Helping Hands Home Care (Newcastle)

About me

At Helping Hands Newcastle I am responsible for overseeing all day-to-day activities including; managing the office team and care staff, ensuring our lovely customers receive the highest standard of care and looking after the business side of things!

It is difficult to explain 'what inspired me to join care' as it is has been a part of who am since I could stand on my own two feet! I was a young carer growing up, supporting my father with complex physical care needs. I volunteered as a young person for multiple caring organisations like Age UK & Teesside Hospice whilst I completed my education, before starting my professional career in domiciliary care.

I believe in what we do at Helping Hands, as I see first-hand every day the difference you can make in someone's life by supporting them to stay safely in their own home. After all, there is no place like it!

In my spare time, you will often catch me in a local coffee shop for breakfast, spending time in the parks or at the beach or relaxing at home with my cat - Mr Steven.

Experience and expertise

After I finished my A Levels I studied Biomedical Genetics at Newcastle University. During what would have been the final year of my studies I took a break to care for a family member who was living with dementia and did not return to my degree. The experience of caring for a family member until the end of their life made me realise that I truly wanted a hands-on career which allowed me to help people every day and sitting behind a microscope was not going to be enough for me.
I worked for another domiciliary care provider for 3 years before coming to work for Helping Hands throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. I often describe this time as the biggest learning curve as due to the pressures and restrictions of the pandemic, my learning and experience were accelerated massively. During my time here I was involved in almost all aspects of running the business, including delivering care, direct observations and management of staff, face-to-face assessments, care reviews and care plan writing, coordinating and invoicing.
Although I did not complete my degree, I still love academia and channel this by taking part in research projects designed to better social care in the UK. Last year I took part in a national review of double-handed home care and loved it. This year I am consulting on a new project.

Why I chose Helping Hands

I came to Helping Hands because I heard nothing but good things. Helping Hands are a company that cares as much about its staff as we do our customers. I believe we are different to other providers due to our ability to support such a wide variety of conditions including complex clinical interventions. I feel so proud of what we do here when I sit in front of a new customer at an initial consultation and can reassure them that there is so very little that we are not able to do and will tailor the package to whatever they need as an individual. It brings me happiness every day knowing we achieve the 'impossible' to make our customers smile.

I would like to see in the future that our team of carers grow so that we are able to keep more lovely people cared for in their own homes.

In my time as the branch manager at Helping Hands, I hope to further my passion in working to achieve wider recognition of the professional role our carers fulfil & to see that care staff are recognised and celebrated by other professionals in health and social care, as a vital part of the multi-disciplinary team.