15 Dec 2023

1st Homecare named as a top 20 UK homecare group

Home care provider, 1st Homecare Group, is celebrating as they have recently been ranked amongst the top 20 small home care groups in the UK for 2023.

This is the fourth year running that the home care group, which provides visiting carers to elderly and vulnerable people across Oxfordshire, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire, has received this accolade. The awards are run by homecare.co.uk, the leading UK Home Care review website with 11,856 Providers, 2.5 million+ visits per year & 54,520 Home Care reviews.

1^st Homecare has established branches in Oxford, Leighton Buzzard and Kings Langley caring for clients in the city and surrounding area. The award-winning care company employs carers who are highly trained professionals who regularly visit clients to support them to remain in the comfort of their own homes in the safe knowledge that their medical and other needs, are being met. 1^st Homecare also provides live-in care to those who want companionship or require more specialist, around the clock, care.

The Oxford and Leighton Buzzard branches have a review score on homecare.co.uk of 9.7 out of 10, and the Kings Langley 9.8, with the majority rating of 5 stars - an excellent score. The reviews are from clients or their family or friends who have submitted them directly to homecare.co.uk, which vets every review to ensure it is genuine. One client’s review read: “My mother has been using 1st Homecare for more than two years when she came out of hospital after breaking a hip. At her request, the care visits have been 'tidal' depending on her health condition - from 4 visits a day to three visits a week to everything in between. 1st Homecare's flexibility is so valuable to her...giving her exactly the support she needs to allow her independent living. All the carers are professional and pleasant but most have become friends to talk to. The Oxford office manager and her team are always kind, efficient and very responsive in an emergency. 1st Homecare is a real comfort to me...a son whose minimum response time is two hours and my brother's whose minimum response time is 3.5 hours.”

Michelle Brown, local Oxford branch manager who has worked for the company since 2010 said: “I am so pleased for the team to be recognised for their hard work and dedication. I have such a committed and professional team of carers here, most of whom live locally and know the area and the community well. Many of them have worked with us for over ten years and they have a fabulous connection with their clients and their families.”

The annual homecare.co.uk Home Care Awards 2023 recognises 20 of the top-rated Home Care groups nationally (excluding Northern Ireland) based on independent reviews from service users/clients and their family/friends. There are 2 categories for Home Care Group Awards:

Top 20 Large & Mid-size Home Care Groups 2023 (4+ Group Members)

Top 20 Small Home Care Groups 2023 (2-3 Group Members) – 1^st Homecare comes within this category.

John Rennison, CEO of 1^st Homecare, who is also a director and Treasurer of the Homecare Association, the organisation representing homecare providers in the UK, commented: “This award really recognises the efforts of our carers, who are in high demand at the moment. The public has learned that staying at home is the safest and preferable option for our elderly or disabled relatives. The awards and the service homecare.co.uk provides are invaluable to help the public to make an informed choice for their families. With over a million disabled and older people in the UK receiving support and care at home figures continue to rise steadily and for many families it is a difficult choice to accept that someone needs help. So having this service helps in what can be a very emotional decision.”