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12 September 2005
SCOTTISH HOME CARE AGENCY REPORTS STRONG GROWTH
Elite HomeCarers, the Edinburgh-based agency which provides a range of home care services across East and Central Scotland, has reported growth of 80 per cent in the last three years.
Founded in 1998, the company now has a turnover of over £1M and employs over 60 staff providing care to people in their homes. The rapid growth is due to a combination of the present market climate and the time invested by Elite in understanding the market through client research and then developing its services to deliver quality home care to meet individual needs.
“The home care sector is the fastest growing service sector in the UK”, says Maggie Potter, Elite HomeCarers’ marketing director. “Since the Scottish Executive introduced The Community Care and Health Act in 2002 there have been major improvements in community care to help people, much of which is based around care in the home. There has also been considerable investment in preventing delayed discharge from hospital by supporting the provision of convalescence care in the community.”
Latest Scottish Executive statistics* on home care provision show the number of home care clients rose 4% between 2003 and 2004, while private versus public sector provision continued to increase for sixth year running.
The statistics show that:
- Demand is increasing
- Number of clients is increasing
- Number of hours per client is increasing
- Number of over-65 year-olds is increasing
- Number of staff is increasing
- Private and voluntary sector provision is increasing
- Local authority provision is falling
Potter believes that Elite HomeCarers’ objective to tailor-make care programmes to suit individual requirements has also been a major factor in its expansion.
“Care at home is the difference between a person being able to fulfil their right to stay at home, away from hospital or nursing homes, while giving the family the chance to enjoy quality time with their loved ones. “But it’s a very personal thing which has to be approached with sensitivity and care, maintaining the clients’ dignity at all times. We continually assess client needs and evaluate the service we provide to ensure that we are always up-to-date with requirements. We also provide a 24-hour on-call emergency service – after all, providing quality care at home is a full-time commitment.”
Estimates suggest that 440,000 hours of home-care services are provided in Scotland each week, one quarter of which are provided by private and voluntary organisations.
Systematic home-based care is a key priority in the Scottish Executive policy document The National Framework for Service Change in the NHS in Scotland, published in May. In the next 25 years there will be more people in Scotland of retirement age than there will be children, while the number of people over the age of 80 will rise from 200,000 at present to 400,000 over that time.
*www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/bulletins/00387-00.asp
For further information and photography, please contact:
Sally Masterson, Masterson Media, Edinburgh, UK
Tel/Fax: 01875 615007, Mob: 078 998 12254, E: sally@mastersonmedia.co.uk
Or Maggie Potter
Marketing Director, Elite HomeCarers
Tel: 0845 1082845, Mob: 0784 048 0246
A National Framework for Service Change in the NHS in Scotland – building a health service fit for the future. www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/924/0012113.pdf
11 July 2005
SCOTTISH HOME CARE AGENCY LAUNCHES UNIQUE TRAINING SUITE
Elite HomeCarers, the Edinburgh-based agency which provides a range of tailor-made programmes of care into people’s homes across Scotland, has launched a customised training suite to provide hands-on training to staff in real-life environments.
Believed to be the first of its kind in Scotland, Elite HomeCarers has refurbished premises next to its head office in West Edinburgh to exactly replicate a home interior. Complete with a living area, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom, the suite has been adapted to meet typical home care scenarios which affect older people, those who are bedridden, or with physical disabilities or illnesses.
Anna Maher, Elite’s operations director, believes that the new suite will bring additional benefits to clients, while further enhancing the company’s already comprehensive staff training programme:
“Elite has a total quality policy and on-going training for our staff is key to that. Every member of staff undergoes a Training Needs Analysis to identify their specific training needs which are re-appraised annually.
“The training suite provides an additional dimension in that we can train our staff in a totally realistic ‘home’ environment, for example, where space might be restricted or where there are common household health and safety hazards. The suite is particularly effective for training in first aid and moving and handling.”
Anna highlights additional benefits to staff in that they can train at their own pace with help and support just next door in the head office. “It’s ideal for regular refresher training and means that we don’t have to travel to training centres,” she adds.
Founded in 1998, Elite HomeCarers employs over 60 fully trained staff and provides a range of services including home and personal care, hospital escorts, carer respite and palliative care to people in their homes. The company also operates an emergency 24-hour on-call service and has a number of offices throughout Scotland which are networked using the latest telecommunications technology.
“The training suite is part of our strategy to ensure that we are leading the way in providing unrivalled home care services, particularly as the Scottish Executive is committed to developing care in the community. Good home care means that people can fulfil their right to stay at home away from hospitals and nursing homes. Our aim is to provide complete peace of mind for our clients and to help them achieve that.”
For further information and photography, please contact:
Maggie Potter, marketing director, Elite HomeCarers 0845 1082845 or 0784 0480246
Monday 21 March 2005
SCOTTISH HOME CARE AGENCY APPOINTS NEW OPERATIONS DIRECTOR
Elite HomeCarers, the Edinburgh-based agency which provides a range of tailor-made programmes of care into people’s homes across Scotland, has appointed Anna Maher as operations director.
Anna has a Bachelor of Nursing degree in which she specialised in community care perspectives, is a first level registered nurse with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and was formerly a senior staff nurse with Fife Acute Hospitals Trust.
She has also held posts in financial and payroll management with a number of multi-national companies.
Her key responsibilities at Elite HomeCarers will be to supervise the planning and implementation of care programmes, maintain standards of care and ensure the efficient liaison between over 50 care staff and clients based largely in the central belt of Scotland.
“The home care sector is one of the fastest growing service sectors in the UK and I’m delighted to be joining Elite at an important time in its growth,” says Anna.
“Supporting the provision of care in the community is one of the Scottish Executive’s key priorities and Elite is ideally placed to meet this objective with a dedicated team of skilled carers and an excellent on-going training programme, all backed up by the latest communications technology.”
Founded in 1998, Elite HomeCarers has a turnover of over £1m and provides a range of services including home and personal care, hospital escorts, carer respite and palliative care to people in their homes. The company also provides an emergency 24-hour on-call service and is soon to open a custom-built training suite for staff.
Estimates suggest that 440,000 hours of home-care services are provided in Scotland each week, one quarter of which are provided by private and voluntary organisations.
Note to editors:Photography available.
Further information from:Sally Masterson
Masterson Media, Edinburgh, UK
Tel/Fax: 01875 615007
Mobile: 078 998 12254
Email: sally@mastersonmedia.co.uk
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