Home Instead Senior Care was the Services Category award winner in the SFA National Small Business Awards presented recently (Wednesday, March 12).  They are no strangers to awards having already won the Best Emerging Franchise at the 2006 Irish Franchise Awards.

This is the fourth year of the SFA National Small Business Awards, which are organised by the Small Firms Association, in partnership with O2 Ireland and Bank of Ireland Business Banking. The aim of the awards is to celebrate the achievement, innovation and excellence of small business in Ireland and to pay tribute to their outstanding contribution to Irish industry. As one of the six category award winners Home Instead Senior Care receives a €5,000 cash prize and one year’s free SFA membership.

The Home Instead Senior Care, Cork office, based in Blackrock was established by Noeleen and John Cronin in September 2006 and has grown rapidly to become the leading home care company in the County. Noeleen, who is a RPN and completed both her BSc Nursing & HDip Gerontology in UCC had worked as a Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Community in the area of Psychiatry of Old Age in South Lee prior to setting up the business.

Home Instead Senior Care provides a range of services to Seniors to enable them to live in their own homes for longer than might otherwise be possible. Services include personal care (which could involve assistance with activities such as molitity, walking, dressing and meal preparation) and home care (i.e. light housekeeping, shopping, laundry, attending medical appointments, etc). People with early dementia or Alzheimer’s can also be assisted and convalescent care is available for those who have recently been in hospital.

Home Instead have a full training programme for CAREgivers who are directly employed and whose references are checked thoroughly. They were the first company to introduce Garda clearance checks on all care givers and to  provide transportation for clients to appointments, shopping and on outings. 

Originally set up by Ed Murphy and Michael Kearney in 2005 there are currently eleven Home Instead franchise offices throughout Ireland, five in Dublin as well as one each in Galway, Cork, Wicklow, Kerry, Donegal and Wexford. Future plans for Home Instead Senior Care include the opening of a further four franchise offices during 2008. Internationally there are over 700 offices worldwide, making Home Instead Senior Care the world’s leading provider of Home Care services.

Having been approved by the HSE as a preferred provider of home care services, Home Instead now employ over 750 CAREgivers across the network, many of whom would not have returned to the workforce without the encouragement of Home Instead. This figure is expected to increase to over 2,000 in the next five years.

Home Instead’s Managing Director, Ed Murphy was instrumental in the establishment of the Irish Private Home Care Association to represent the interests of the Private Home Care sector in Ireland and to achieve industry status. He is currently President of the Association which has been successful in getting VAT abolished off home care charges, getting increased tax relief for those employing home care services and obtaining FETAC approval for standardised training of all home care workers. Ed Murphy is also an active member of two HSE committees set up to improve the standards of home care in Ireland.

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