Bespoke support and community involvement helps Cherish care company flourish

A PERSON-CENTRED care company is flourishing as it brings high quality, bespoke assistance to help clients live independently and remain in their own homes.

Cherish Community Care Companionship was launched in 2023 by Caroline Winskill and Helen Batty to deliver care, support and companionship in the comfort of people’s homes.

With more than 30 years’ experience between them as managers of local care homes, they recognised the need to bridge the gap between living independently and residential care.

Caroline and Helen explained: “We decided to put our experience together and have a go ourselves. It started out as just us and we’ve built it up from there.

“We spent the first year working all hours and weekends until we could bring on more staff and now we are growing steadily across two sites with 15 staff.”

Caroline’s office covers Saddleworth and Tameside while Helen’s operates in the Wakefield area, supported by their experienced team.

Cherish, which is regulated by the Care Quality Commission, prides itself on providing personalised packages to suit individual needs, preferences, and circumstances for clients aged 18-65 and 65 and over.

They provide companionship, domestic assistance, personal care, respite, complex care, end-of-life care, hospital discharge support, and overnight care.

They also collaborate with families and the community, working alongside professionals such as Dr Kershaw’s Hospice, GPs and district nurses to provide the best possible care and support.

Caroline added: “Clients needs are all so different – from end-of-life care or just help to live their day-to-day lives at home.

“We take the time to work out what is important to the clients and what they want to have, whether that’s just two hours a week or more complex care.

“Our care is bespoke as everyone’s needs are different.

“People can be nervous when we start as we are going into their homes which can feel intrusive but we quickly develop friendships as well as them being clients.”

Caroline and Helen added that Cherish is keen to give back to the community as well, and they entered a team in the Santa Dash in December in Uppermill alongside Dr Kershaw’s in memory of one of their clients.