Integrating The Generations

Right at Home franchisee Ruth Solomons is introducing activities that will benefit both younger children and her older clients

EWIF Franchisee of the Year finalist Ruth Solomons has built a trusted business right in the heart of her local community.

As her Right at Home care franchise grows over the £1 million turnover mark, she plans to introduce inter-generational activities that will benefit both younger children and her older clients.

Positive impact

Since opening in 2014, Right at Home Harrow has been having a positive impact on clients, their family and friends, as well as the wider community, largely because managing director Ruth ensures her growing team of carers work to her ethos of treating clients as if they were family.

Ruth, a former assistant head and biology teacher, explains: “I wanted a business opportunity that would allow me to be successful and I really wanted to be able to provide high quality care.

“This is what drew me to Right at Home initially. They work to a very high standard and I find the emphasis on keeping clients at the centre of what we offer is not dissimilar to keeping children central to the education process.”

Right at Home is a home care management franchise that encourages its network of owners to develop their businesses in their own way and is ideally suited to someone who wants to make a difference in the lives of the people who use the company’s services.

“I originally chose to work in education because it has the power to transform people’s lives,” Ruth says. “My aim now is to improve life for adults in their ‘sunset days’ in their own homes by providing the highest quality of care and assistance and to use new initiatives to go the extra mile.”

Last year, Ruth extended her services to offer live-in care, tapping into the huge demand for a viable alternative to residential care.

“We had clients who wanted to stay at home, but needed the reassurance of having someone with them,” she says. “Some originally came to us with low level needs and are now using live-in care to enjoy the comfort of their own home for as long as possible.”

Workshop partnership

Ruth also devised a plan to introduce inter-generational workshops and with Right at Home’s support is now partnering with another franchise business that runs events for children.

“My dad was in a care home and he absolutely loved it when children were brought in to see the residents,” she says. “Having seen first-hand the positive impact inter-generational interactions can have, I’m going to host some craft workshops for clients, local small children and the wider community.

“By encouraging different generations to interact together, we can bring something new to all of their lives. Supporting our clients to leave the house and engage with their local community can have a big impact on their emotional and mental well-being.”

Home care franchising has not only allowed Ruth to build a million-pound turnover business, it’s enabled her to bring together two worlds she knows and loves to enrich people’s lives in her local community.