Although the current health crisis is causing major disruption, the care franchise is moving forward and continuing with its services.

We are ‘open for business’ and we thank our amazing carers for their love and their hard work. Thanks to the whole team and to our core principles we‘re managing really well.

Most of our clients are living with serious conditions, including dementia. It’s tough for families to be apart at the best of times but with so many events, care centres and appointments shut down, and being kept apart for so long, these are very worrying times. Our clients are absolute heroes to be honest! It’s a pleasure to help.

Thankfully, we came into COVID-19 very strong.

We have a great team of good hearted, caring, giving helpers. Our carers tend to live in very small family settings, many are empty nesters and they are superbly experienced.

Our policy has always been same person care. Matching the right carer to every client and managing the whole process, so we were well placed to limit risk when shielding our clients.

Vulnerable clients are not expected to fend for themselves during the crisis and it is essential they limit their exposure. Being able to help clients to stay safe at home and being able to limit the risk of the virus coming into their homes with the carers, was our top priority.

Carers adopted the government guidelines and our own best practice very early on. We have been able to maintain delivery of our essential services and we have been able to help new clients at short notice as well.

We are proud to support our clients and their families, there is a lot of heartache and we’re honoured to be the go between arranging FaceTime calls and passing on messages.

Mother’s Day and Easter were really tough for families.

With such vulnerable clients, people didn’t want to risk normal deliveries because every contact is a risk. We were so delighted to put one of our carers who used to run a florist to new tasks. She made up bouquets that the regular carers delivered with the shopping so there was no increased contact (everything was fully sanitised obviously!) Easter Eggs were taken out of their boxes, sanitised and delivered on Easter Sunday during the usual lunchtime visit. Carers organised family Facetime calls during their visits.

Every visit is different because every client is different but there is a lot more shopping, sanitising shopping and cooking the shopping! Good food is keeping people safe. People who may otherwise forget to eat and drink and take their essential medication, have a friendly face making shopping lists and meal planning to put routine and meaning into every day.

We are working with the government, the NHS and the County Council initiatives like #KentTogether and thanks to the amazing team we have readily available, we are supporting other care companies as well. The feedback has been wonderful:

“Thank you so much for everything…honestly you have been the most amazing agency I have had the pleasure to work with!”