A Shrewsbury based care company has invested in a brand new Centre of Excellence in order to promote the highest standards of care for people living in the county.

Bluebird Care, which offers a professional home care service enabling clients to stay in their own homes and live as independently as possible, is also looking to double its workforce county-wide in the next 12 months from 50 to 100 staff.

The centre, at Bluebird Care’s head office in Bayston Hill, Shrewsbury, is believed to be the first of its kind in the county and has been created for training, education, practice and development to improve standards of care.

The care-at-home service in Shrewsbury, Church Stretton, Oswestry and the surrounding areas is available to any adult or elderly person who needs assistance with everyday tasks.

It has been successfully trading for four years. The new centre is part of the company’s strategy for 2013 to become pioneers for home care. It will enable staff to further develop and improve skills and help them to gain more qualifications. Staff joining the company are invited on a three day intensive training course as part of an ongoing training programme.

In addition to this, the new centre will enable them to brush up on or learn specific topics or skills and improve confidence. They can then choose to obtain formal qualifications such as QCFs (Qualification Credit Frameworks) in conjunction with Ludlow College.

Staff can practice with particular equipment to gain more confidence and expertise and outside expert trainers are invited in to talk on specific subjects such as dementia, diabetes and infection control.

Ian Barnes, Director of Bluebird Care, said: “We pride ourselves on the fact that we already offer a very high standard of care to all of our customers and the feedback we get reflects that. We want clients to feel as comfortable and independent in their own homes as possible.

“We are moving forward in 2013 and we want to encourage and enable our staff to become experts at what they do. We actively encourage further training and qualifications. In the future, we will be able to train other people in particular areas such as hoisting or medication to help their own family members and improve their quality of life.”

Ian would like to welcome more people into the care sector and ensure they are fully equipped to look after those in their care. Ian added: “We are currently recruiting and hope to double our work force in the next 12 months. We had 11 new employees starting in February.

If anyone is interested in working in the care sector, with flexible hours, both full or part time and now offer health cover for all staff, we would really like to hear from them. And with our new centre, we are confident we have a lot to offer to a future career.”

For more information, please call Bluebird Care on 01743 874343, email shropshire@bluebirdcare.co.uk or visit www.bluebirdcare.co.uk/shropshire