Quality home care starts with happy carers.
Visiting Angels was created to address a very specific problem in the homecare sector. For many receiving home care there is little consistency or continuity of care. Founder Dan Archer says, “I could see that the problems come from high staff turnover. When I started Visiting Angels I wanted us to be different. We are carer-centric. We take the view that by looking after our wonderful caregivers, we will keep them in the business and provide more consistency.”
Visiting Angels is a proudly carer-centric home care provider. By investing in its staff and by treating caregivers better with fairer pay and proper benefits they believe that these problems will be stopped. Dan continues, “Our staff turnover is much lower than the industry average and for our clients receiving home care in Sheffield, Rotherham and Barnsley this means that the visits that you want, happen when you want and that when you choose your caregiver they will be with you for as long as you need them.”
You choose your home care Angel.
The unique thing about Visiting Angels is that you get to choose the person who visits you. You will meet the caregiver before you decide whether you would like them to help you. Dan concludes, “I feel that it is a privilege not a right to be invited into someone’s home because of this our clients have the final say on who does their visits. We select the caregivers who match them well but we ask the client and their family to choose their caregiver.”
During Covid-19 it has been especially important that the Angels have continued to provide a safe service to isolated people in the local community. Dan says, “For our business we have invested heavily in Face Masks and other PPE and we have also provided the carers with specific training on the virus and successful infection control.”
Home care visits fight loneliness.
Dan feels that the Visiting Angels approach has helped to keep people safe, he explains, “for many of our clients they have a relatively small team of caregivers delivering all of their homecare needs. As an example for a 7 day a week service the care team will be 2 regular carers and one backup carer. This means that during the pandemic we have had fewer people going into our clients homes and a smaller team means less risk of the virus being introduced.”
Dan concludes by saying its not just about keeping people safe, “as well as ensuring that people are protected, the same carer coming each time means that our clients get to know their Angel and there is joy from spending time with a familiar face. When the advice has been that our elderly loved ones should not leave the house I am very proud to say that we are fighting loneliness by ensuring a regular visit from a friendly face.”
Visiting Angels is based in North Sheffield and covers Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham. For more information call 0114 433 3000.