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

Led by Managing Director Andy Griffin, the whole team at Helping at Home are always looking for the 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, who comes from a technology and business background, wanted to use the experience he had from those sectors to ensure his new business was able to scale and become financially sustainable - while always delivering the highest standards of personalised care to all clients at all times. Sustainable growth in business is difficult to achieve even at the best of times - but the challenge is even greater for a new 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."

So, a strong team culture that focused around openness, transparency and support was crucial to achieve from the very start of the business. "I wanted to be as available as I possibly can be for every member of the team," Andy comments. So with this vision for the core of the business, now all the business needed was a way to make this contact and transparency as simple to acheive as possible.

To help the whole team at Helping at Home maintain the level of quality communication that is so important to growing sustainably, 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 different potential technology partners, tech-savvy Andy and his team of experienced care professionals came to the conclusion that a partnership with Birdie was the best suited to their quickly growing business.

How do the care 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 ok 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 none to over 60 clients in just one year - a testament to Andy, the team and the systems they have put in place to ensure success.

Despite being just over a year old, Helping at Home is managing to grow sustainably without compromising on the quality of care they provide every single on of their clients. This is due to the importance the whole team place on quality communication - keeping in touch, keeping things transparent and always keeping peoples wellbeing at the heart of everything the business does.

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!