Clare Jefferies has been running the Wimbledon and Kingston franchise, one of Home Instead’s largest UK offices, for 11 years. In 2021, the franchise was rated as ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – the third time it’s achieved this highest possible rating. Indeed, it was the first home care provider in London to gain this recognition.
Clare was inspired to move into the home care sector after struggling to find care for her parents. She joined Home Instead as she loved its innovative approach. Since then, she’s created many career opportunities, including expanding to cover live-in care services (providing 24-hour support so that older people can stay in their own homes) and employs 19 office staff and 185 Care Professionals. Clare is passionate about encouraging her team and inspires them to deliver the highest quality of care.
Her passion and drive also extend to caring for her elderly clients and for people in the wider local community. Clare is a trustee of Home Instead Charities, which organises fundraising events and grants money to local organisations that improve the lives of older people. And she takes an active part herself – for example, she runs in the London Marathon to raise money for the charity.
Her dedication encapsulates many different aspects of elderly care. For instance, she runs regular workshops on ‘Understanding dementia’, educating the wider population and helping to create a more dementia-friendly community. Throughout Dementia Action week, Clare and her team host free talks and workshops on dementia for the local community.
Another of her interests led to teaming up with the AFC Wimbledon Foundation to launch a new ‘Active Ageing Club’ with coach Allan Sellers. This improves the physical and mental health of older people through gentle exercise, team games and quizzes which also act as social gatherings so they feel less isolated. She also runs weekly Monday Lunch Clubs in the beautiful setting of South Park Gardens.
In conjunction with the British Gymnastics Foundation and Kingston Council, the franchise holds weekly ‘Love to Move’ classes, encouraging older people to stay active. Finally, it hosts weekly ‘Singing for the Brain’ sessions, enabling people living with dementia to enjoy singing songs they love, and stimulating their memories.
The next step for Clare is becoming a UK Parkinson’s Network Trainer: delivering specialist training sessions to Care Professionals across the Home Instead network, as well as her contacts and to local people. This will help to spread awareness and understanding of the disease.
In 2021, Clare and her team welcomed the Minister for Care, Gillian Keegan, to their office and took her to meet some of their clients in their own homes, to show their ‘outstanding’ care services in action. They showed Mrs Keegan the vital work that Home Instead’s Care Professionals and other home care workers do every day.
In December the same year, Clare was invited to speak at the ‘Dementia Friendly Communities Special Interest Group’ at Kingston University. She shared her experiences with young students who are passionate about pursuing a career in the health and social care sector. At other times, she also hosts work experience weeks for those interested in a career in care.
In recognition of her inspirational approach to care, Clare was invited to speak at the Home Care Conference 2022, attended by Jeremy Hunt and other key figures from the care sector. With her continuing drive and commitment to care, it’s clear that, like her franchise, she can truthfully be described as ‘outstanding’.