Sam’s Helping Hands is a family led home care provider with a focus on helping people live their lives to the fullest, in a place they call home. Founded in 2020 they have quickly established themselves as a leading service in the Greater Manchester area, winning ‘Fastest Growing Company in the North West’ at the Bizx Awards in 2023 as well as their Director, Shahid Farooq, picking up the ‘Leading the Way’ award in the 2023 Tameside Cristal Care Awards.
Sam’s Helping Hands focus on people, building compassionate and understanding relationships from the first assessment. They promote active participation with the people who utilise their service, building trust and engagement through their collaboration.
When an unexpected security breach threatened their entire digital process in September 2022, Sam’s Helping Hands knew they needed to change suppliers, and quickly. Under pressure and in demand, they needed to find the right system, and the right people, to work with their service. We spoke with their registered manager, Alisha Farooq, for an insight into their process, and the benefits they experienced by switching to Nourish Rostering.
What was your motivation for ‘going digital’?
“I thought it’d be easier. We knew a lot of care companies are using digital platforms and it is the way forward. We believe in digital solutions for care, because we don’t believe in paperwork for the majority of other things. Mainly, we thought it’d be a lot easier.”
What was your motivation for looking for a new digital partner?
“Our previous software supplier went down for a couple of weeks, and we had no access to [the system]. So, we had to resort to paperwork. When we asked, ‘how long it would take to fix’ they couldn’t say. There wasn’t a timeframe for when everything would be sorted, because they had been hacked. So we couldn’t wait around. We wanted something we could quickly switch over to. We asked a lot of people and other care companies that we work closely with for their advice. They were switching over to Nourish Rostering, and talking about how you were the best option, so we set up a demo.”
What happened when your reached out to Nourish?
“I had a demo with Darragh, one of the salespeople at your company, and he was brilliant. He was really fast and effective. He understood the situation we were in and how desperate we were. It’s a really easy system to use. For our staff, Nourish Rostering is straightforward, so they all started using the system quickly.”
How was the onboarding process?
“The onboarding was a really positive experience. Once we signed up, we got straight to it. Jess was my account manager, and she was great, she spoke to me and learned about what information I needed in my system. The training was really effective and helped me understand the Nourish Rostering platform.
While I was trying to figure out if I had any follow up questions, she told me to just give her a ring direct on her line whenever I needed her, which I did! The onboarding process was really quick, but that’s because we wanted it to be. Jess did say ‘we can take our time with the training,’ but after explaining to her how quickly we needed things up and running, she did the initial training quickly and effectively with me online. She explained everything really well, and when I needed further support, I just gave her a ring.
We found the process really easy and supportive. It meant a lot to us because we were quite stressed with what had happened with our previous system. Nourish really put us at ease. The whole initial process was nice and I feel like I have a connection I can rely on with Nourish.”
Have you called us for support since?
“Oh definitely! There was one time when I was confused about the finances. Though Jess had gone through it in the training, I just needed a bit more on it. I didn’t want to make any mistakes. So, I called and went through that with her, which was brilliant. Jess was so very supportive, throughout the onboarding process. Nourish still are, so whenever we have any questions, we just ring.
It’s literally as soon as I ring, give it a few seconds and someone always picks up. In my personal experience, I haven’t waited a long time for someone to help. And I’ve always had someone resolve the problem really quickly and over the phone. Nourish are really supportive, I know I can reach out any time or many times in the day and someone will answer.”
You’ve mentioned how security was the driving motivation to change systems, have you noticed any other benefits since joining Nourish?
“There have been a lot of benefits, like when Sam’s Helping Hands joined Nourish Rostering, we also went digital with your eMAR and I really like the call monitoring page, that’s something that stood out to us straight away. Because it shows, even at present, with who’s logged in at the moment. I really like that feature. I’m really impressed with how up to date the information is. It definitely has enhanced our services because we can act upon things straight away.
For example, with the call monitoring page, if someone’s only been there for 80% or 70% of the call time, we can straight away ring and query why they haven’t remained the full time with the service user. We can also act upon information from the eMARs. So, if we haven’t had an alert in a timely manner, we can ring to find out what’s happening. Or if we get an alert and an outcome for not administered, as opposed to administered, then we can question that straight away, and then take any actions necessary. Like informing family, informing their GP and the pharmacy, if needed.
So rather than waiting, because we used to do paperwork MAR charts before so we wouldn’t really know until the next carer would go in. Then it’s more reliant on them to report things, which they may not always do. So then when auditing on a monthly basis, you’re finding out after a full month. Whereas with Nourish Rostering you get alerts, straight away to our phones, to our computers, and then we can make sure that the appropriate actions are taken straight away.
Another Nourish Rostering feature we love is the attachment on handover notes, which we use for photos a lot. It’s been really, really helpful. So that also saves time, because rather than the carer writing their notes twice, we’ll just ask them to upload pictures of anything. It could be pictures of the home, of the care notes, anything they need us to see.
I really like the alert supervisor button. It shows up on our screens as a red notification. That’s another function that I really like.”
How do you utilise the data you are gathering through Nourish Rostering?
“It’s just so easy with the reports, to view things like how long carers have stayed or who is running late etc. I feel like there’s so many report functions that you can view as well as your call and care monitoring page. It really helps when I’m auditing or when I’m reviewing our client’s care needs.”
How much time have Sam’s Helping Hands saved with your new Nourish Rostering system?
“I would say probably more than 50 to 60%. I’m still auditing the reports that I get on the Nourish Rostering system. But I think with how it’s digital it’s a lot quicker than relying on that paperwork. Everything’s all in one place here, so it definitely saves time. It’s all in order. So, I’m not having to look through the paperwork, find out where things are. This is all in order, all in black and white. So I’d say we’ve saved about 50 to 60% of our time across the board.
I’m confident about the future. I know there are a lot of features and functions I haven’t used yet. I am excited to see what I can use and learn about more of the features that can be beneficial to us and our community.”
What would you say to someone who is considering switching to Nourish?
“The team have been really, really helpful. They don’t make you feel like you’re ringing over unnecessary things that, they’re always willing to help and quite quickly, which is such a bonus when we’re working in a quick-paced industry where you need things done straight away. It’s nice to know that your team are willing to support you quickly. My advice would be, we’re happy with Nourish Rostering, we have no issues and would recommend it to others. To us, it’s really easy and effective to use, everything’s straightforward.”
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