About Keech Hospice Care

All members of the Keech Senior Management Team have an open door policy and encourage employees to approach them to discuss any ideas or concerns. Senior Managers also embark on regular walkabouts to ensure they are visible and approachable to all employees. They have a commitment to work in a transparent way and to engage and consult the workforce in the work that they do. They are encouraged to reward good performance and a postcard scheme has been introduced, which can be sent to employees by the Senior Management Team thanking them for particular pieces of work. They are also trying to be more visible across the organisation and there is a commitment to visit each of the shops once during the year. Keech have also put all Managers through a Nine Conversations in Leadership course, which has encouraged them to look at ways of making Managers more accountable and the meeting structures they currently operate in. The Chief Executive is committed to writing a weekly blog, which is sent to all users on a Sunday night or Monday morning. This details any important information and news but tells readers what the CEO has been doing over the last week and what they have planned for the current week.

Keech are very active within the local community by working with a large variety of community groups. Within the shops Keech offer work experience and volunteering opportunities to those trying to gain employment, including a large amount of ex-offenders. This includes working collaboratively with partner organisations to offer work experience opportunities to the long term unemployed. Many of these work experience placements have turned into longer term volunteering opportunities or paid work. Keech also develop competencies for volunteers which are used to develop skillsets that can be used to gain paid employment. The organisation is currently working with the Charity Retail Association to undertake a social value toolkit on each of their stores to show the impact each store has on the local community. Keech work closely with CHUMS (a mental health and emotional support charity for children and young people) to offer bereavement support to children they otherwise might not be connected with, as well as with a local church and a local undertaker to offer a group bereavement service called Talking Elephants. They are also part of a rota of several groups to help provide a carers lounge in the Luton and Dunstable Hospital.

Keech Hospice Care have produced a ‘strategy at a glance’ document, which shows the mission and strategic themes all on a one-page document. This document has been distributed across the hospice and is also displayed widely. The organisation has internal and external newsletters which keep reinforcing the strategy throughout the organisation. They even produce annual reports in a format that is easy to read and inviting, which again talk about Keech’s strategy and mission. These have been reinforced by videos which are used both internally and externally to spread the work of the hospice and promote the strategy of the organisation in various different ways.