AN organisation that represents more than 450 nursing and residential homes in Lancashire has appointed its first chief executive. Pauline Spencer will take the helm of the Lancashire Care Association (LCA) after more than a decade as chief officer of Age Concern in Blackpool.

Mrs Spencer joins the association as it celebrates an award of £225,000 from the European Social Fund to help train care staff. The chairman of the LCA, Frank Massey, said: "We are very pleased to have attracted someone of this calibre. Mrs Spencer has a wealth of knowledge about elderly people and the services they need. She has a national reputation and has worked for the Department of Health in working parties as well as working as a lay inspector for the Social Services Inspectorate."

Mrs Spencer said she was looking forward to a new challenge. "I am very happy to be working for an association which represents the independent sector domiciliary, residential and nursing home providers and I am sure they have a strong commitment to improving standards of care for the elderly people of Lancashire," she said. "There is a lot happening in the independent care sector and I hope to be able to help influence developments both locally and nationally."

The LCA represents 55 per cent of Lancashire's 650 nursing and residential homes as well as domiciliary care agencies and is the largest regional care association in the country. Independent sector homes provide 18,000 beds in the county.

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