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Based in Newark-on-Trent, the care team at Helping at Home pride themselves on helping clients to be healthy, happy, and achieve their full potential. The company's aim is to support every person they care for to enjoy their day-to-day, maintain their independence, and preserve their social and emotional wellbeing in the long term — despite any limitations, changing needs, or disabilities the client may face.

Led by Managing Director Andy Griffin, the Helping at Home team are always looking for best practices to promote client-centred care in the home. Their ethos is to provide a caring, safe, effective, and responsive service to the needs of each client, safeguarding and supporting health and well-being to only the highest of standards.

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When Helping at Home was founded in 2021, they didn't have a single client on the books. Founder and Managing Director, Andy, came to the care sector from a technology and business background. He wanted to use his experience to build a care agency that could scale and become financially sustainable — all while delivering the highest standards of personalised care.

Sustainable growth is difficult to achieve at the best of times. But the challenge is even greater for a new, person-centred social care business.

"The single piece of advice, that we quickly learnt, was that in every area of the business this must be a people business. We knew we had to always start with the team", says Andy.

"When the team buy into the business journey and values, and feel they are in an open and transparent culture, then that pays dividends."

A strong team culture that focused on openness, transparency, and support was crucial to Andy from the very start. "I wanted to be as available as I possibly could be for every member of the team," Andy comments. So with this vision at the core of the model, now all the business needed was a way to make this contact and transparency happen.

For Helping at Home to maintain this level of quality communication, Andy and the team spent a long time researching which technology would work best for their needs.

"We knew we needed a really, really good care management system", says Andy. "Not just a system that everyone else tells you is 'good', but one that the entire team trusts." After exploring a number of potential partners, tech-savvy Andy and his team of experienced care professionals found that Birdie's smart homecare technology was best suited to their needs.

Birdie’s three purpose-built apps help care agencies, carers, and families connect and communicate at every part of the process (from planning to paying, and everything in between), creating a seamless experience for everyone involved:

• Empower carers to deliver exceptional care. Put everything carers need right in their pockets with the Carer App. Here, they can access client information, complete tasks, record medications, and document observations with ease — even in areas with poor signal. The result? Less admin time, fewer errors, and more focus on what matters: providing quality care.‍
• Give the office team complete control. Transform how care is managed from the Agency Hub. Managers and coordinators can oversee every aspect of the business — from care planning to compliance — all in one place. With real-time alerts and comprehensive reporting, issues are spotted and solved before they affect clients or the bottom line.‍
• Keep families in the loop effortlessly. Stop fielding constant calls for updates. The Family App gives relatives secure access to care information, letting them check visit times, carer notes, and client wellbeing whenever they want. Track what percentage of clients have family members actively using the app and identify opportunities to invite more relatives.

How do the Helping at Home team find using Birdie? 

"From a carer's point of view, it's tough work and it's long hours, but I know we're always being looked after,' says Senior Care Assistant Megan. "With the way that Birdie works, our Registered Manager can easily check and ensure we're all okay when we're out on the road. It's just that simple communication that's so important."

Andy also raised the way he and the team are able to use Birdie to support decisions on a business level. "The more trust we put in the information Birdie provides us, the better decisions we can make as a team. Given that the decisions we make impact real people and the quality of care they receive, it's super important that we got that care management system right."

Helping at Home has grown rapidly since it was first founded, going from zero to 60+ clients in just one year — a testament to Andy, the team, and the systems they've put in place.

Despite being just over a year old, Helping at Home is managing to grow sustainably without compromising on care. This is due to the importance the whole team place on quality communication — keeping in touch, keeping things transparent, and always keeping people's wellbeing at the heart of their operations.

The team currently use Birdie to support this value; to help the care team keep in touch while out on visits, and for the office team to use the information provided to make data-driven decisions that help the whole business to thrive. Everyone at Birdie is very proud to partner with Helping at Home and are excited to see where they go in the future.