Right at Home (High Wycombe & District)

As a qualified Accountant, for over 10 years I had a successful career, but I rarely felt that I added value to the lives of others, like I had in my teenage years. It was not until the birth of my son, Felix that I had some time away from my career and became a full-time carer to him, that I felt it was time for a change.

At the age of 15, I started working weekends and school holidays at a residential care home as a domestic support to the weekend carers. I became a carer almost as soon as I turned 16 and continued to work weekends and school holidays for another 6 years until I graduated and moved away from the area to embark on a career in Finance. During these years, I cared for many residents requiring various levels of support and built strong relationships along the way. With such a high level of job satisfaction, I always loved my job and would take as many shifts as I could – even on Christmas Day!

However, one of the most common, and distressing elements of this job was the reluctance of new residents who came to live in the home. I do not recall one person that wanted to leave their own home, even if they accepted it was in their best interests in order to get the care and support that they needed.

It is for this reason that I am so passionate about being able to offer an alternative to residential care. I am not just proud to be building my own business but also proud to deliver my own vision of providing the right care, the right way and at the right time for our clients. In doing so we will be able to make a real difference to the lives of others, by supporting people to maintain independence, offer choice and enhance quality of life.

In my spare time, I love to get out into the fresh air and countryside and take long walks with my family and Cocktail, our little sausage dog. He may only have short legs but he will walk for miles, so long as it’s not raining!

I have grown up in South Buckinghamshire and was born just a few miles away from our office at the now demolished Canadian Red Cross Hospital at Cliveden. I also attended Bucks New University in High Wycombe, earning a BA Hons in Leisure and Business Management.

The majority of my working life has been spent in Travel, Leisure and Hospitality with a good proportion of this time overseas, running Holiday Resorts for Thomas Cook across the Mediterranean, as well as at various UK coastal locations operating Holiday Caravan Parks.
Within my professional career, I have ensured that the teams I led focused on delivering first class service to guests and clients. Whilst in everyday life I have found satisfaction in helping people, particularly the vulnerable and less able.

In 2005 following the death of my Grandad, my 87 year old Nan, who had quite advanced dementia, came to live with us at the family home in Burnham. Grandad had been Nan’s full time carer and this responsibility was taken on by my mum, with a degree of support from the rest of the family. During this time, I began to think about the countless elderly people who needed the same level of care as my Nan but did not have a close family able or willing to take this on.

I suspect that subconsciously the time my Nan spent living with us was formative in spurring me on to open a business in the care sector. A particular area I would like Right at Home High Wycombe to have a positive impact towards is overcoming loneliness and social isolation amongst our elderly. This affects millions across the country, and is highlighted in the saddening statistic that 3.9 million older people see the television as their main company.

Varying in age from 20 to 73 years old, some of our care team have spent their whole career in Social/Clinical care whilst others are just starting out having worked in other sectors. We also have a few team members that are currently at University studying care-related courses such as nursing and midwifery.

Many of our team enjoy working full-time whilst others choose to work part-time, evenings or weekends. The one thing they all have in common is the desire, commitment and compassion to assist local, elderly people to live independently within their own home.

The personal interests of our care team are broad and wide, including: dog grooming, teaching Spanish, attending the local church, photography, volunteering at a cat charity, writing short stories and playing musical instruments At least two members of our care team have 4 children and one has 6 children so they almost certainly have no time for any hobbies.

Why our team enjoy working as CareGivers:

“RaH are a brilliant company, they give us 100% backup and support. For me it’s a vocation not a job at all. Love it.”

“RaH are a family. The staff and management are so supportive of each other and the quality of care is 100%. By far, RaH is the best company I have ever worked for I am lucky to be part of such an amazing team.”

“We have supportive management with a brilliant ethos of providing person-centred care.”

“I am surrounded by a successful and caring company who make me feel valued, who are always 100% committed to their staff and clients.”

“RaH is a family-orientated company. There is an open door policy with management. Both management and staff are very supportive.”

“A very rewarding job working for an agency committed to providing the best support and care in the community. Great rapport between all staff and management.”