Our carers
Eight in every hundred
That's how many applicants make it onto the Willowmere roster. The ones who do are employed by us — trained, supervised, insured and known by name in the office. Here is exactly how we choose the person we'll bring to your parent's door.
The vetting, step by step
Not a badge — a process. Every stamp below is a real gate an applicant either passes or doesn't.
- 01Passed
Police & background check
National police check and working-with-vulnerable-people screening, renewed on schedule, on file before the first interview.
- 02Passed
References, actually called
Two professional referees, spoken to by phone by a senior staff member — including the question "would you have this person care for your own mother?"
- 03Passed
Interviewed in person, twice
Once for skills and judgment, once for warmth — because you can train a transfer technique, but you can't train kindness into a Tuesday morning.
- 04Passed
Paid trial shifts, supervised
New carers work alongside a senior carer before they ever hold a roster of their own.
- 05Passed
Supervised for life
Unannounced quality visits, quarterly reviews of every care plan, and a care manager who reads every visit note. Vetting doesn't end at hiring.
Marion Hale
Senior carer · 9 years with Willowmere
"Mum saves the hard crossword clues for Marion. She'd sack us all before she'd lose her." — Elsie's daughter
Tom Whitcombe
Carer · 4 years with Willowmere
"Dad won't say he looks forward to Sundays. He just wears the good cardigan." — a client's son
Gwen Ashby
Dementia care lead · 7 years with Willowmere
"Gwen learned the words to Mum's hymns. I cried in the car when I heard them singing." — a client's daughter
The continuity promise
Care only works when the face at the door is a familiar one, so we roster the other way around from most agencies: the carer is fixed first, the hours flex second. 92% of Willowmere visits are made by the client's regular carer, and cover carers are introduced in advance on a quiet day — never sprung on a family mid-crisis.
Your roster is published a fortnight ahead with names, days and times. If it ever has to change, you hear it from us by 7am — with the covering carer's name, not an apology and a mystery.
The team behind the carer
You're never managing a lone worker. Every Willowmere family has three people on their side:
Your carer
The familiar face on the roster — the one who knows the tea order and the hard crossword clues.
Your care advisor
The person who designed the written week, reviews it quarterly, and answers the care line when you ring.
The care manager
Reads every visit note, runs the unannounced quality visits, and owns the 2am phone.
I started Willowmere after watching my own family try to arrange care for my grandmother — four agencies, eleven different carers in three months, and not one of them knew she took her tea black. The rostering problem isn't hard. It just requires deciding that the same face at the door matters more than the convenience of the schedule.
We decided. Fourteen years later it's still the only real policy we have.
Eleanor Marsh
Founder & care director
Meet your carer before you decide.
We'll propose a carer for your family and introduce you — at the kitchen table, not over a form. If it isn't right, we propose again. Care starts only when you say so.
Arrange an introduction