden kitchen continue to operate.
Depending on the day I can work on the facilities role (room hire set up, small repairs etc). Other days I start by reviewing outstanding work requests. Responding to issues that arise around site - leaks, loss of heating - updating maintenance records, corresponding with contractors, developing working practises from lessons learned from Health and Safety advisors.
I started in 2009 as a Hydrotherapy Pool attendant. The most memorable moment is while I was working on the pool. A family attended, the daughter was using hydrotherapy to rehabilitate. I was able to support in a small fashion by providing exercises learned from my aqua exercise sessions. They all had a very positive attitude and eventually the daughter worked her way off crutches. Recovery is not always possible with hydrotherapy, and I’ve met many others who use it to manage lifelong conditions and I’ve been equally impressed by their commitment and attitude.
Our department is designed to support the day to day running of the PCC. Having worked for the pool and Options and seen the benefits people gain from such services, it’s nice to know our work plays a small part in their operation.
I’ve worked with the centre development team at the beginning of our refurbishment project which has seen MGM start construction work on a new pool and an Options room extension. The development and progress are very much down to the work of senior management ABD design/construction team but it has been a full circle experience to see two projects I’ve worked for enter this new life. With the redevelopments I have obtained a level 3 pool plant qualification to help better understand the functions of the pool plant room.
For more about what the PCP offers, visit www.pcp.uk.net, make sure to keep an eye on our vacancies page if you want to help make a difference within the community, you can email enquiries@pcp.uk.net or call 01325 321234.
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