During this lockdown period, we have been working extremely hard to ensure that both our staff and residents are kept safe and well. There have been many news stories about tragedies being suffered in other care homes around the world and we are grateful that our steadfast commitment and excellence of care have, so far, kept everyone safe.
One of the ways we are doing this is by taking all necessary measures to ensure that our home continues to be the safe environment it has always been. We insist that all of our care staff (and their families) take their temperature every morning before coming to work to ensure that they are not a risk to our residents. We have also ramped up our usual hygiene routines to ensure that our home is constantly clean and germ-free.
As some of you may know, we have been in the care business for over 40 years and our owner, Sally Neil-Smith, is a member of the local business community. In fact, Sally won the outstanding achievement award for services to the community at the 2014 Worthing and Adur business awards. She continues to be a member of many business groups across our local area; including the Worthing and Adur Chamber of Commerce.
It’s being a member of the Chamber of Commerce that afforded us the amazing opportunity to have Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) donated to us by Ricardo, a leading engineering firm which has a base in Shoreham.
How did this come about?
In response to the current circumstances, the Worthing and Adur Chamber of Commerce launched an initiative to encourage businesses to support each other – called member to member mutual support. In support of this, Ricardo released a press release launching face shield production and offering them to local businesses who needed them.
The Worthing and Adur Chamber of Commerce then shared Ricardo’s press release and reached out to us, suggesting that we take advantage of this incredibly generous gesture.

Within two days of the Chamber putting us in touch with Ricardo, collection of the face shields was arranged from Ricardo’s Shoreham Technical Centre. This generous donation means that all of the care staff at Heaton House can not only protect themselves, but our residents too. Sally said, “it’s great to be thought of by the Chamber and supported by one of our larger local businesses with a strong community focus. As a smaller home, we just can’t get these things. Many thanks to Ricardo for helping out.
We’re so grateful to both Ricardo for the generous donation and the Chamber. They have both really helped us in this time of crisis.