Carer celebrates decade with Norfolk company

A Norfolk carer is celebrating ten years in the job she loves and is now a proud member of a Rapid Response team.

Lucy Bambridge joined family-run care provider Extra Hands in June 2014 and came from a background in retail, although always interested in the care industry.

“I think I wanted to do care work when I was younger, but ended up working at Primark,” she said. “But then my grandad was really ill and I helped look after him. It made me realise, ‘Actually, I could do this.’

“When I first joined, I didn’t start work as early, as I used to take my son to school first, but, as he got older and didn’t need me as much, I was able to change my hours to suit. That flexibility is really good when things in your life change.”

Now part of the Rapid Response Team at the company’s Broadland headquarters in Horsham St Faith, the 35-year-old enjoys the variety of her role.

“It’s kind of a bridge between the office and doing care work,” she explained. “It’s the best of both worlds. I wouldn’t just want to be in the office, and it’s nice to see the service users. The split varies, and, at busy times, we might spend more time doing care work.

“Part of the Rapid Response role is that we go out and gather all the information about the service users before the carers go out to visit them.

“If someone is unwell, you may have to go off and cover their work. I can get a phone call at half six in the morning and off I go in one direction, whereas it might be a completely different direction the next day. You always have to have a couple of different plans.”

Miss Bambridge, of Aylsham, was a regular carer at Extra Hands before switching to Rapid Response, and still relishes that side of her job.

“I enjoy going out into the environment and supporting the service users,” she continued. “You can really see the difference that we make to some people’s lives. Some of them might not have any family and might not get to see anyone else. They really rely on the care agency to manage a lot of different things for them.

“It’s those people that you know you’ve made such a difference to their lives, and that you know wouldn’t have managed to stay in their own homes without help.”

Having completed a Level 4 NVQ while at Extra Hands, she appreciates the support network within her working environment.

“Extra Hands is a very nice company to work for, and it’s obviously not a giant corporation” she added. “We’re family-run, and it’s a homely place. Everyone is working together, and everybody knows each other. Everybody has worked their way up, so everyone knows what it’s like to be a carer.

“It’s nice that if you’re talking to someone on the phone, or if you see them when you’re out and about, you know who that is. You get to put faces to the names. In a bigger company, you lose that. As a smaller company, it’s still very person-centred.

“I tend to stick where I am once I’ve found something I like. Extra Hands works very well for me.”

Extra Hands provides bespoke home-care packages across Norfolk and also has an office in Heacham.