Mark Booker (Owner)
CARE CALLS FROM 30 MINUTES. NO MINIMUM CARE CALL OF 1 HOUR AT INDEPENDENT LIVING!
Care in your own home is very much a personal service, its about helping vulnerable people. Not all, but most of the people requiring our help are over 70 years of age. Given this, as the owner of the business I think it is important to tell you a little bit about myself and how I came to be involved in the home care. I know that this is important to some of our customers, and their families.
Independent Living was set up by myself (Mark Booker) in December 2011. Prior to this I worked in the public sector in the North West of England.
My main role was to distribute public grants and then monitor that the money was spent properly by those receiving them. The grants were used for young people’s projects, helping unemployed people return to work, training programmes to help people start their own business and giving money towards building community centres.
In 2011 with government cutbacks I was made redundant on my 40th birthday.
With two children to support (Thomas and Charlotte) redundancy was an unsettling time but it did make me think about what I wanted to do with the second half of my working life. I decided I wanted a job where I was in control, I could make the decisions and could plan the work.
The obvious answer was to start a small business. It was pointed out to me that “home care” was a growing sector of the economy. We have an ageing population and over the next 20-30 years it is projected to rapidly increase. Generally most of us want to stay in our own home for as long as we can, a care home is usually seen as a last resort.
I investigated the home care sector and felt it was something that suited my personality and would also provide an income for my family. As my mum was a single parent and worked full time I was partly brought up by my grandma and spent a lot of time with my Uncle Mick (my grandmas brother) and as a result feel that I have a particular skill in understanding and relating to older people – I know their values and standards, what they expect, the words they use, what concerns them. Whereas some people are naturals at communicating with children I just seemed to be able get along well with older people!
Amanda Singleton (Registered Manager)
Amanda has worked in care for over 25 years and her bubbly cheerful personality is popular with our customers and their families. Amanda’s kind approach and her willingness to go above and beyond is hugely popular with our customers and their families. Amanda has managed some very difficult care packages, most notably people we have looked after needing palliative care. As the manager she arranges the rotas, recruits and trains staff, carries out care assessments, and completes staff and customer reviews. Like any care company the rotas are a major weekly challenge but this is something Amanda enjoys. Amanda also carries out care so she is aware of the issues facing our customers and our carers. She is originally from Leyland but now lives in Chorley so she knows the area we cover very well. Amanda has an NVQ5 in Social Care.
Amanda is an artist, she enjoys painting and drawing, arts and crafts, and she also likes spending time with her grown up children and walking her dog, and helps out in a Charity Shop.
Lilian Leighton-Martin (Care Manager)
Lilian is our experienced care manager and has worked in home care in the Leyland, Chorley and the Preston area for a number of years. Lilian comes from Leyland so knows the area well, when people phone up about care she often knows them or their family! Like Amanda she does a range of tasks including care assessments, rotas, staff reviews and quality control to meet our CQC compliance. She supports Amanda in working with our carers and customers to deliver a first class service. Our Registered Manager (Amanda) is Lilian’s daughter so they get on well and make a good team! Lilian also completes some home care each week. Lilian has had family experience of providing palliative and dementia care so she empathises with customers, and potential customers very well.
Lilian, like Amanda has an NVQ5. She likes to go on holiday – cruises and to France. Lilian also is an animal lover and has two dogs – Bonnie and Clyde.
Laura Jayne – Compliance & Recruitment Coordinator
Laura was one of our carers who has stepped up to take on an office role. She helps deals with queries from our customers and carers, and sorts out the paperwork required to satisfy our regulators – the CQC. Each month we receive communication sheets and medicine logs from our customers and Laura checks these for any concerns, and then follows up any issues we have. In this COVID19 situation Laura orders our personal protective equipment (PPE) and ensures our carers have adequate stocks at all time. Laura along with many of our care staff is completing further qualifications in social care.
Being younger than the rest of the office team Laura is good with social media! She has taken charge of our Facebook and Twitter accounts.
In her spare time Laura looks after her two cats, and her recently acquired dog.
