VBS-Healthcare is a CQC-registered family-owned care at home business founded by Chipo and Michael: a husband-and-wife team with over 30 years combined care experience. They have already been providing high-quality care services in Central Bedfordshire and have now recruited care staff local to Hertfordshire so they can continue their success across North Hertfordshire and Stevenage (Hitchin, Letchworth, Stevenage, Baldock and surrounding areas).
“We are a professional and reliable small homecare company and we are known for our warmth, friendliness and value for money. We have a strong caring team who share a real passion for empowering people so they can continue to live a good life in their own homes the way they want to. Relationship building through engagement is the golden thread that runs through everything we do, which instils confidence in our clients and their family – we establish that essential personal connection from the point of initial contact through to the delivery of our flexible person-centred care services.
We truly value our care staff and enable them to be excellent care practitioners through high level training that is provided by Michael and our associates. We pride ourselves on having a working environment that makes people thrive.”
Chipo, Registered Manager, VBS Healthcare
Chipo is a Registered General Nurse and a member of the Royal College of Nursing, and has worked in community, care home, residential home and respite settings for almost 20 years. She has a Mentorship Certificate from St Georges and Kingston University.
Michael is a qualified Coach, Trainer and Business Consultant, and has been the Regional Trainer as well as the Learning & Development Business Partner with Shaw Healthcare (Group) Ltd. He has a Chartered Management Institute Level 7 Strategic Management and Leadership Diploma, a QCF Level 3 Diploma in Health and Social Care and a Level 3 Award in Supervising First Aid for Mental Health. He is a member of the Association of Healthcare Trainers as well as the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
“My daughter Karen is autistic and has dyspraxia. She struggles to cope with her disabilities, senses she does not fit in socially, and this leads to very high levels of anxiety. The combination of poor communication (due to Autism) and clumsiness (due to dyspraxia) makes her messy and untidy and she is unable to manage living alone in her flat without extensive help. Once she gets in a muddle, she is unable to get herself out of it without help. She is now coming up to 50. She had a late diagnosis and to date I have supported her with some outside help from friends. However, I am now in my eighties and less able to give her the necessary support she needs, so Adult Social Care have assessed her as needing help.
That help has come in the form of VBS-Healthcare. They call themselves ‘first aiders’ in mental health. They do nothing medical but can arrange and take clients to medical appointments where necessary. Karen has one carer who comes two days a week. She supervises Karen over her personal care. She keeps the flat clean and tidy, working with Karen at her own pace. She helps with important phone calls, goes with her to her local healthcare appointments, helps with ironing, hanging up, tidying and sorting her clothes, preparing her shopping lists and healthy meals to prevent weight gain, and helping her through difficult times when her daily routine is disrupted when her anxiety increases. She is totally flexible and like a friend to my daughter.
Since the care package started, Karen has been noticeably calmer, with fewer incidents of emotional ‘meltdown’, and is more able to cope with any changes in her life which until now she has found so difficult. Karen lives in a small community, attends church, has many acquaintances and enjoys her independence. This would not be possible without the help and support from VBS-Healthcare – Karen would not be able to live alone in her flat, in the community she knows well and where she has lived for the past twenty years.”
Valarie, Karen’s mother