archive year items

Update from the Home Manager

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society is committed to ensuring that we keep all residents, tenants and staff as safe as possible during the new phase of Covid-19. We are monitoring the situation carefully and are following regular advice from the Government and the authorities. Given the latest rise in Coronavirus cases nationally, as a preventative […]

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Updated COVID statement

When I last updated you on circumstances here at Belvedere House around a month ago, although the pandemic was still very much with us all at least the nation was beginning to “unlock”. Since then you will have seen, as I have, the gradual and cautious relaxing of some measures, although the key ones remain, […]

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Keeping Belvedere House safe: our promises

Knowing the emotional burden on our residents and their families in not being able to properly meet within the Home, the team at The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society has been working hard behind the scenes to make sure that when we reopen our doors to visitors, we make Belvedere House as safe as possible for […]

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Seafarers Awareness Week 2020

This year we marked the UK’s tenth annual Seafarers Awareness Week (6-12 July) with tales from the high seas from our seafaring residents and tenants. Seafarers Awareness Week 2020 highlighted the immense challenges faced by merchant seafarers and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic and we wanted to pay tribute to the unsung heroes of […]

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We salute you, Captain Glass

After a decade at the helm as Chairman of Trustees of Surrey-based maritime charity, The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society, Captain Duncan Glass has announced his retirement. Captain Glass started his journey with The Royal Alfred 16 years ago when he became a Trustee for the charity, before being appointed as Vice Chair in 2007 and […]

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Maritime Care Home Welcomes Public To Open Day

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society opened its doors on 10 July in celebration of Seafarers Awareness Week (8 – 14 July) 2019.

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Royal Alfred Veterans to Commemorate D-Day Through Musical Memories

Veterans from The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society will take part in a unique D-Day event in Portsmouth on 7 June to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Normandy landings. Lieutenant Commander Geoffrey Haskins, Legion of Honour and Robert Ball, Legion of Honour, both reside as tenants at The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society’s Weston Acres estate […]

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Maritime charity celebrates AGM

HRH Princess Anne joins The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society in celebrating another year’s achievements of the maritime charity at its 153rd Annual General Meeting The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society was honoured by the presence of royalty at maritime institution Trinity House in London as HRH Princess Anne joined Trustees, staff, residents, tenants, volunteers and other […]

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Royal Alfred Celebrates Contribution of Female Staff on International Women’s Day

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society is celebrating International Women’s Day by raising awareness of the social care industry’s dependence on dedicated female care workers.   According to a recent Skills for Care[1] report, adult social care services rely heavily on skilled and ancillary female staff. More than four fifths of the entire UK social care workforce is made up by women and 84% of workers in care homes with nursing staff are female.

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Maritime Care Home Appoints New Creative Catering Manager

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society has appointed a new Catering Manager, Matt Goodman, to run the kitchen at its Surrey care home following the retirement of long-serving staff member Jenny O’Neil.

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Seafaring Success For Award-Winning Royal Alfred

Banstead-based maritime charity the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society is celebrating a double win for its staff from the recent Markel 3rd Sector Care Awards. The charity, which caters for retired seafarers, their families and dependents, as well as residents living with dementia at its care home, Belvedere House, scooped awards for Housekeeping Manager Shirley Campbell […]

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Surrey Care Home Sails Towards Awards Success

Banstead-based maritime care charity the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society is celebrating being shortlisted for six care awards in just one week. The care home and charity, which caters for retired seafarers, their families and dependents, as well as residents living with dementia, has been nominated in a range of categories at the Surrey Care Awards […]

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Royal Alfred Promotes Dementia Awareness On World Alzheimer’s Day

Surrey-based care home The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society is marking World Alzheimer’s Day (21 September) by helping to raise awareness of the disease and dementia – a symptom often linked to Alzheimer’s. In the UK there are 850,000 people living with dementia and many do not have the right support to cope with the condition. […]

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Maritime Care Home Welcomes Public To Open Day

In celebration of Seafarers Awareness Week 2018, Banstead based care home The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society opened its doors on 27 June, to welcome members of the public and local community to join staff and residents in raising awareness of the sector at the Society’s annual Open Day.

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Maritime Charity Celebrates AGM

Residents, tenants, volunteers, staff and other distinguished guests turned out in force to London on 1 June, to celebrate 152 years of The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society at the maritime charity’s Annual General Meeting.

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Care Staff Embark On Pioneering Maritime Training

Staff at maritime charity, The Royal Seafarers’ Society, have taken part in the care facility’s pioneering Maritime Acquaint Training programme which helps staff better understand their seafaring residents.

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Maritime Care Home Wins Technology Grant

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society has launched an innovative therapy programme at its Banstead home after winning a £5,000 grant to fund new technology.

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Home Manager, Anne Kasey, celebrates 35 years of service to the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society

Our Home Manager from Sutton is celebrating 35 years’ service to the Banstead-based maritime charity, having dedicated her life to the care of former seafarers and mariners. Home Manager, Anne Kasey, from the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society first joined the Society as a nurse at the previous care home located in another area of Banstead in 1983. She worked her way up to become the home’s most senior nurse and manager in 2006.

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The Royal Alfred Wins Laing Buisson Award

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society has won Residential Care Home Provider of the Year – Small Organisation at the prestigious Laing Buisson Awards. The award recognises the top quality care facilities that the independent charity provides in its Surrey nursing care home for former seafarers and their dependents.

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Maritime Charity Sails Towards Fundraising Target

Banstead-based maritime charity, the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society, has raised nearly £4,000 in support of the charity Seafarers UK by completing the annual 24 Peaks Challenge. The team of caring and estates staff from the Society’s specialist maritime nursing home, Belvedere House, put in months of preparation and training to compete in one of the nation’s most gruelling challenges. All money raised goes to support the national maritime charity Seafarers UK, which has been helping people in the maritime community for a century.

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Mum’s The Word at Banstead Care Home

A mother and daughter team at the Banstead-based care home of the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society are highlighting the benefits of families working together, as they celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday (26 March).

Valerie Dunbar, a Kitchen Assistant at the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society’s nursing care home and a mother of four, has worked at Belvedere House in Surrey for more than a decade, with her daughter Joanne joining as a General Assistant at the age of 16. Both outgoing and passionate about their roles, they enjoy bringing a smile to the faces of residents and have proven to be a perfect fit for the home’s vibrant team.

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Tailored New Training for Care Home Staff

Award-winning seafarers’ nursing care home, Belvedere House of the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society, has launched an innovative training scheme to help staff better understand the life experiences of their residents and enable them to tailor care provision to best suit residents’ needs.

The programme, which was the brain child of Chief Executive Commander Brian Boxall-Hunt, aims to help staff deal with residents’ more challenging behaviour and understand the reasons and causes behind the more complex behavioural manifestations some of the most vulnerable, former seafaring residents present.

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Care Home Celebrates More Than 400 Years Of Happy Marriage

With Valentine’s Day around the corner, residents and staff have shared their recipe for a happy-ever-after marriage for younger couples. They recommend being tolerant, understanding and grateful as key ingredients for a happy marriage as well as ‘doing what the wife says’.

Residents Mr and Mrs Hatfield have been married for 70 years after meeting in 1947 at a Valentine’s Day dance at their local golf club in Somerset. Mr Hatfield proposed later that year and they married shortly after, celebrating with a two week honeymoon in Bournemouth.

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Seafarers’ Care Home Head Celebrates 10 Years at the Helm

Commander Brian Boxall-Hunt OBE is celebrating ten successful years as Chief Executive at the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society care home in Banstead, Surrey.

The former Royal Navy officer has overseen a time of great change for the Society. The last decade has seen an ambitious raft of improvements to the home, including the installation of a dementia annexe, several royal visits and its 150th anniversary celebration in 2015.

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GOOD Rating for Surrey Care Home

Staff at Royal Alfred are celebrating after achieving a resounding GOOD rating in its latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report after a recent unannounced inspection.

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Maritime Charity Sails to Success at Awards Ceremony

Banstead-based care home, the Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society has sailed to success after taking home two awards at this year’s prestigious Surrey Care Association Awards.

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Society Conquers 24 Peaks Challenge

For the second year an intrepid team from Banstead-based care home, The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society, completed a gruelling 24 Peaks Challenge

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Crowning Event of 150th Anniversary Celebrations

Royal Alfred celebrated 150 years of providing care to former mariners with a visit from its royal Patron.

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Maritime Charity Takes Home Green Award

The Royal Alfred Seafarers’ Society has taken home the Green Award at the Toast of Surrey Business Awards following efforts to cut its carbon footprint and operate in a more environmentally friendly way.

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Surrey Care Home Welcomes Mayor

In no way put off by the heavy rain at the start of the anniversary year, the Royal Alfred team were joined by the Mayor of Reigate and Banstead Borough Council, Councillor David Pay

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Golden Oldies Going Green

A maritime care home in Surrey has taken a huge leap into the world of green living, cutting its carbon footprint and working towards becoming self-sufficient.

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Heroic D-Day Veteran Honoured With Remembrance Award

Mr Roy Ticehurst, has received a prestigious award from the nation’s leading commemorative company, The Bradford Exchange.

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Care Home Calls For More Dementia Friendly Communities

Royal Alfred is calling for more dementia friendly communities after new reports revealed more than 800,000 people are now living with the disease.

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Royal Seal Of Approval For Maritime Charity

Two trustees of of Royal Alfred have been presented with long service awards by HRH The Princess Royal

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Royal Alfred Becomes A Dementia Friend

A maritime care home has joined the national ‘Dementia Friends’ campaign

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