Care Connections 2024
Home Care
Home Care plays a critical role in supporting the NHS, and it can do much more.
During the winter months the NHS is particularly under pressure. It’s made worse by bed blocking where patients, fit to go home, have to remain in hospital due to a lack of community care provision.
Data from October 2023 shows that 1 in 7 hospital beds were occupied by someone who was eligible for discharge during the winter of 2022/23.
We surveyed our network of 250+ offices last March about this issue to better understand the extent of the problem and its impact on families. The data clearly showed the stress both families and NHS teams are under.
Our survey revealed that two – thirds (67%) of our national network were experiencing an increase in demand for consultation requests from prospective clients or their families specifically linked to hospital discharge or reablement support. And over a quarter of the network (27%) had seen a spike in demand from their local NHS trusts.
Hospital discharge and reablement is certainly an area where we would like to see greater collaboration between the health and social
care systems. There are many ways in which the health and social care sectors can
work together to better integrate services – hospital discharge is certainly one of them.
Home Care - a variety of options
Home care has evolved significantly since Home Instead first entered the market in 2005 to meet the needs of an ageing population and to be able to offer support to families, the NHS and broader healthcare system. The government intends to focus
on providing more healthcare in people’s homes so let’s take look at what’s available now and what additional services are being rolled out by Home Instead in the future.
• Personal Care – many Home Instead Care Professionals delivering personal care will have specialist training that includes catheter, stoma and peg feed (enteral feeding) care. For many clients these clinical procedures are a routine part of their personal care. These would otherwise have to be carried out by a nurse, or other healthcare professional.
• Healthcare at Home – we are rolling out additional training to allow our Care Professionals to deliver some healthcare activities within the home. This can include diabetes monitoring, basic wound care, blood pressure monitoring, and support with oxygen and CPAP/BiPAP machines as well as many other services. This service is already available in some locations.
• Virtual ward services – these enable rapid hospital discharge with remote access to vital signs and are ideal when we are working with partners in the NHS to get patients home from hospital, for example. This usually involves supporting clients to use clinical observation tools such as blood pressure monitoring and linking readings directly back to healthcare teams.
• Live-in Care – already available in many Home Instead locations, Live-in Care means that clients are supported throughout the day. This can be for companionship or because the client is living with a complex condition.
Martin's Windson Engagement
Our CEO UK & International, Martin Jones MBE, had a royal appointment to remember recently when he attended his investiture with HRH The Princess Royal to collect his Member of the British Empire Award (MBE) at Windsor Castle.
Martin was made an MBE in the 2023 New Year Honours for service
to older people. Speaking about what was a very special day for Martin and his family, he said, “It was a real honour to collect my award from The Princess Royal and wonderful to be able to share the day with my family.
“Prior to joining Home Instead in 2011 my experience of the social care sector was as a family member when we needed to find care for my father. “Through that experience I came to understand how having the right care can have a really positive impact on the client and their family too.
“My thanks go to the many people that I work alongside who do so much to shape the care sector and who share my desire to making the world a better place to age well in.”
Congratulations Martin!
Celebrating our 250th franchise office location
The Home Instead family came together recently to celebrate the opening of the company’s 250th office in Mansfield.
The milestone was marked with an event at Delamere Manor in Cheshire (Gary Barlow’s former home, no less!) where the 250th
office owners, Suzie and Rob Stanton, accompanied by one of their Care Professionals, Alessia Hunt were formally welcomed into the Home Instead family.
Experiance optional - care and compassion essential
Home Instead employs in the region of 11,000 Care Professionals across the UK, delivering our unique, relationship-led and person-centred care to their clients.
Experience in the care or health sectors is not a requirement as we recruit based on personality and a caring, compassionate nature. We provide all the training that is
required to do the job – what we look for in our Care Professionals is a desire to make a difference to people’s lives.
To apply to become a Care Pro, visit: www.homeinstead.co.uk/recruitment
Home Instead Charities launches Companionship Cafes
We are really proud to be the only home care company with our own charity, Home Instead Charities. Home Instead Charities exists to help us further our mission to
‘expand the world’s capacity to care’. It works to keep ageing adults healthy, happy and connected to their communities, in a bid to eradicate loneliness.
One of the charity’s most recent initiatives is the establishment of
a number of companionship cafés (with more to open in 2024). These were made possible following Funding from Home Instead Charities’ fundraising events, and the generosity of external grant – giving organisations.
The cafés, which are run by volunteers from Home Instead offices, offer members of the public good company, and a hot drink. Many offer free help and support with using the internet and online services using equipment such as brand-new tablets and internet access purchased thanks to the grants.
