Business

Top Tips for Starting a Small Business in the UK

If you are a young entrepreneur or a seasoned business professional, you may have already considered starting a new small business. For millions of business-minded people, this can be a key way to shape your financial destiny and escape the routine of conventional 9-5, Monday to Friday employment. However, when starting a new small business in the UK, you must have a clear and relevant business plan, together with a keen understanding of your target market, predicted demand for your products or services, and a knowledge of business legislation.

This knowledge will allow you to...

Full story

Val Watson

Val Watson

Posted:

Care provider urges contact through social distancing with elderly to reduce loneliness.

Care provider urges contact through social distancing with elderly to reduce loneliness

Authored by Reporters
Posted: Mon, 05/04/2020 - 12:06pm

EXETER residents are being encouraged by a care provider in the county to maintain contact through social distancing with elderly relatives, friends and neighbours to prevent loneliness following Coronavirus restrictions (May 2020).

Guardian Homecare says many older people are becoming lonelier as they are not getting enough social interaction, and this can have a devastating impact on their physical and mental wellbeing.

Catherine Porter, Manager at Guardian Homecare, which has teams operating in Exeter and surrounding areas, says: “The Campaign to End Loneliness says...

Read more
South Devon care provider welcomes new national adult social care recruitment campaign.

South Devon care provider welcomes new national adult social care recruitment campaign

Authored by Reporters
Posted: Wed, 04/29/2020 - 10:35am

A SOUTH Devon care provider has welcomed a new national Government-driven adult social care recruitment campaign launched to boost the workforce and attract more staff into the sector (April 2020).

The initiative ‘Care for others. Make a difference’ was launched last week (April 23) to help attract more people into social care and to highlight their vital role during the pandemic.

Catherine Porter, Manager at Guardian Homecare, which has teams operating in Exeter and surrounding areas, says: “We heartily welcome this industry-wide campaign to inspire the public to consider...

Read more

Exeter College links up with Food4Heroes to provide meals for NHS staff 

Authored by stephendixon
Posted: Thu, 04/23/2020 - 10:57am

Exeter College has offered its state-of-the-art industrial kitchen facilities to Food4Heroes; a charity that provides free nutritious meals to frontline NHS staff during the Coronavirus pandemic.

The College’s @34 training kitchens will now be in use providing nutritionally balanced, free meals to NHS staff. These meals will include a vegetarian and a meat option and allergens will be listed on the dishes provided. Meals will be distributed to Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital in microwavable containers for NHS staff to take.

Food4Heroes launched in response to the...

Read more

PPE4Exeter Campaign Raises over £3,000 of £26,000 target in first weekend

Authored by stephendixon
Posted: Thu, 04/23/2020 - 10:31am

A grassroots community project has raised an incredible £3000 in aid of their production of vital Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for community-based health and care workers in their first weekend. They are hoping to continue raising around £1000 a day to keep up with the demand for face shields in the local community.

The PPE4Exeter project was launched last week in order to raise money for the materials needed to produce face shields for use by vital community services during the Coronavirus crisis. To date they have distributed over 1200 face shields to a variety of staff...

Read more
Manager for Guardian Homecare, Catherine Porter.

Care industry’s image is changing in Devon in wake of COVID-19

Authored by Reporters
Posted: Tue, 04/21/2020 - 11:00am

A LEADING Devon care provider says the home care sector’s image is changing in the wake of the Coronavirus crisis as more people realise how vital and skilled it is (April 2020).

Domiciliary care was perceived as being low-status, unskilled work before the outbreak, but Guardian Homecare, which has teams in Exeter and surrounding areas, says this has now altered.

Manager for the service provider, Catherine Porter explains: “We’re helping shield our elderly and vulnerable service users every day as requested by the Government and we’re also preventing any non-essential...

Read more

Hundreds of businesses not yet applied for Covid-19 funding

Hundreds of businesses in Exeter invited to make a claim for a grant to help them through the Coronavirus outbreak have yet to do so, Exeter City Council has revealed.

The Council is helping distribute £25 million of government funding in the form of either Small Business Grants or Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants.

Last week, the Council wrote to 2,000 businesses in Exeter inviting them to make a claim.

And on Thursday evening, only around a third to a half of those businesses eligible had responded.

City Council Director Bindu Arjoon said they...

Read more
Manager for Guardian Homecare, Catherine Porter.

Laid-off Devon tourism workers asked to take Care jobs in COVID-19 crisis

Authored by Reporters
Posted: Thu, 04/09/2020 - 3:46pm

DEVONIANS laid-off or made redundant from tourism, hospitality or catering roles due to restrictions and business closures related to the Coronavirus are being asked to become carers (April 2020).

As COVID-19 cases rise, Devon’s homecare service providers, who are at the frontline like other healthcare professionals, are urgently seeking more staff to care for the vulnerable and elderly.

Catherine Porter, Manager at Guardian Homecare, which has teams operating in Exeter and surrounding areas, said: “Approximately 49,000 people normally work in Devon’s tourism industry...

Read more
Guardian Homecare Manager, Catherine Porter.

Guardian Homecare helps those unemployed and laid-off due to COVID-19 back to work

Authored by Reporters
Posted: Wed, 04/01/2020 - 3:51pm

AN EXETER care agency is offering to take-on those unemployed and looking for work due to business closures following the Coronavirus crisis and to re-train them as qualified home carers (April 2020).

Guardian Homecare needs hundreds of new staff to help boost its teams, so it can shield the vulnerable and elderly it looks after and keep them safely at home.

Catherine Porter, Manager for the service provider, which operates in the Exeter and surrounding areas, says: “We’re currently coping very well, and our teams are fulfilling their roles as normal. However, as frontline...

Read more

Workplace fatalities increase - how safe is your business?

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has released their key accident figures for 2018/19. They provide stark reading;

147 workers killed at work (an increase of 6 since 2017/18)

69,208 injuries to employees reported through businesses under the HSE reporting scheme RIDDOR

28.2 million working days lost due to work-related illness and workplace injury

£15 billion estimated cost of injuries and ill health from current working conditions (2017/18)

The figures make it very clear how important it is that South West businesses maintain a focus on health...

Read more

National accreditation for Exeter College counselling qualification

Authored by stephendixon
Posted: Fri, 03/13/2020 - 11:39am

Exeter College’s Advanced Professional Diploma in Counselling Theory and Therapeutic Practice has been accredited by the National Counselling Society (NCS), providing professional backing to the Level 4 qualification being offered by the College for adult learners.

The accreditation means that the NCS, one of the country’s leading professional bodies in this area, has signed off on the teaching and learning on the qualification and believe that the course develops students who are safe, competent and ethical to practice counselling professionally.

As part of the...

Read more

Top video

Selco Builders Warehouse | England Rugby star Jack Nowell visits Exeter Saracens junior teams

England ace Jack delivers tips to Saracens

Exeter Weather