Meet the Team
| There’s always a warm welcome at Pendine Park. We are passionate about providing the best care and are very proud of our staff, they are our biggest asset. They provide the highest standard of care and expertise in a friendly and personal way. There is great continuity of employment here with many of the team having been with us for a long time and in some cases other family members come to work with us too – which all adds to the family feel! Working with Mario and Gill and the care practitioners and nursing staff is a strong team who ensure that everyone feels happy they have chosen Pendine Park. Find out more about us by clicking on Meet the Team. You can also meet some of our residents in Meet our Residents. Read about our team members below: |
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Mario Kreft Proprietor Mario was motivated to set up Pendine Park so he could ensure his Grandparents had the best possible care. Over twenty five years later he is still constantly striving to develop the care services Pendine Park offer. He understands how important staff are in making residents and clients happy and is passionate about workforce development. Which is why he set up an on site Teaching Care Centre and why he founded the Wales Care Awards to recognise staff across Wales. He also loves to travel, often to Italy and watch Manchester United when he can! more... |
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Gill Kreft Proprietor Creating a home-from-home atmosphere and caring for people as you would want to be cared for yourself is what drives Gill. Since setting up Pendine Park in 1985 she has remained passionate about the importance of expert staff and a comfortable, homely environment to help people feel relaxed and contented. She has an eye for interior design and works closely with our ‘soft furnishing ladies’ to develop the décor. |
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Gill Hughes Regulation and Compliance Manager and Responsible Individual Gill's background was nursing before taking on a senior inspectorate role in 1995. She actually registered all the homes in Pendine Park apart from Cae Bryn, so knew us well before she joined us in 2011. Her passion is high standards of care and she will not accept anything less. She believes Pendine Park provides a benchmark in terms of quality and she works closely with Jen and the Managers to achieve this. Family and friends are very important to her and she loves entertaining. She also has 2 grandsons who are the apple of her eye and visit every weekend. |
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Jen Roberts
Operations and Business Development Manager Jen qualified as a nurse in 1981 and has experience in a range of disciplines including emergency admissions, casualty, surgical and medication for the elderly. She also worked in a nursing home as a second job during this time and became a Registered Manager in 1994 before moving into Business Development. She joined us in 2010 and is passionate about quality of staff training and a high quality environment to ensure residents have the best quality of life possible. She says the best thing about her job is making a difference to the people we care for. She is very close to her family and enjoys family time at their caravan on the coast. |
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Cindy Clutton Manager at Hillbury Cindy has been in the caring profession for 25 years and it's certainly in her genes. Her mum worked at Hillbury when Cindy was a teenager, so she came and helped out in her school holidays and weekends. After working in other caring roles, she came 'home' to Pendine Park in 2000. It certainly is a family affair her husband Gareth is on hand as part of the busy Pendine Park Maintenance Team |
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Diane Smith Manager at Gwern Alyn Diane joined the Gwern Alyn team as a Care Practitioner in 2002. She is dedicated and keen to learn and having been Deputy Manager she is now the Manager and loves the 'home from home' feel at Gwern Alyn. She likes to see residents enjoying the various activities and therapies and her Colleagues say she is supportive and enthusiastic. When she is not working she enjoys walking her dog. |
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Tracey Smith Manager Bryn Bella and Highfield Tracey has been at Pendine for over 10 years and loves the family feel of the business. She enjoys seeing the pleasure residents get from the outdoor parties and Pendine Park has such lovely gardens, they’re the perfect setting. She finds it very rewarding when people with complex nursing needs are able to enjoy activities and outings thanks to the high level of training, competence and ability the staff have. She says the best thing is that every day is different. |
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Ann Chapman Manager at Bodlondeb Ann has been a Nurse Manager for over 20 years, with Pendine Park for 8 years and inspires confidence here at Pendine Park. She often deals with changing and difficult conditions and believes the highly expert staff and purpose built home, create a safe and happy home environment. She believes that understanding residents’ backgrounds is key to helping them lead as fulfilled lives as possible and works closely with families to help and support them. She also works on a number of research projects with leading higher education establishments and brings this leading edge thinking back to her staff. |
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Tracey Cuthill Manager at Penybryn Both of Tracey's parents are retired Registered Nurses so it is no surprise she has worked in care for over 20 years. Before coming to Pendine Park she was a Registered Manager with CSSIW in homes for individuals with both physical and learning disabilities. She is passionate about resident participation in all aspects of their home life and encourages community inclusion. When she is not working she is busy with 3 children, a husband and a dog and enjoys getting away in the Caravan. |
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Sharon Jones Manager at Cae Bryn Sharon has been in the caring profession for more than 20 years and became interested in working with people with dementia because her grandmother was diagnosed with dementia when Sharon was a young girl. She came to Cae Bryn in 1997 as an RMN. She says she has stayed so long because she likes the homely, friendly feel of Cae Bryn and the high standards of care provided by every member of the team. |
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Mildred Heyward Senior Nurse Manager Mildred has been a nurse for over 50 years and until 2011 she was the Manager at Hillbury. She is now specifically responsibile for supporting Managers in enquiry management and as she walks through the corridors the mutual affection between her and the residents is clear. She is passionate that everyone is treated as an individual - with dignity and respect. Read more about Mildred here... |
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Tracey Evans
Centre Manager Runs our award winning Pendine Park Teaching Care Centre. With over 25 years of experience in the care sector she really understands delegates and gets great satisfaction from seeing the benefits the Teaching Care Centre makes to carers and service users. And her training reaches younger people too. As a volunteer for guiding she helps with a brownie unit and also supports guiders with first aid and food hygiene training. When she not camping with the Brownies she loves travelling further afield, particularly to America |
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Megan Simpson Admin and Accounts Manager Megan is our Admin and Accounts Manager. She came for 2 weeks 17 years ago and Mario hasn’t let her go! Everything runs so smoothly with Megan and her team being so supportive, friendly and knowledgeable. This is a great help to the families who need help to understand claims and support groups etc. |
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Sarah Edwards Artist in Residence Sarah joined Pendine Park in 1995 and holds one-to-one and group art therapy sessions that are very popular as are her one to one photography sessions at places of interest. Seeing residents’ confidence grow as they try new things and develop their artist talent is very rewarding and often leads to a positive change in attitude. Everyone can benefit from art therapy, those residents who are not able participate in a class often enjoy having Sarah do their portrait or the gallery trips she arranges. Our Partnership with Sarah was recently recognised when we received the Arts & Business award, read about this in the news. Click here to view the movie of Pendine Park on ITV News Wales Tonight |
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Carol Roberts Cook Carol has been with Pendine Park for over 20 years, there were 14 beds when she started, now there are 270. In May 2007, as a reward for her long service, she was treated to a well deserved weekend in London with a friend. She loves developing menus to cater for individual tastes and dietary requirements. It is the little things she does that matter so much – like baking Birthday cakes for every resident. She says it is the people that make her job great and the laughs she has with the great team! |
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Sharon Hope Soft Furnishings Sharon and her team are known as our 'the soft furnishing ladies'. They make sure Pendine Park look great and create the right environment for our residents. Working closely with Gill, they choose wonderful new fabrics and design individual rooms to create a homely feel. Many residents are able to personalise their room working with Sharon to get just what they want. |
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The two Johns The Gardeners John Walton has been making the gardens at Pendine Park beautiful for over 20 years and John Sheen joined as Head Gardener in 2009. He came from Cholmondley Estate where he was Head Gardener. As Pendine Park has grown, so have the gardens so they and their team have a big job on their hands. They like to see the residents enjoying their surroundings and seeing some put pots out on their patios and feed the birds. They are creating a variety of new gardens for residents, their families and visitors to enjoy. These will include a Music garden. a 'Quiet area' for a calming hideaway and a courtyard Sensory garden. There will also be nature trails and paths leading to outdoor therapy areas and a farm and allotments. The time ahead will be very busy but very rewarding for the gardening team. |
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Gerry Humphreys Wellbeing and Activities Manager Gerry joined Pendine Park over 10 years ago. She is passionate that just because people are living in a care home their social life shouldn't stop. Getting ideas from residents and going through the papers every weekend to see what's happening helps her plan future events. She says the best bit of her job is knowing that she makes people happy each day. |
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Sheila George Housekeeping Manager Sheila has been at Pendine Park for 17 years and knows the residents really well. Her responsibilities are wide varied and she and her team were delighted with the recent ISO Quality report that praised the high standard of housekeeping. She is involved early in design testing out the practicality of new flooring for example. She is often referred to fondly as the ‘Sergeant Major’ due to her military precision. |
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Dave Slawson Maintenance Manager Dave has been with Pendine Park for 16 years. With so many beds, now over 270, and the different locations around Wrexham, Dave and his team have got their work cut out. There’s always something to do, it’s like the Forth Bridge! It’s critical however that all structural and maintenance problems are sorted swiftly for us to maintain the quality of care expected. |
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