Homecare Independent Living

With another year nearly past we are wondering where the time goes and are reflecting on 2008 and our plans for the year ahead.

Everyone has worked tremendously hard this year and we can certainly see the benefits. 2008 has been a year of great advancement. Well done everyone and thank you for your unrelenting efforts in placing Homecare at the forefront of Independent Living services.

We started the year by re-establishing our company values and I am confident that everyone who wears a Homecare uniform and who has undertaken our training programme can indeed allow our values to form the heart of their practice.  Our values are represented by the acronym “I CARE”, which are: Integrity, Commitment, Accountability, Respect, and Enthusiasm

We felt very proud recently when 115 of our care staff were nominated for the IHCP care awards  A special thank you goes Joelene Daykin from Belfast who was placed within the top three domiciliary care assistants in the country. 

As planned this year we have integrated all of our services to become ‘Homecare Independent Living’ and our restructuring is almost complete. The recently recruited Area Managers come from a variety of complimentary backgrounds and will be playing a key role in working directly with care assistants and service users. They will be out and about getting to know everyone in their areas and will be establishing what is being done well and what we can improve upon.  This will naturally improve the quality of our services and will ensure clear channels of communication.  The quality team is almost complete and will be out in the community in early 2009.

The recently introduced car programme has proved a huge success with clear benefits for all involved. During 2009 we will be introducing a similar programme in the South of Ireland.

We are also delighted with the success of the new training workbooks, and have now established a training centre which allows care and support staff to learn in a simulated environment with a practical hands-on approach. Providing care and support is demanding and to be a great care assistant or support worker takes consistent and concentrated effect, with a drive towards continuous learning. The training team want to make sure that all employees have the tools they need to learn. They are also researching the development of e-learning resources, especially for update training, which will assist us in exceeding regulatory requirements and standards.

Well done to the housing team who have made huge  progress in developing new areas - Strabane, Magherafelt, Maghera and Limavady are a few of the new areas currently being introduced.      

2009 is going to be both a demanding and inspiring year for everyone. We all want to be part of something that matters and something that makes a real difference and being part of Homecare gives us that. Our future offers the development of mental health services, housing related services, and new areas in domiciliary care including Coleraine, Foyle, Meath, West Meath and Longford.  Exciting new support services are also in the pipeline with plans for the development of services which prevent homelessness and alleviate housing stress.  

Our long awaited Management Information System is going live early in 2009.  Whilst it has been a huge investment in difficult financial times, it will offer both immediate and long term benefits to all stakeholders: care assistants, service users, office staff, area managers, quality officers, and commissioners.  By integrating this technology we allow for improved communication between everyone.  We believe that this will bring about improved quality of service provision for all our service users and will permit all departments, including administration teams, to develop a true focus on service quality.

All of these developments provide us with a sensible vision for the year ahead.  In 2009 we will continue to strive to provide high quality care, housing and support services which are more closely tailored to the individual needs of our service users and commissioners.  We will ensure that each new development is closely linked to our drive for improved technology and greater customer care, and in doing so will take the worry away from our service users and their families. We will also endeavour to offer greater support and job security for all our staff as we cultivate our ethos of continuous learning, development and growth.

Mairead & Gerald Mackle

Directors