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05/10/2011 - Mayor of Wimborne Welcomes Candlelight
A warm welcome from the Mayor of Wimborne marked the opening of our new office in Kings Court, Wimborne.
Cllr Robin Cook cut the cake and addressed more than 50 people, including clients and guest speakers at the Allandale Community Centre where we presented our vision for providing a service in the Wimborne, Poole and surrounding areas.
The Mayor congratulated Candlelight on providing such an excellent service to the community even in its first few months and said he looked forward to working closely with us in the future.
Candlelight was awarded a Borough of Poole council contract in the spring to provide care at home for older people in an area which largely covers the Broadstone, Waterloo, Merley and Oakley areas.
Seventeen new carers’ jobs have been created so far and staff numbers will increase as we build our client base. We are already providing more than 200 hours of care per week to clients in Wimborne and North Poole.
Managing director Liz Kirkham said: “We are delighted to bring our long-standing experience and expertise to this area. We already have an office in Sherborne so our base in Wimborne gives us the opportunity to extend our services to more people.
“A recruitment day by the Bournemouth Echo provided most of our staff to date and we hope to take part in another next month as we need to recruit more care staff.”
New area manager Barbara Perkins, who originally comes from Bournemouth, has moved back to the area from Shropshire to take up her role. She is joined in the office by care co-ordinator Mandy Cope from Canford Heath and care staff manager Nick Rigler who is on secondment from our branch in Wiltshire.
Mrs Perkins emphasised the need for more care staff and said anyone interested could contact her at the Wimborne office and although previous experience is preferred it was not essential as Candlelight operates a thorough training programme.
“All our care staff attend thorough induction and training courses before they are allowed to work with clients and receive on-going training and supervision throughout their career with the company,” she said.
Our Company founder Cherry Catley Day paid tribute to the dedication and hard work of care staff. Other speakers at the event included Cathy Johnson, of Healthpoint Dorset, dog trainer Sally Long, of Tellington TTouch, Kelly Rogers, of MJP Law, Susan Dennett of Caring Canines and Bridget Long, of NU Skin Enterprises.
