Franchise Owner - Frances Sayer

I worked for many years in the retail sector until reaching a milestone in my life. I decided I wanted to change my career path and work within the care sector delivering care to the elderly. I joined a large group of wonderful care homes as a Director Of Community Relations, working with families and prospective clients, usually at an extremely difficult and stressful time in their life, I provided counselling and solutions to their care needs.

It was during this time and through the experiences and insight I had gained, that I decided that I could use my skills to assist people who did not feel ready to enter into a care home environment. Often they had tried homecare solutions but had been unable to find compassionate and caring help which would enable them to stay in their own home. Often the everyday tasks that we all take for granted become increasingly difficult and things such as shopping, personal care, meal preparation become impossible without help. Sometimes someone visiting for companionship or on a befriending basis is all that is needed to keep someone company and happy. I found it difficult to find a company that offered all of these solutions along with a specialist service for those with Alzheimer's and dementia. I also found a real gap for respite care to help in the situation that a carer needs a much deserved break. Another must for me was to have the ability to provide continuity of carers, this is not only essential for those with Alzheimer's and dementia but for everyone who needs care such as those with physical disabilities or illness's that mean that care is needed within the home. Who wants strangers visiting every day? This becomes even more difficult if you require someone to care for you in what can sometimes be a very personal situation. My challenge was to find a company that could equal my passion, dedication and desire to deliver quality care into our community.

After much research, I discovered Home Instead Senior Care, who were the only company to meet my expectations in every area. I am lucky to have a great team of experienced and committed colleagues who share my values and vision. We all look forward to serving our local community.

Ruth Coughlan - Care Manager

After working for many years with Fran at a care home, I became increasingly interested in Fran’s plans to branch out and provide quality care at home for people in the community. My passion has always been to provide independence, dignity and quality of life for the elderly and my career path had taken me into the area of Alzheimer’s and dementia care, an area that I felt I could make a real difference to people’s lives and help to provide independence alongside excellent care.

Home Instead has proved to be everything I had hoped it would be. Fran and I have spent many hours ensuring that each and every client receives the personal approach to their care that we feel they deserve.

A large part of our success is our wonderful team of Caregivers, each chosen for their individual desire to provide excellent care. Many of our Caregivers do not come from a traditional care background but have usually had some life experience of caring for a relative or perhaps a neighbour, this enables them to really empathise and understand our clients’ needs. Our in depth training and support system, along with a flexible approach to working hours, means that our Caregivers enjoy the time that they spend with each and every client.

Although our service is especially beneficial to those suffering with Alzheimer’s or dementia related illness’s due to the matching of our Caregiver to the client’s individual needs, along with the continuity of care provided, it is also extremely beneficial to those clients with learning disabilities, physical disabilities and a variety of other health related problems such as Parkinson’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, the effects of Stroke and many, many other illness’s.  I also find it really rewarding to step in and assist family members for times when respite care is needed, it is always lovely to see someone come home from a holiday refreshed and able to cope with what can sometimes be a very difficult situation, especially when caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's or dementia.

In a lot of instances we may start to care for a client for companionship or befriending type services, through providing continuity of carer, we find that trust and friendship soon builds, this make it so much easier if a client requires greater levels of personal care later on.  It is so much easier to have someone you are familiar with helping when this greater level of assistance is needed.

I enjoy each and every day that I come to work and find the difference that Home Instead makes to not only the client through the delivery of quality care, but also the support that we can offer relatives, extremely rewarding.

Sorrel Stenner - Client Services Representative

Whilst working for another local company Sorrel visited Fran and Ruth to discuss the possibility of placing an apprentice in the team. After giving Sorrel a thorough breakdown of how Home Instead worked and the type of person who would fit into the team, Sorrel was so impressed she applied for the advertised position of CSR after leaving the office.

Sorrel brings a breath of fresh air to the team, she is always out whatever the weather visiting local groups and societies giving talks and even turning her hand to washing up on many occasions! Sorrel is tasked with identifying local places of interest, groups etc. finding out the skill set needed and the mix of the groups. This enables our Caregivers to have a resource library to call upon when they encourage and assist their client to go out into the community, ensuring that the client’s abilities match the activity.

An important part of Sorrel's role is to inform local professionals of the excellent service that is provided by Home Instead and also to give information to the elderly for the future, to ensure that they are able to understand the health system locally and never be in the position when they are not well of not knowing how, where and by whom they can access the best care available.

One of Sorrel's greatest attributes is her gentle, friendly nature and of course the ability to talk! Sorrel describes her role as 'one long social outing', although when it is cold and snowing, it takes a great deal of self motivation to move from the office radiator

Sonia Mynett

Sonia recently joined the office in Cannock as Office Administrator/Scheduler Sonia's past work experience involves working for a local training company which will be a great help when it comes to the continual training and development of our Caregivers. Sonia co-ordinates and maintains schedules for our clients and CAREGivers, focusing on their consistency of carers, compatibility and continuity.

Sonia's role is key in ensuring both Clients and CAREGivers are happy with the service. Sonia is involved in meeting and understanding the interests and personalities of our Caregivers commencing at induction training and takes a keen interest in all new clients to enable her to understand the background and activities that clients enjoy and what support they would like from their CAREGiver when they are together. This ensures the smooth beginning of a relationship, one of trust and honesty between client and CAREGiver.

Sonia lives in Cannock. Sonia has qualifications in Business Admin NVQ Level 2 &3, Information, Advice & Guidance NVQ Level 3 and Safeguarding of Vulnerable Adults Diploma. Sonia is currently studying Business Finance NVQ Level 2. Sonia is finding the variety and interaction with both Caregivers and Clients very interesting and is soon learning that 'variety' also means constantly having to put the kettle on and act as a second mother to Ruth, Fran and the 3 office Schnauzers, a task which she is rising to admirably!

Kathy Tudor - Administrator

Kathy joined Home Instead Cannock as a CAREGiver following many years in a large engineering company as Office Manager.  After being made redundant Kathy decided to have a complete career change and made the decision that she would love to work helping the elderly in her local area.  Kathy soon proved to be an excellent CAREGiver always going 'the extra mile' for all of her clients.  Kathy approached Fran to see if she could assist in the office to learn more about the complete picture of how care is delivered.  Kathy soon proved herself to be an invaluable member of the team, helping everyone in whichever way can to make sure the office runs smoothly.  Kathy always has a smile and a cheery word - essential for raising the team spirit on a wet ad stressful day!

Our CareGivers

Here in Cannock we now have a growing team of CareGivers who have a range of skills and experiences. Our CareGivers regularly attend training sessions to develop their own skills and knowledge which they can use to improve the quality of our clients lives.

The next training sessions we have booked in for our CareGivers are as follows: Autism Training, Activity in the Elderly Training, Diabetes Awareness, and Managing conflict. We have an ongoing Dementia programme which many of our CareGivers are undertaking. We are supporting our CareGivers to enrol for the NVQ 2 and 3 in Health and Social Care for those that haven't yet gained these qualifications.

Pictures of our CareGivers to follow! If you are interested in finding out more about the becoming a CareGiver please call Ruth Coughlan - Care Manager on 01543 572 349 for more information.