Bluebird Care makes history in Elmbridge and Runnymede with new care assistant salaries

Bluebird Care, the local leading provider of personal homecare, has made history by introducing salaries for care staff across Elmbridge and Runnymede.

When husband and wife team, Jonathan and Vanessa Billington joined the care industry almost 10 years ago, one of the improvements they wanted to make was to raise not only the profile of the care sector across Elmbridge and Runnymede, but also improve the rates of pay for care staff.

“It has always been a relatively low-paid sector and as a result of that has seen high staff turnover,” said Jonathan Billington, Managing Director. “We have always been one of the highest payers and when we decided to review recently what further actions we could take to provide even more for staff, we decided to introduce new salaries for care assistants.”

Jonathan and Vanessa became franchisees with the agency Bluebird Care eight years ago after becoming increasingly concerned about the poor level of home and domiciliary care for the elderly, those living with dementia, and adults with learning difficulties across the area.

“We were unimpressed with the standard of care available at the time so we decided to set up with Bluebird Care because of their care-sector expertise and their emphasis on quality,” added Jonathan.

With a local office based in Addlestone, Bluebird Care provides a high quality, local service across the whole of Elmbridge, Runnymede and Spelthorne including Staines, Egham, Virginia Water, Ashford, Laleham, Shepperton, Chertsey, Addlestone, Weybridge, Hersham, Molesey, Esher and Cobham.
 
“Low pay is one of things we wanted to change when we came into it in 2010 and the effect of introducing salaries for care assistants has been really positive,” said Jonathan. “Our employees see we are making beneficial changes and the better paid they are for their professionalism and dedication to their role, the more people are attracted to the sector and that is also good for our customers.”

With salaries introduced on 1^st April, Bluebird Care is the first private homecare provider to introduce such a change in Elmbridge Runnymede and Spelthorne. They also believe the move will help retain staff in a sector where there is often a high turnover.

Bluebird Care require a 50-strong team who all care for people in their own homes to help them maintain their independence.

“Our front-line staff are our most important asset and we recruit people we would be happy to look after our own families and friends – people who go way beyond the call of duty and go the extra mile on a daily basis,” added Jonathan.

High turnover is not good for the business or the customers who like consistency and continuity so we have tried to maintain that over the years. It is difficult as people do come and go but we like to treat people with the respect they deserve so we get a bit of longevity with them. We want them for years, not months, and we have people who have been with us for five and six years, which in the home-care sector is probably unheard of.”

Bluebird Care is a national provider of care in the home, specialising in working with customers who live with dementia, physical disabilities and many other acute and chronic conditions. Bluebird Care work alongside their customers’ families, social services and the NHS to ensure each person receives the care they need.
 
Bluebird Care offers a unique service of tailored care visits which range from anything from 30 minutes to full live-in support. As well as personal care they also help with meal preparation, welfare checks, shopping, social trips, visits to the hospital and provide extra support for post-discharge customers.
 
For more details about new salaries for care assistants and to find out about job opportunities contact Bluebird Care by calling 01932 567593, emailing elmbridge@bluebirdcare.co.uk, or by visiting their website at www.bluebirdcare.co.uk/elmbridge-runnymede