Chamber of Commerce spotlight on: Home Instead

Senior care - one of many important industries in the town – faced huge challenges during the start of lockdown.

With PPE in short supply, hundreds of vulnerable people in their care and families isolated from supporting their loved ones, it was a tough job to manage all forms of senior care – from residential to at home living.

The Exmouth Chamber of Commerce is proud to say they have some of the best care providers as members and as new chair, I recently had a virtual catch up with one of them and learnt about all the fantastic efforts that Mark McGlade and his team at Home Instead Senior Care have been doing.

Home Instead are the only home care provider in the South West rated 5 Star Outstanding by the CQC

The ethos of Home Instead is simple – relationship led care, enabling clients to live well in their own home.

After a negative experience with finding care for their family, Mark and his wife and co-director, Vanessa, set up the company 9 years ago to transform the way we think about care in the community. Their aim is to not only provide the best care for their clients but also to provide the best care employment for their caregivers. Their aim is to inspire many to see care giving as a fruitful, Mark set the company up nine years ago, to transform the way we all think about care.

The average time of a care visit in the UK is 18 minutes. At Home Instead we do not believe we can provide quality care in these short visits, so we have a minimum of 1 hour visits, often longer.

They have provided more than 8000 hours of care a month this year in the local community with a team of over 120 staff. Home Instead also operates across the UK in over 200 locations and has more Outstanding CQC rated offices than any other care provider in the country.

His aim is to inspire many to see care giving as a fruitful career choice, empowering people to enjoy supporting the vulnerable, building companionship and doing important work.

Mark said: “I want the Home Instead team to feel like they are giving a service that is of the same quality that they want their own family to have.

“The average allotted ‘care’ time is 18 minutes per visit – here at Home Instead we have an hour minimum, to ensure our team can give the best service possible.

“We also book in specific times, so the customer knows when their companion will be there to support.

“With our person - centred care, we want our clients to feel like they have a reason to get up in the morning – something that is so powerful for those that are perhaps on their own and feel isolated.”

Throughout lockdown, the Home Instead team powered through and continued their service to their customers, going over and above to support them in this time of crisis.

They have provided more than 8’000 hours of care per month this year, in a variety of locations across the UK, and thanks to their CQC five-star level outstanding care that Home Instead have achieved, the company has some amazing news – it’s expanding.

Mark added: “We are ever so grateful to our team – they have been amazing with this situation and have worked so hard – we wouldn’t have been able to do it without them and I am proud of each and every one.”

With his aspirations for Home Instead to become one of the best employers to work with, Mark is to announce the exciting opportunities for over 100 new positions. Full details of the positions can be found on their website

It’s fantastic to hear of positive business news, especially considering the last few months.

To hear the words ‘we’re recruiting in Exmouth’ is amazing as I believe this town is a great place to work.

My interview with Mark was so inspiring and great to hear about the brilliant things he’s doing for the industry – from voluntary dementia customer training for local businesses, to the new ‘red/amber/green’ system that supports the SW ambulance service with handling fall patients, reducing the amount of hospitalisations (and therefore cost to the NHS) considerably.

I’m pleased that Mark and his amazing Community Liaison Coordinator, Gill Gegg, are so active within the Chamber community and are great at contributing support and advice to fellow employers/businesses.

This company is proof that our motto ‘growing stronger together’ is important and effective and I look forward to collaborating and seeing the Home Instead team flourish further.