A visit from an
Often an emotional time for all involved, it can be difficult to come to terms with you or your loved one needing an extra helping hand for support in day-to-day life.
But then comes the task of finding the right person or provider you can trust to help deliver the necessary care.
them through their unique Choose your Caregiver scheme. When opting for home care, the caregiver is one of the most important people to enter the home; helping with everything from daily routines such as hygiene, housekeeping and errands, to companionship and socialising within the community. Yet many carers are overwhelmed and constrained by the system of social care, given just ten to 15 minutes with each client.
At Visiting Angels, they understand that most people who have reached the need for care would prefer to remain in the comfort and stability of their own home. Born from a personal family experience of poor care provision, they provide exceptional and structured home care that is centred on both the client and their carer.
Run by Dan Archer, Visiting Angels launched in Sheffield last year to offer a breath of fresh air in the care sector, focusing on giving their clients a choice in who cares for
Visiting Angels are different. They appreciate how little can be done in just 15 minutes and so all visits are a minimum of one hour. This unrushed approach allows carers to care and not just watch the clock.
Like many others needing social care, when Dan’s grandmother had home care to help with getting in and out of bed, she became disorientated by the many rotating carers who arrived at her door each time, if any turned up at all. With home care such a personal thing, Visiting Angels want their clients to feel comfortable and bond with who will be looking after them. Through personality
profiling, all caregivers are matched to clients based on hobbies and interests rather than distance or accessibility meaning there will be at least common ground for lasting relationships to flourish. Care work is not just a job; for some, it’s a calling and Visiting Angels know all of their caregivers radiate energy and enthusiasm. Care workers can often feel under- appreciated and so Visiting Angels profess to having high standards of staff welfare with the mantra that if they look after their carers better, they in turn can look after the clients better.
All of Visiting Angels’ caregivers are highly skilled and trained and only work part time hours so they aren’t overworked and under pressure to complete too many visits in too little time. They also don’t wear a uniform as they simply don’t need to. Having chosen a dedicated carer, their clients know exactly who will be turning up at the door and when, offering consistency and continuity. They understand how hard their carers work and so this reflects their hourly pay of around £11 which far exceeds the average care worker’s salary of National Living Wage by almost 50 per cent. To reward loyalty, they also have incentives such as a five percent wage increase per year, mileage and travelling time allowance, annual car service for
Exceptional home care visits from exceptional carers
Find out more about how a Visiting Angel can help Call: 0114 433 3000
www.visiting-angels.co.uk I
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using their own vehicle, and their birthday off work without using a holiday day.
Considering all of this, Visiting Angels’ charge of £21 for an hour of care is very reasonable when most care providers charge around £8 for 15 minutes with a high turnover of staff. They don’t charge extra for rural villages or Bank Holiday visits for a fully transparent service. If you have been assessed as having social care needs, the local authority now give Direct Payments of around £16 per hour of care needed and so it can be affordable for most to privately top up the £5 difference. For many families, they cope with caring for relatives for many years before reaching an emotional breaking point. To make the transition as easy as possible, Dan meets with all clients to discuss their requirements and create bespoke care plans.
Angel
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