Meet the team

Bluebird Care Newark and Sherwood is owned and managed by Director Alan Pankhurst. Alan was made redundant in December 2010 from Lincolnshire County Council where he spent 10 years as their Research Manager investigating demographic changes and their impact on services.

Overall, Alan has had 30 years’ managerial experience mainly in the public sector responsible for recruiting and training staff, marketing services and managing significant department and team budgets. He was also employed as a regional management consultant responsible for efficiency studies into local offices performance, budget management and staffing levels.  

Whilst Alan has no direct work experience of the care sector, he has, over the last 7 years, worked very closely with the Director of Public Health and the Primary Care Trust on their joint needs assessment so understands the problems and challenges facing the sector. He is passionate about providing good quality care and making a difference to people’s lives.  

Alan is a keen golfer although his handicap might suggest otherwise and is secretary of a local golf society.

Michelle is the Care Manager of Bluebird Care Newark & Sherwood.  She has 20 years’ experience working within the Health and Social Care environment, 10 years as a care manager, particularly supporting people within their own homes. She has a wealth of experience, knowledge and skills and is NVQ4 qualified in Health and Social Care. 

Michelle has worked her way up from Care Worker to Manager and believes that this has developed her knowledge in seeing the bigger picture in providing an individual, personalised, high quality service in care and support.

As the Care Manager it is Michelle’s responsibility to ensure the safe and legal delivery of service to our customers in the Newark and Sherwood area and surrounding villages.  We feel able to achieve this through recruiting staff who are passionate about their work, training and developing staff to be able to fulfil their roles and responsibilities and by building open professional relationships with the team, customers and in a multi-agency working environment. 

Michelle aims to provide a flexible service offering the customer the care they need in the home they love.