There’s a saying that goes: ‘nothing brings people together like good food’ - that’s certainly true for our Speech and Language Therapy (SALT) team. They’ve been bringing teams together across the Trust over the past few months to deliver our updated eating & drinking training programme. 

The training was developed to reinforce the Eating and Drinking framework that was introduced recently across all services and departments. Together, the training and framework reinforce the processes we have in place to help our children, young people and adults eat and drink in a safe, effective and enjoyable way.

The SALT team has now delivered practical hands-on specific in-house training to over 350 staff working across all our residential homes. We have also reviewed, revised and re-issued our eating and drinking guidance and introduced a new eating and drinking Competency Record to all staff. The feedback from managers and residential staff has been extremely positive.

Rachel Hirst, our catering supervisor is currently working alongside the team, so she can support our care colleagues in indirect areas that will help us ensure eating and drinking excellence, such as food shopping and meal plans. Rachel has also completed a catering audit in each home, which included  direct observations and reviewing the overall meal-time experience.