independence
About our Residents
Guernsey Cheshire Home is very much a home but with nursing care. Far removed from the perception of a sterile hospital facility, we provide a range of services for adults with physical disabilities within the comfort of a relaxing and family environment.
Our residents make sure their home has a lively atmosphere. At their request we offer a wide range of activities, including arts and crafts, cooking, gardening and music. We hold events throughout the year at the home, such as exhibitions and musical entertainment, where we invite local people to join in the fun.
Our fully trained staff work hard to ensure that everybody is happy and comfortable in their home. We support our residents to be independent and to take part in community activities as they wish. All our residents can decorate their rooms however they wish and have access to come and go as they please. This independence means they can contribute to society and enjoy the freedom a hospital type facility could never provide.
The Real Home From Home
Leonard Cheshire Disability
On 22 May 1948, former RAF pilot Leonard Cheshire took a dying man, who had nowhere else to go, into his home. With no money, Leonard nursed the man himself. They became friends and this one act of kindness saw many more people coming to Leonard for help, people who were keen to share a home with others and all chip in together.
Almost without him having to try, by the summer of 1949 his home of Le Court, in Hampshire, had 24 residents with complex needs, illnesses and impairments. As word spread, referrals came from the new NHS hospitals already struggling to cope with waiting lists of people needing urgent care.
Disabled people were at the very bottom of the list of NHS priorities at the time, often left to manage on their own, or rely on others to help them get through each day. As Le Court became established, people from different parts of the UK and then the world began to rally in response to local need for similar homes in their communities. The charity now known as Leonard Cheshire Disability had begun.
By 1955, there were five homes in the UK and the first overseas project had begun outside Mumbai in India. The 1960s saw rapid expansion and by 1960 there were over 50 services in the UK, five in India and activities in 21 other countries around the world. Now well established as a pioneering provider of care services, Leonard Cheshire Disability began to diversify and the early 1970s saw it trialling a care in the community project on the UK south coast. Rolled out successfully, support at home became one of the many services now offered by Leonard Cheshire Disability.
Although no direct funding is provided by Leonard Cheshire Disability, as a member of the Leonard Cheshire Disability Global Alliance the Guernsey Cheshire Home can call upon its vast range of services and skills when required.
Robert Shepherd / Chairman
Rob is an Advocate and was formerly a Partner at Mourant Ozannes. He is now a Consultant to Mourant Ozannes as well as a number of family trusts and is training to be a Business Coach. He has been Chairman of the Cheshire Home since [2012]. Though his best footballing days are perhaps behind him, he’s still happy to turn out for the Home’s Muratti team against the Jersey Cheshire Home – as soon as it can be rearranged!
Barrie Duerden / Director
Barrie Duerden is a retired finance, investment and wealth management professional who spent most of his career in Guernsey working at a senior level for firms including Credit Suisse and Rothschild & Co. Barrie enjoys outdoor pursuits such as sea swimming, the Cheshire Home Boxing Day Dip is a firm family favourite. He has also completed several ‘ultra marathons’ including two 100 mile runs in aid of the Guernsey Cheshire Home. He’s always up for a challenge!
Paul Ockleford / Director
Paul is an experienced financial services professional with nearly 30 years’ experience who moved to Guernsey with his family 22 years ago. Currently managing his Consultancy business and representing clients in Guernsey, Gibraltar and Malta.
Paul is a qualified trustee and holder of the Society of Estate Practitioners (STEP) and Trustees International Diploma and the Institute of Directors (IOD) Diploma in Company Direction.
Katie Bellingham / Director
Born and bred in Guernsey, Katie is an experienced HR professional with over 20 years in the industry and 15 of those as Owner and Director of her own HR Consultancy firm, Focus HR. Katie is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and was a panel member for the Guernsey Employment and Discrimination Tribunal Service for five years. When she’s not working, Katie loves to travel with her husband and young family.
Mark Palfrey / Director
Mark has managed multi-million-pound construction companies in Guernsey and Jersey as well as chairing a facilities management company employing over 250 staff. He is a Chartered Builder and previously chaired the Chartered Institute of Building Guernsey branch, he has twice chaired the Guernsey Building Trade Employers Association. A Chartered Director and Fellow of the Institute of Directors, Mark has chaired its Guernsey branch. He also has qualifications in Business Sustainability from Cambridge University.
When not at work Mark can be found road running, looking for his lost golf ball or cheering on Brighton and Hove Albion or Guernsey FC.
Lianne Larkin / Home Manager
Lianne’s nursing background originated in A+E, where she worked as a Senior Staff Nurse before moving permanently to the Cheshire Home in 2019. Lianne originally joined us as a bank RGN in October 2018; she was then offered a contract in October 2019 and was promoted to Deputy Home Manager in 2022. When not working Lianne enjoys spending time with her family, with young children keeping her busy.
She also enjoys gardening, paddle boarding, walking her dogs and reading, when time allows!
The Guernsey Cheshire Home has one aim: to provide care and opportunity for people with serious physical disabilities in as close to a family atmosphere as possible. Equally important though, is the preservation of dignity and individual independence, and providing residents with the absolute right to live a life of their own choosing within a family environment.
About Us
The Guernsey Cheshire Home has one aim: to provide care and opportunity for people with serious physical disabilities in as close to a family atmosphere as possible. Equally important though, is the preservation of dignity and individual independence, and providing residents with the absolute right to live a life of their own choosing within a family environment. The Home is a unique facility that for more than thirty years has been providing a high level of care for islanders with serious physical disabilities such as multiple sclerosis, spinal injury, strokes, motor neurone disease, arthritis and the effects of accidents. It provides a home for people who need constant care and are unable to live in their own home.
The Home first opened its doors in 1987 and was the brainchild of a group of pioneering islanders who recognised the need for a dedicated care facility for those local residents suffering with severe physical disability. They wanted to create an environment far removed from the geriatric facility that many people with disability resided within at that time. A Steering Committee was appointed and together they raised enough money from donations to buy and then refurbish a property in the Rohais, St Peter Port called Shorncliffe.
Today, Shorncliffe is home to 11 full time residents and a number of respite visitors all managing the challenge of severe physical disability aged from their 20s to 80s. The home provides full time care for local residents suffering from many severe physical disabilities including multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, spinal injuries, arthritis and the devastating effects of permanent paralysis.
The Home provides a real family atmosphere where residents have their own rooms, decorated and furnished how they want.
Activities are provided every day including trips out, all with a focus on living an independent and rewarding life, something they would never receive in a hospital environment. The Home also provides specialist medical care with registered nurses, physiotherapists and posture specialists a vital part of the team. The home provides trips out through our volunteer carers and activity staff. There is a fleet of disabled vehicles the residents can call upon whenever they require a visit away from the Home.
It will possibly comes as some surprise that the Guernsey Cheshire Home receives no direct funding from the States of Guernsey or Leonard Cheshire Disability. Therefore, the Home must raise £1,400,000 every year in order to maintain this level of care and service. Through the kind donations of islanders and an extensive calendar of fund raising activity, the Home is able to sustain its viability. Without the Guernsey Cheshire Home, these islanders living with the affects of disability would have a very different and difficult existence in Guernsey.
Help us to create a better world for people with a disability in Guernsey
