Local care home welcomes new award-winning manager

Vivian Laurent is looking to grow his team with local talent to help continue delivering outstanding care.

Lavender Fields Care Home in Seal, Sevenoaks, has welcomed a new Home Manager, Vivian Laurent, to the helm. Vivian joins the Greensleeves Care home with multiple accolades and awards under his belt,as well as 20 years of experience in the care sector across various roles, having started as a care assistant and worked his way up through management.

Vivian’s leadership at a previous home saw him earn an ‘Outstanding’ rating with the Care Quality Commission (CQC), an accolade which is only awarded to approximately 3.5% of care settings. He has also achieved awards in previous roles such as ‘Best Home of the Year.’

Vivian is keen to lead Lavender Fields through its own journey to ‘Outstanding’, as the home’s most recent CQC inspection in April 2021 resulted in a ‘Good’ rating overall. The 2021 report focused heavily on the home’s care staff ‘going the extra mile’, with comments from relatives such as ‘It’s like a family here, carers cannot do enough for you… Staff speak to my loved one in a very nice manner.’

Lavender Fields was purpose-built and opened in July 2018 as works began to upgrade and expand nearby Mount Ephraim House in Royal Tunbridge Wells, also part of Greensleeves Care. Residents and staff from Mount Ephraim House moved to Lavender Fields at the time.

When renovations are complete in Autumn 2022, a number of residents and staff who moved across originally are due to return to their original site. This includes home manager Karen Cooper, who served as interim manager at Lavender Fields until works were well underway and Vivian was in post. The sister homes are working closely together to ensure a smooth transition of residents and staff, including recruiting from the local area to complete their teams.

Backed by an already tight-knit, dedicated team, Vivian said:

“I’m excited to work closely with the team to ensure that our residents continue to be our priority and I am looking forward to expanding the team across all departments of the home.

Lavender Fields already has a stellar reputation in the area, and I am already proud to be a part of the team and to continue the brilliant leadership that Karen has provided. It will be lovely to have a sister home in Mount Ephraim House, and I look forward to the continuation of the relationship between our two homes as well as the wider community.”