Open Afternoons at Holly Lodge Care Home. Last Thursday of the month, 2-4pm.
Click here to register your interestCedar Lodge employs more than 80 compassionate and dedicated staff, all striving to provide the highest standards of care and are proud to receive the award of “Top 20 Care Home South East England 2022” from carehome.co.uk. Nenita, Home Manager comments: “Wow, winning this award is amazing! We have great camaraderie, unity and one goal at Cedar Lodge – to make everybody happy. I go home each day and feel content that all our residents are happy and safe. The secret of care is a big heart.”
In 2023, Cedar Lodge’s Maintenance Manager David won the ‘Overall Winner’ award at the Care Home Heroes Awards organised by Caring Times. In 2022, Cedar Lodge were finalists in three categories at the Surrey Care Awards; ‘Nursing Home of the Year’, ‘Activities Team of the Year’, and ‘Carer of the Year’ (Aruna Gurung), with David Fielding winning the award for ‘Unsung Hero’.
Chef Bhanu won ‘Care Chef of the Year’ and Nenita was a finalist for ‘Care Home Manager of the Year’ at the National Care Awards 2021. Cedar Lodge also came runner-up for ‘South Care Home of the Year’ and were shortlisted for ‘Catering Team of the Year’ and ‘Quality in Housekeeping’ at the Caring UK Awards in 2021.
Nenita qualified as a Registered Nurse in 1990 from the Philippines. She has worked across the world, including nursing in hospitals in Saudi Arabia and Singapore, before moving to the UK in 2004. Nenita began working at Forest Care as a Nurse and then progressed to Clinical Lead, Head of Care, Deputy Manager and finally Home Manager in 2011.
Nenita’s strong work ethic and open-door policy gains much respect from staff, provides families with peace of mind, and enhances the lives of our residents. She naturally leads her team by example in offering exemplary person-centred care. In 2019, Nenita won ‘Frontline Leader of the Year’ and was a finalist for ‘Registered Manager of the Year’ at the Surrey Care Awards, and in 2021 she was a finalist for ‘Care Home Manager of the Year’ at the National Care Awards.
Jayne joined Cedar Lodge in 2014 and is a passionate member of our team, committed to ensuring every resident is happy and well-looked after. Jayne is responsible for the day-to-day administrative functioning of the home and supporting Nenita to ensure everything happens as it should. This involves a variety of tasks such as employment checks, enquiry handling, personal viewings and admissions, to being a point of contact for residents and their families while dealing with their daily requests.
Florisa joined Cedar Lodge in 2008 and is our compassionate and dedicated Head of Care. She graduated with a BSc in Nursing and has built up many years of nursing care experience in the UK in a variety of medical settings. Florisa is responsible for managing the clinical care of our residents. This involves supervising the Nurses, Senior Carers and Care Assistants and collaborating with our home GP to ensure every resident receives person-centred care in accordance with their assessed needs and care plans. Florisa takes a holistic approach to care which incorporates the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of our residents.
Our compassionate and experienced Nurses are on-site 24/7 and are responsible for managing the clinical care of our residents. If you or a loved one has a clinical nursing need such as wound care, catheter care, tube feeding or specialist medication by injection e.g., for diabetes, then you will typically need nursing care. Our Nurses take a holistic approach to care, which incorporates the mental, physical and emotional wellbeing of our residents and will collaborate with our home GP and support Senior Carers and Care Assistants to ensure every resident receives person-centred care in accordance with their assessed needs and care plans.
Our compassionate and dedicated care team comprises of Senior Carers and Care Assistants who help residents with their personal care, day-to-day living, and immediate needs. Our aim is to improve the quality of life for our residents with a safe, comfortable, happy, ‘home-from-home’ environment, providing support and care to enable our residents to retain their independence wherever possible. Our Carers work selflessly in striving to deliver the highest standards of person-centred care to our residents. To provide the care our residents deserve, we set our staffing levels above industry-standard ratios, to enable a more relaxed environment for our residents where person-centred care can be delivered without having to be rushed.
In 2019, our Care Team were a finalist for ‘Care Team of the Year’ and in 2022, our Carer Aruna Gurung was a finalist for ‘Care Worker of the Year’ at the Surrey Care Awards.
Our award-winning Activities Team, led by Wendy, prioritise resident wellbeing with meaningful and joyful group, individual and one-to-one activities and experiences adapted to the daily wishes of residents and supported by their life stories. The team were finalists for ‘Activities Team of the Year’ at the Surrey Care Awards 2022 and Caring UK Awards 2019 and won ‘Activities Team of the Year’ at the Frimley System South CCG Awards 2019. Wendy has shown great devotion to Cedar Lodge as she celebrated her 32nd work anniversary in 2024 and is a finalist for NAPA’s ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ – winner announced in January 2025! One resident commented “Every night I go to sleep and say a prayer for how grateful I am to have Wendy in my life”.
Some of the many activities we provide are; cultural days, themed tea parties and dining experiences, floristry workshops, arts & crafts, beauty sessions, outdoor games, trips out to nearby attractions, live musical entertainers – tap dancers, accordionists, Motown singers, tribute acts – and visiting animals – alpacas, piglets, cavies and monkeys to name a few!
Bhanu joined Cedar Lodge in 2017 as our talented and passionate Head Chef. In 2021, he won ‘Care Chef of the Year’ at the National Care Awards and the team were shortlisted for ‘Catering Team of the Year’ at the Caring UK Awards. Bhanu works hard to develop and deliver a menu that is appealing to residents while focusing on their nutritional and dietary needs.
Bhanu brings his strong creative flair to work every day, presenting his food in artistic ways with a strong colour balance on the plate. Cooking with seasonal fresh ingredients is important to Bhanu, who is passionate about caring for our residents through his meals. Bhanu has hosted live cooking demonstrations for residents, “whipping up” their favourite dishes and providing a multi-sensory experience.
Every team is integral to the running of Cedar Lodge, and we are fortunate to have a team of hardworking and compassionate individuals within housekeeping, which comprises of domestic and laundry. Not only do they help with the smooth running of the home, but they also contribute to the social and hospitality experience our residents enjoy.
In 2021, our Domestic Team were shortlisted for the ‘Quality in Housekeeping’ award at the Caring UK Awards.
David is our multi-award winning Handyman who works very hard fixing things and making sure Cedar Lodge runs smoothly. David will fulfil residents’ impromptu requests to ensure they are happy and is a wonderful support to the home, often participating in special activities. David won the ‘Overall Winner’ award at the Care Home Heroes Awards 2023 organised by Caring Times and also won the ‘Unsung Hero’ award at the Surrey Care Awards 2022. The panel noted the great lengths David goes to beyond his job remit, supporting residents and regularly taking them to hospital appointments and shopping, making a lightweight board for a resident to continue her artwork and fixing a precious broken grandfather clock which brought much joy to the owners. David comments: “Receiving this award was a wonderful surprise, I feel so proud, but I accept this award on behalf of everyone at Cedar Lodge who all really care about what they do.”
Andy is our talented Groundsman who ensures our outdoor spaces are kept beautifully presented and a place to relax for our residents and their families. Andy maintains our wildflowers, plants and trees, he continually brings new ideas to our outdoor spaces and helps to build new features within our gardens for our residents to explore.
Every month we celebrate the hard work of our team by choosing an Employee of the Month. Residents, relatives and employees can all nominate individuals. Congratulations to Francis Julian who is our Employee of the Month for November!
Forest Care is delighted to announce that CQC has rated Cedar Lodge ‘Good’ on its most recent inspection in May 2024. The home has been rated Good across all areas, meaning the service they provide is safe, effective, caring, responsive and well-led. A great achievement for all the team at Cedar Lodge in Frimley Green.
Every year we celebrate the long service of our staff with our Years of Service Awards at Forest Care. We thank staff with gifts of flowers, chocolates and vouchers and celebrate with cake and bubbly! We proudly have a high number of long serving staff at Cedar Lodge, which positively impacts on the continuity of care given to our residents.