Meet Our People

CSH Surrey is an exciting place to work. We are proud to be at the heart of our local communities and to offer a wide range of employment opportunities: from district nursing, health visiting and running four community hospitals to providing highly specialist community care through talented and dedicated teams.

As a social enterprise, we believe we combine the values of the NHS with a clear and unshakeable commitment to the highest standards of patient care alongside the freedom to be able to innovate and deliver new and exciting services to our patients.

CSH Surrey positively encourages applications from all areas of the community, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation or religious beliefs. We are committed to ensuring people who work for CSH Surrey enjoy their roles and work, and also achieve a good work life/home life balance.

To learn more about some of the roles at CSH Surrey and to get to know our co-owners better see below:

Manager, Ranmore Ward, Dorking Hospital Jenny Coombes

I joined CSH Surrey as a bank nurse in 2009. I worked with the District Nursing teams before moving to work as a Band 6 on Ranmore Ward at Dorking Hospital, where I am now Manager. In July 2014 I won the Line Manager of the Year award in our annual CoCo Awards.

CSH Surrey is a great company to work for. I have worked for various health organisations and for the first time I see a company that is willing to listen and learn rather than be dictatorial or defensive.

CSH Surrey has given me great opportunities, especially to develop my leadership skills and business understanding by allowing and setting up training in these areas. It has also shown it is willing to listen and provide support to help improve patient care.

I really enjoy working for CSH Surrey as they are open to ideas, encourage and support co-owners to develop both their clinical skills as well as business skills. More importantly, they are constantly learning and tweaking what they do to improve experiences for both patients and co-owners.

I really enjoy my job as Ward Manager as I am developing the team’s ability to get the best outcomes for their patients and to be open to innovation. Most of our innovations are small ideas, but that make a big difference. Through training from CSH Surrey we have realised as a team that it’s important to understand how co-owners are feeling and let ideas be forwarded.

Specialist Practitioner Health Visitor Liz Cain

Every day is different in this role! I start with a cup of tea while looking at emails and preparing my resources for the day. I will also check-in with any students I may be supervising, especially if they are doing visits on their own.

I then head out on home visits to babies who are 10-14 days old to offer health information, support infant feeding and complete newborn hearing screening.

Lunch back at the office with colleagues provides a well-needed break as the job can be very intense at times. My team are exceptionally supportive and lunch breaks are supported, which is important.

After lunch, I will check-in with my students, complete the record keeping from my morning visits, catch up on emails and attend team meetings.

I may also attend child protection conferences to contribute information and take part in inter-agency decision making for children at risk of harm.

I particularly enjoy the variety of my role, the interaction with families, working in the community in the ‘real world’ and inter-agency working, which broadens understanding and shares responsibility.

At CSH Surrey there is ongoing training available over and above statutory and mandatory training. This year I have completed the Mentor Module at Surrey University and Frontline Training with the NHS Leadership Academy. I have opportunities every day to put this learning into practice.

CSH Surrey is a relatively small organisation and there is a real sense of pride in our employee-ownership model. As co-owners we have a say via our employee council, The Voice and also have opportunities to discuss the organisation's strategy and 'bigger picture' issues at the half yearly Director briefings. Every year we take part in our co-owner survey and the Executive Team provides a prompt response to the results, which means I feel reassured that our views our being heard.

Patient Experience and Community Involvement Coordinator Tessa Berry

I joined CSH Surrey in 2008. I like working for a co-owned organisation as I know I can speak up when I need to influence decisions and challenge others, as well as congratulate/encourage them.

CSH Surrey has regular performance reviews so I know how my work contributes to the company’s objectives and this helps me feel connected to the bigger picture. Being part of a dedicated team who care about their work and its results makes CSH Surrey a great place to work.

The most enjoyable part of my role is sharing great patient feedback with teams, especially when people are complimented by name. Getting actions from teams that have come about as a result of feedback gives me the most satisfaction – it makes everything I do have a purpose rather than just being another form of audit. It makes a difference to the people who use the services when we can show we have listened and responded to their feedback.

CSH Surrey does so much to try and engage its co-owners with what is happening in the business and its direction of travel. There is the intranet, monthly e-newsletter (Ahead of the Game), regular all co-owner emails, representation through our co-owner council - the Voice, team meetings and Director briefings. Some organisations lead and expect all to follow; CSH Surrey has strong leadership, but it also listens to its co-owners, involves them and keeps them informed.

Tessa has been named joint winner of the Outstanding Enabling Support category at CSH Surrey's annual CoCo Awards. "I felt humbled at winning as there were very worthy people on the list of nominees. It was lovely to be recognised, I care about my job and my role within the company so this recognition acknowledged my contribution and that was really nice."

Clinical Specialist School Nursing and Practice Teacher Felicity Hill

CSH Surrey sponsored me to do a degree in school nursing and then to become a practice teacher so I have the skills to support staff effectively. I also benefit from ongoing training related to my role, such as weight and nutrition training to support delivery of our Healthy Weight, Healthy Lifestyles programme. I have also done leadership training and of course, immunisations!

In my role I most enjoy working with young people (and their families) to help them make healthy lifestyle choices, either 1:1 or in group work when delivering Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) in schools. I’m also lucky to have a supportive team, which is so important.

The role is very varied and I love the diversity. I can be teaching in a school, supporting staff to develop their knowledge and skills, doing immunisations or doing telephone liaison with parents and schools, providing advice and support. And then ensuring all activity is recorded on our electronic client record system, RiO, so we have accurate and up to date client records. Having good data also means we can demonstrate the high quality services we deliver to our commissioners.

Community Nursery Nurse Clare Hyde

Before joining CSH Surrey I was a childminder and worked in a daycare nursery, which was completely different environment.

In the mornings I am generally in a clinic of some sort, whether that is a Child Health clinic, a 27 month review or a breastfeeding clinic. This involves setting up the room in a Children’s Centre, which could mean moving furniture around to create a more cosy environment, setting out toys and activities or just organising paperwork and a changing mat.

A Child Health Clinic will involve weighing and measuring babies, giving advice, observing baby and being reassuring to the parents. Review clinics are about observing a child’s development through play and parental questionnaires. I was on the working party that developed the 27 month review as well as the group review, which involved working with our education colleagues in Children's Centre. I was also involved in introducing the ASQ questionnaire. During a breastfeeding clinic I would be observing a mother breastfeed, adjusting positioning and attachment and discussing the process of breastfeeding etc.

In the afternoon I could be doing another clinic or home visiting. We do home visiting to support breastfeeding, review growth, give parenting support on a range of issues from toilet training and behaviour to weaning and fussy eating. I may also do individual baby massage sessions to support bonding between a new mother and baby.

Each day always ends with completing progress notes and records on our electronic system, RiO.

I enjoy the variety in my job and not being stuck in one building doing one task. As well as the typical days described above, I have had the chance to work with one of our Practice Development Leads on a Vitamin D awareness and supplementation campaign and have also supported health promotion events, which I enjoy. My team are like an extended family, we all care and support each other in our work and family lives.

I also love supporting parents to make a difference in their child’s lives, whether that is advising on breastfeeding, parenting or just giving the parent the confidence to carry on with what they are doing, reassured they are doing it right!