You Care, I Care

My guest today is Stella, of Keko Personnel Limited, who has had a huge amount of experience in the care sector in many different ways.

Stella talks about how, while living in Korea and working in an office, she was introduced to the care industry by one of her friends. She started working part time in a care job and full time in the office. Stella had always had au pairs looking after her children, but she started having problems with them. In 2000 she decided to leave her office job and focus on care. Her reason being that the care work gave her time to look after her own children.

Initially Stella worked with adults with learning difficulties, but when her dad had vascular dementia, and then passed away, she decided she wanted to gain qualifications in care and went on leadership and management in health and social care courses. Then she set up her own care business – particularly working to help people with dementia, having seen the struggles her mum and family had gone through.

Stella shares the difficulties she had with officialdom when setting up her business, and how hard it is to find clients.

One of the types of care we talk about is sitting care, something that Stella’s company offers.

Sitting care is a very undervalued and unknown service. People need companionship so when a family carer wants to go out and have time to themselves, a sitting carer can come in and keep the family member company. There are so many opportunities where this type of care can be used – which Stella explains.

Her company logo is ‘caring with a difference’. She wants people to receive the same care they would if you were looking after family members. Also, it’s all about dignity, and encouraging people to make their own decisions rather than telling them what to do.

To contact Stella:

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 01784698300

For today’s podcast, I don't have a guest, but wanted to share what I have been doing during the last few months, and talk about the exciting things to come in the future.

One of the things I talk about is the fact that all of us are quite likely to have a health scare at some point in our lives. We tend to go along in life, assuming everything’s okay, until it isn’t. My own health issue was dealt with after some serious physio, but this is my introduction to the whole subject of care.

I talk about some of the wonderful people and companies I've worked with so far this year; Gemma Lock of Trinity Home Care; a new start up called Nova Reach and a new client Stella, who I’ll be meeting soon.

I also mention AgoraStaff, a new app which was launched back in May.

The main focus of today’s podcast though is about why a big part of what I do and my passion is; giving advice. It might be advising a care provider, or advising an individual client, or a family – but always looking at the best way forward for that individual or company.

The information available that people find when searching for care is incredibly limited. What I enjoy is finding the right care solution for individuals, because there are far too many challenges when trying to decipher the care sector. Most people have no idea what is actually available or may even never heard for example, of live-in care or continuing health or even understand what they mean.

If you want to find out about care in any shape or form you can contact me:

Website: https://shreevecareservices.co.uk/

Email: [email protected]

My guest on today’s podcast is Maggie Gono who is the director and nominated person of Sky Vigil Care. Based in Gloucestershire, they are a CQC registered health and social care company who provide support to individuals with complex and noncomplex needs.

This support can range from personal care to domiciliary care to supporting you within your own home. Maggie shares with me how she is a registered nurse who absolutely loves what she does and it shows. Maggie glows when she talks about her work. In her own words, you need to love what you do or what’s the point in doing it?

As Maggie explains the company assesses individuals on a case-by-case basis. Sometimes the company doesn’t have anyone with the specific training needs to look after an individual being referred to them so they will have to tell the local council that they are unable to take on that person, but they are willing to work with everyone involved to be able to fulfil that role.

There have been situations where Maggie and her team have had to say that they cannot take on a case but for all of the cases they have been able to accept there has never been a moment where they have had to phone the local authority and say that they can’t work with the person.

One of the things that Maggie is proud of is their low turnover rate of their employees. Everyone who joins the company has the opportunity to progress and they stay working with them.

To contact Maggie you can call 01452 341993 or visit https://skyvigilcare.co.uk/

My guest today is Catherine Twine-Kelly (or as I call her, Cath!), managing director of Supported Independence and I’m delighted to welcome her to my podcast.  

Cath works in an area of care that remains a mystery to most people. Supported Independence works with adults, mainly those with enduring mental health issues. That covers a wide range of complex needs, so the support they need can vary significantly.

She set up her business many years ago, recognising that there was no support between residential care and helping people to live in the community with support. She devised a three step approach which meant that service users would know the same group of staff all through their care transitions.

Cath set up a place where people are supported but at the same time giving them independence to come and go a little like student living. They are given the opportunity to grow and develop their skills.

They may start out with a split of half residential, half supported living before going on to having their own tenancy. Supported Independence work with a range of housing associations and private landlords and then their carers go in to work with them for just a few hours a day, depending on the complexity of their needs. It is very much based on individual needs.

Cath talks about how after working in this area for so many years, she began to recognise that often, the medical profession don’t always see beyond the person’s mental health and therefore miss that they may have other physical things they are coping with, that are causing the health problem. To be able to challenge the system, she has completed a master’s as a Physicians Associate and is now taking her ideas even further and doing a PhD with Bristol University. 

She also talks about how for her, keeping the business local is important to be able to fully engage with residents and clients.

Cath’s passion is evident, not only hearing her talk about the issues of the people she works with, but also by her personal commitment.

To contact Cath:

Website: www.supportedindependence.co.uk where there are also links to Cath’s email.

Today’s guest Nayna McIntosh, from Hope, Curated by Nayna, is someone I’ve known for about five or six years, and it’s lovely to have her on my podcast today talking about what she does. 

She shares how she has been in retail from a young age from when she used to help her mum on her market store in Birmingham. Her first job was for M&S, the motivation being that if she wanted to go to Jamaica when she was 18, she needed to earn half of her fare.

Over a 35 year plus career, Nayna has worked in some of the biggest brands in the UK as you’ll hear. After moving around to several different companies, Nayna ended up back at M&S, and when she left she was a director on their management board.  After delivering a huge project for the company she realised that she wanted to take her career in a completely different direction.

She began to understand that work was becoming a drag, and if she didn’t make a change to do something for herself; for her own health.

Setting up her own business was in many ways, a terrifying experience, although she realised that what she didn’t know she could always find someone who could help. The most important thing she wanted in her business was to have strong feminine leadership values, built on her personal values too. She wanted to be in a place where women felt safe and run a business where women were able to talk about what they wanted to and not start meetings with the latest football scores!

Much of the fashion industry is aimed at young women, and as a woman you begin to see how things change drastically  after menopause and how you can no longer wear the clothes you could when you were younger. This in turn can take away your confidence in yourself. Nayna set about changing this. Hope Curated by Nayna is all about clothes for more mature women, helping them feel comfortable, confident and good about themselves.  

To contact Nayna:

Email: [email protected]

Substack: https://naynamcintosh.substack.com/

My guest today is Richard Williams-Pears who is the CEO of a brand new recruitment app, AgoraStaff. This app has been designed for the care industry and I'm excited to say that I'm also involved.

Richard and I only met about 18 months ago and AgoraStaff was born from a group of us questioning if we could provide a staffing solution to care companies without the agencies and their high fees and almost 2 years later, our app has arrived!

There is a flat fee as a provider to join and then the fee on this app is only 5% compared to the sometimes 45% that care agencies charge on top of the hourly rate for the member of staff. Instead of someone having to be signed up to multiple agencies, they can just sign up to the app and be available to any care company or care home that has requested staff.

Currently the app is available to the Bristol, Bath and Somerset area but soon we'll be removing the limitations and the app will be rolling out across the country. We've got an advertising campaign planned and we also have a refer a friend scheme for those who are using the app.

Don't forget to continue listening for some fun bloopers!

You can find out more by heading to www.agorastaff.com

My guest today is Richard Williams-Pears who is the CEO of a brand new recruitment app, AgoraStaff. This app has been designed for the care industry and I'm excited to say that I'm also involved.

Richard and I only met about 18 months ago and AgoraStaff was born from a group of us questioning if we could provide a staffing solution to care companies without the agencies and their high fees and almost 2 years later, our app has arrived!

There is a flat fee as a provider to join and then the fee on this app is only 5% compared to the sometimes 45% that care agencies charge on top of the hourly rate for the member of staff. Instead of someone having to be signed up to multiple agencies, they can just sign up to the app and be available to any care company or care home that has requested staff.

Currently the app is available to the Bristol, Bath and Somerset area but soon we'll be removing the limitations and the app will be rolling out across the country. We've got an advertising campaign planned and we also have a refer a friend scheme for those who are using the app.

Don't forget to continue listening for some fun bloopers!

You can find out more by heading to www.agorastaff.com

Yet again, I’m welcoming back Rob Curtis of The Pursuit Agency.

Last time Rob spoke to me, we talked about his ADHD and his problems with being given the correct medication for him. Since then he has tested several different types, which at the time, he thought were okay, but then looking back realised that actually, they weren’t. He wasn’t being himself, and even felt very unlike himself too!

Now, luckily, he has found the right medication for him and is back to his normal self.

The main reason I invited Rob back was to talk about his very close friends Budge and Gina. Those of you listening may know, I’ve already recorded several podcasts about their story -  It was thanks to Rob that I met them.

Rob talks about how he first met Budge and how they became such amazing friends. Even before Gina had met Rob’s wife, Stef, the boys were best friends. They worried about how the girls would get on, but as you’ll hear, the girls hit it off straight away. The relationship between the four of them and their children is like that of family, as much as friends.

He goes on to talk about how Budge and Gina are amazing friends, and have been for them in so many ways. So when Gina was so ill the first thing Rob did was to try to find out how he could help his friends. Incredibly, Rob and I had only met a few days before, so he turned to me.

We talk about how, sadly these days people aren’t always there for friends, and how important it is to have friends in our lives who truly support and care for us.

To contact Rob visit his website:  https://thepursuitagency.com/

My guest today is someone I’ve got to know well over the last few years, Stefan Thomas, professional speaker and author of Business Networking for Dummies.

Thirty years ago, Stefan was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, and for most of his life this hasn’t caused a problem – until recently. Last year he began to feel very ill and after several months of visiting doctors and hospital appointments, he ended up as an emergency admission to hospital.

He explains what ulcerative colitis, or inflammation of the bowel is and how it affects his life. Stefan also talks about how ‘talking about toilet stuff’ has always been a bit of a taboo, and generally men haven’t been encouraged to talk about such problems. Yet in the UK alone, 500,000 people have got Ulcerative Colitis and Crohn’s.

Stefan is a writer and a speaker and he likes to talk about things, so he shared what was happening to him on his Facebook page. To his surprise he has had positive feedback from people, many happy to recognise that they’re not alone in their suffering. Also, he shares that at 54 he is an influencer on Facebook!

He also talks about how being self-employed and having to regularly take time out of his business and cancel and postpone meetings and even speaking engagements due to being ill, he worried about the damage it would do to his reputation. With his incredibly positive attitude, he has created other ways to bring in income.

Although Ulcerative Colitis isn’t a dietary condition but a genetic condition, Stefan also talks about how he has ended up having to make some changes to his diet. 

Stefan talks about a subject that can be embarrassing for many people with great humour and insight, demonstrating how with the right attitude we can cope with health changes.

To contact Stefan:
Website: https://www.stefanthomas.biz/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stefanthomasdotbiz

My guest today is Lily Pepperall, director of One Life; Live It; Fulfil It. 

Lily escaped from the war of Yugoslavia with a six-month visa at the age of 18 and came to the UK where she stayed. Some 30 years later after working in the corporate world, helping other people to find work, then working in adult education after being made redundant she decided to take a year out. Unfortunately that didn’t happen due to family illnesses and deaths.

Eventually she decided to rebuild her life, using the skills that she’d built up over the years, including the resilience that she’d had to develop living in a country alone with no family.  Last year she set up her own company, One Life.

Lily retrained as a life coach, because she has a lot to offer and share with people. She wants to help people who are just surviving in their lives, but not necessarily fulfilled. So, she helps people to get work-life balance; helps them to deal with traumas, or helps them to live their best, satisfying life. She wants people to understand that we have all got a choice and we can either be a victim or get on with life and embrace skills that will empower us to move forward.

She also talks about how since childhood she has loved being in nature, and having moved to live on a farm she is enjoying gardening and how much beautiful nature is on her doorstep. Lily shares how important nature is, in terms of our well-being, and how she incorporates walking and talking into her coaching offers.

Having moved to a new country herself, Lily talks about how difficult and scary it is. She works with the Harbour Project in Swindon to support asylum seekers, particularly women recently arriving in the UK.

As you’ll hear, Lily is also going to be working with me in the future on one of my new projects.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lily-pepperall-982816aa/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/one_life_live_it_fulfil_it/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556713980897
Website: https://www.liveitfulfilit.co.uk/