A NEW business offering bespoke home care packages has been launched - with a recruitment drive underway.

Brother and sister, Dez Ward and Emma Lea, have set up Minster Home Care, covering York and surrounding areas.

Their domiciliary care service offers personal care, such as assisting with bathing, administering medication, companionship services, or respite care for families.

They plan to move into offices at Clifton Moor from May, with space for training and meetings.

The launch follows the success of the siblings' domestic cleaning franchise, Molly Maid York and Harrogate, with their team of employees across both businesses now topping 40.

"Our recruitment drive is ongoing and we hope we have a team of 20 carers by the end of the year," said Dez.

"Our hopes for the business are huge. Statistics prove that home care is on the rise with more and more people wanting to stay in their own home. As directors, our background is already in domestic services, for example, getting staff to the correct house, on the correct time and date when the client requires it. We just felt like going into Home Care was the next step."

Emma said: “We have wanted to start a trustworthy and reliable home care service for many years, after our grandparents received care with varying success. During the last year we have had time to set up our new office, develop and train our staff and become regulated by the Care Quality Commission."

Their focus was to provide quality care, build trusted relationships between clients and carers, and give families peace of mind, added Dez.

“We introduce each carer to our clients in advance and take time to get to know them. We provide the same carers to the same clients, at the specific time that has been requested - we recognise these two things are so important to our customers."

Minster Home Care's registered manager is Jayne Riley, an experienced in-home caregiver and a registered manager with extra care.

She said: “We have already created 10 new care jobs, along with a full training program for staff, ensuring we start with an experienced team who have the correct skills to deliver the best possible care service. We passed our CQC registration assessment in March so we are really excited to start delivering care to our customers.”