Linda Hurst

I am the Head of Clinical Services at Mak and have been since Dec 2024. Throughout my career I have fought hard for people that I support and work with. I am passionate about fairness and value honesty and the truth as my key motivators. I started my nursing career as a naïve 18 year old from Sleaford, a small market town. Training in Essex for 3 years I grew up and soon found my voice in supporting my patients and their relatives. I fought for the dignity of my ladies, and we fundraised for a washing machine and tumble drier to enable my ladies to have their own clothes and not “ward clothes”. My next fight for fairness in regard to holidays for my ladies. I was told on many occasions that there was no budget, but I kept pushing as it was not fair that they couldn’t go away and some other residents in the hospital had a budget for holidays. I won!!! Myself, Elsie and Aileen went away for a week to Sussex and had the most amazing time – singing, dancing, playing on the beach, on the rides, having hair and nails done – it was worth the battle. During my very varied career I have closed hospitals, opened care home, commissioned new homes for people with learning disabilities, project led community care for people having hip and knee replacements, managed a low secure unit, nursed in a mental health acute care unit, been a Care Home Manager and been a PIP assessor. In all of these roles respect, dignity and rights of each individual that I have been involved with and their families have been paramount. In my role at Mak I work alongside Sarah, Jayne, Amber and Kelly to ensure that we are compliant in all areas, we are safe and we provide a therapeutic environment for our People We Support to live and thrive in and for our staff to work in. Mental Health wellbeing is the crux of the service we deliver. If our staff, at all levels, are happy, healthy, motivated, trained and feel supported then they will be able to provide person-centred, focus driven, caring individual care that enables the PWS to live their best life. I spend time supervising staff that are struggling or arrange just for a chat to enable them to offload and share. Communication is key to all aspects of this business and without clear methods of communication then we will struggle. Part of my role is to ensure that all communication is timely, safe and delivered by the correct method and in the correct medium. Continual mentoring and support to all staff is important not only to me but to the business as a whole. Look after your staff and they will help to grow and develop the business.