Meeting Dates
Leeds Care Association is passionate about quality care and champions quality through involvement in working groups, working with its members and through influencing and lobbying at a local, regional and national level.
Our role is to protect the interests of the Independent Care Sector providers in Leeds. This is achieved by representation with Leeds City Council and NHS Leeds, sitting on many committees and development groups, through informing members and reinforcing the need for a partnership approach when required.
Our primary function is to support our members but, though organic growth, we are also able to provide a range of wider services including:
- Consultancy,
- and advice to providers, employers and service users.
Leeds Care Association is a Not For Profit organisation which has been operating as a Limited Company since 2002.
LCA Board
Peter Hodkinson
Chairman
I am the Managing Director of Westward Care Ltd and have overall business responsibility for the management of the company.
Westward Care currently operates across four multi-service sites with a diverse range of care services to older people including residential care, dementia care, extra care apartments and independent living apartments.
I started my career in construction management but subsequently became a Building Control Surveyor with Leeds City Council where I worked for 13 years.
In 1995 I jointly founded Westward Care Ltd using my building management knowledge of creating and developing care homes in Leeds. In 1997 I become Managing Director.
My construction industry background and my management skills have been influenced and developed on the principles of sound project planning, development of processes and control, supported by effective team working to achieve objectives and outcomes.
I am a strategic thinker and influencer, who recognises the need to develop a competent team capable of sharing, being committed to and delivering the vision for the company. I value the working relationships within any team. Quality is a driver as are shared values, principles and ethical practice.
In recent years, I have lead the change to innovate new models of care for older people around independent living with care and support on all sites.
I apply the same principles to my Chairmanship of LCA.
In addition to being Chairman of Leeds Care Association, I have wider involvement with the Care Sector. I stood down as a board director & trustee of Skills for Care and have since been made a Skills for Care Fellow. In addition, I am a trustee / director of Holbeck Elderly Aid.
Graeme Lee
Board Director
Graeme has been a Director of the LCA since its creation as a “Not for profit” Limited company in 2002/03 taking the role of Chairman between 2004 and 2006. Graeme brings a diverse range of skills, knowedge and expertise of both business and the unique care market to the Board.
As the Group CEO of Springfield Healthcare Group since 1994, Graeme leads an organisation that provides Care Homes, domiciliary care services and supported living units across Yorkshire and the North East. The group now has over 2500 clients in their care and has over 1300 employees across West, North and East Yorkshire.
Springfield Healthcare celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2017 and is one of the longest established Care Providers in Leeds.
Springfield Healthcare has over 250 care beds in Leeds providing a wide range of care services from day care, residential and dementia nursing right through to end of life palliative care. It is Graeme’s wish to be able to deliver a fully integrated care model from hospital to home.
In 2017, Graeme opened the award winning Chocolate Works Care Village at the fully refurbished Terry’s Chocolate HQ in York. (https://chocolate-works.co.uk).
The above illustrates the breadth of knowledge and expertise Graeme brings to the LCA, both in the Care sector as well as his executive management skills. He has over 30 years business experience including leading senior level teams, in addition to the 7 years he spent at management level at Marks and Spencer in the 90’s.
Harvey Zemmel
Board Director
A highly skilled and knowledgeable healthcare professional with 30 years’ experience as an operator and financier in care of the elderly.
A strategic thinker with sound tactical experience.
Harvey created a group [Aegis Residential Care Homes] of 10 residential care homes in the North West with 400+ residents and staff which he sold in 2007.
Currently Harvey is Managing Director of Garforth Care Homes which comprises of St Armands Court and The Hollies in Garforth.
Harvey has volunteered for Jewish Care for 7 years and is currently Chairman of the Quality Assurance and Customer Experience Committee which oversees all Jewish Care’s services.
John Allott
Dementia Representative
John commenced work as a graduate social worker in 1978, initially with St Anne’s (Leeds) and then with Wakefield City Council where he practiced generically (also supporting older people including mental health assessment), prior to becoming Assistant Area Officer and then Senior Community Team Manager. In 1989 John became the proprietor of The Hollies Care Services in Wakefield, specialising in residential care for older people who experience dementia and other mental health issues. Subsequently John also became the Managing Partner of Ashgrove House in Wakefield and Cedars Care Home in Methley, again with the focus on caring for people who experience dementia and mental health difficulties.
To assist with this important area of work John has also attended the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford and Stirling and has obtained the postgraduate qualifications of MA, MBA and the Post Graduate Certificate in Dementia Studies. He states the work with the Health & Dementia Studies Departments of Bradford and Stirling are of particular value – both are pioneers in terms of dementia care. John has also completed the Best Interest Assessor training (Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards) at the Univeristy of Central Lancashire. He is the LCA representative on the Leeds Integrated Dementia Board.
John has worked in the education departments at Armley and Flockton Prison and as a prison visitor to Wakefield prison.
John also has a Master of Theology Degree from the University of Wales (Lampeter) and he is a member of St Andrew’s Church, Wakefield.
John’s other interests include education (he is a Governor at two local schools), community development (he is a Director of Eastmoor Community Project) and sport (he is a Director at Wakefield Trinity and an original member of Huddersfield Town Blue and White Foundation).
John welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the work of LCA and sees this as an extremely valuable organisation which (in partnership with Leeds City Council, CCG’s, Health Trusts and the third sector – e.g. Alzheimer’s Society), is making a significant contribution to the future of adult care provision in Leeds, where the issue of the quality of service provided is the main priority.
Farina Tayub
Board Director
I am the Managing Director of Caremark (Leeds).
I qualified as a chartered accountant in 2001 and spent six years working in the accountancy sector in Leicestershire, before venturing into the homecare sector in January 2008. My initial degree was in English and Psychology, in 1986, after which I qualified as, and ran my own beauty salon for many years. Both my degrees were completed at the University of Leicester many years apart, in totally different subjects, and each has brought with it a transferrable skill that can be applied to enhance and promote in any sector.
I went into the homecare sector with the intention of working in collaboration with other providers and organizations to commit to working as partners to deliver better quality care.
I bought into a homecare franchise in 2008 because I was passionate about getting it ‘right,’ and because I did not know much about it, I decided to work with a ‘tried and tested ‘ model of those who did; and since then continue to try to better develop the quality of our care service with our organization.
I look forward contributing to the success of the Leeds Care Association as I believe in it’s ethos.