The Radfield Home Care Conference 2024 highlights

The care franchise’s network shared best practice advice as well as big wins at the business’ annual event

Radfield Home Care hosted its annual networking event for franchisees on 12-13 March. The event was an opportunity for franchise partners to share ideas, challenges, and successes in a non-competitive space.

This year’s conference was named the “Connections Conference”, emphasising the importance of building effective relationships with clients, team members, communities, and fellow franchise partners.

It was also an opportunity for the business to celebrate recently being awarded “Established” status by the British Franchise Association (BFA), after showing seven years of consistent franchise network growth.

The care awards celebrated exceptional examples of home care

On the first evening of the event, the Radfield Home Care franchise network attended the brand’s annual awards ceremony, which celebrates business landmarks and special achievements.

This included two new awards, which were the ‘Be There Moment of the Year’ and ‘Franchise Partner of the Year’.

What are the Be There Moment awards?

The ‘Be There Moment’ awards recognised moments where the office team, or individuals had gone above and beyond to help a client, colleague, or member of the community to be connected, be inspired and/or be themselves.

The awards are part of a wider ‘Be There Movement’ which sees Radfield Home Care put its purpose into action, via something tangible.

Radfield’s purpose is to help people age well by remaining connected to the things that matter most to them.

Be There is both a noun and call to action, as the brand says, being there is what it takes to help people retain those important connections and memories in their life.

The awards commemorated three finalists along with an overall winner.

The three finalist offices were Radfield Home Care Camberley, Farnborough & Fleet, Radfield Home Care Worcester Droitwich & Malvern, and Radfield Home Care Leicester East, Oadby & Groby.

Radfield Home Care Camberley, Farnborough & Fleet

(Left to right - Hannah MacKechnie (Founder & CEO - Radfield Home Care), Richard Gordon (Director & Owner - Radfield Home Care Camberley, Farnborough & Fleet), Claire Kane (Care Manager - Radfield Home Care Camberley, Farnborough & Fleet), Alex Green (Founder & Managing-Director - Radfield Home Care)

The Radfield Home Care Camberley, Farnborough & Fleet team entered an example of their work from the Christmas period.

The team were concerned about their client, David, and how he would be spending Christmas. David is a client the team had built a strong bond with. They knew his family lived abroad and wouldn’t be able to visit him over the festive season.

Not wanting him to be on his own and without a home-cooked Christmas dinner, each member of the team pitched in; taking time out of their own Christmas days to pop over to David’s and cook a part of his Christmas dinner.

Radfield Home Care Worcester Droitwich & Malvern

Left to Right: Hannah MacKechnie (Founder & CEO - Radfield Home Care), Sarah Underhill (Care Manager - Radfield Home Care Worcester, Droitwich & Malvern), Dawn Phillips (Director & Owner - Radfield Home Care Worcester, Droitwich & Malvern), Alex Green (Founder & Managing-Director - Radfield Home Care)

The entry from the Radfield Home Care Camberley, Farnborough & Fleet team involved clients Viv and Freda.

The office arranged a trip to Cadbury World, a trip that was very special for Viv and Freda because the two ladies had both worked for Cadbury in their youth.

The team identified that there was an opportunity to help the pair relive their careers.

“The pair loved every moment and enjoyed reminiscing with the tour guides, comparing their own experiences, identifying what had changed and what had stayed the same,” said Radfield Home Care.

Radfield Home Care Leicester East, Oadby & Groby.

From Left to Right: Hannah MacKechnie (Founder & CEO, Radfield Home Care), Victoria Abel (Deputy Care Manager - Radfield Home Care Leicester East, Groby & Oadby), Sona Bharkhada (Director & Owner - Radfield Home Care Leicester East, Groby & Oadby), Alex Green (Founder/Managing-Director, Radfield Home Care)

The winning entry came from the Radfield Home Care Leicester East, Oadby & Groby team and involved client, Rosemary, who lives with dementia.

It was immediately clear to the team that she had a special bond with her dog, Amber – a senior golden retriever with sight loss.

“The pair were inseparable, to the point the care team would joke that they were getting in the way of Amber’s care. Despite the dementia, Rosemary always had time for Amber and referred to her as “My Treasure”,” said the Radfield Home Care team.

Unfortunately, in late 2023, Amber passed away. Knowing how upsetting and confusing this would be, the care team built a memorial to Amber in Rosemary’s garden.

The gesture was so well received that the team received a letter from Rosemary’s daughter expressing her gratitude.

Dr Hannah MacKechnie, Radfield Home Care’s founder and CEO, said: “Having launched our ‘Be There’ moment of the year award at the Radfield Connections conference, we are absolutely delighted that Sona and her team from the Leicester East office have won.

“The Radfield ‘Be There’ movement is absolutely at the core of Radfield care, going above and beyond to help our clients remain connected to what matters most to them.

“To see such beautiful, caring moments that our offices have created for their clients is truly heartwarming and speaks to the passion and dedication of everyone in our Radfield community.”