4 C's
Whether you’re an experienced caregiver or a newcomer to the business of caring, you’ll want to know what makes Helping Hands Homecare different. We’ve been in the business for over 20 years and experience has taught us a few lessons; lessons that we’ve incorporated into everyday business; simple principles that we call our ‘4 Cs’.
Continuity of care
Continuity is a fundamental principle of our excellent Live-in care service; on average, our Carers stay with a customer for 5 to 8 weeks before they take a break for a week or two. This consistency provides significant advantages for customers and Carers over systems that operate two week rotations; the customer and Carer have the time to develop a deeper level of understanding, get into comfortable routines and build a better relationship.
For the customer there is less disruption, they know that they’re not going to have to constantly adjust to new faces; and the Carer get stability with peace of mind that they will be in place for some time. In fact, many of our carers have stayed with the same customer for years, becoming a valued part of the family. Read some of our Carer testimonials to learn more about the relationships our Carers have built with customers.
To ensure continuity, every care package is assigned a dedicated Care Manager. The Care Manager is the first point of call for the customer, their family and the Carer. The Care Manager makes sure that customers’ expectations are met and offers the Carer a high level of support.
Care for the Carers
Once a Helping Hands Carer is placed with a customer, you are not ‘just left to get on with it’. We don’t abandon you; and if you’re new to caring you’ll be assigned a mentor for the first three months of your placement, someone who you can call on for help, assistance or guidance.
At Helping Hands we directly recruit, train, assess and manage all of our Carers; we’re not simply an introductory agent. This allows us to maintain our very high standards, to keep our Carers’ training up-to-date, and gives us a greater control over the care package.
In addition our Carers also benefit from:
- 24/7/365 support via a dedicated phone line
- Support from a dedicated Care Manager
- Transport between care packages
- Customer preferences matched
- Updates on important industry messages via Twitter
- Online support via Helping Hands website with Carer log-in
Continuous improvement
As a Helping Hands Carer, you have to pass an intensive 5 day induction training course before you’re even offered a job. (Read more about our Recruitment and Training process). Once employed, your training doesn’t stop; far from it.
At first you’ll spend time shadowing an experienced carer in a customer’s home; then you’ll be assigned a mentor for the first three months of your placement. Our Carers have an ongoing opportunity to broaden their skills; developing levels of knowledge that allow them to help a diverse range of customers.
The list is of our additional training grows continuously as we continue to meet the needs of our customers.Training Matters our in-house training partnership currently runs courses that instruct our Carers on how to deal with over 60 conditions, including Dementia, Huntington’s Disease, Brain injuries and Alzheimer’s.
Consistent quality of care
Providing a consistent, superior quality of care for our customers is our number one priority; the fact that our business is still thriving after 20 years is testament to that. In our most recent inspection by the Care Quality Commission we received a rating of EXCELLENT, so we have high standards to maintain. Our Carers are the everyday face of Helping Hands; that’s why we take so much care in our Recruitment process and in our Training.
We also take great pride in our attention to detail and our matching process. Not only do our Carers input on the type of customers they would like to be matched with, but potential customers have the opportunity to read full profiles on any proposed Carers, including details of training, experience and testimonials.
By doing our best to make sure that both Carer and customer are comfortable at the start of the care package, we ensure that our superior standards are consistently maintained.
