Care home staff members are a close-knit group – inside and outside work

IT’s not unusual for care homes to become like family, such is the closeness that develops between residents and staff.

But one Perthshire home can lay more claim to the word “family” than others – because no fewer than 13 members of staff are working with a relative. Balhousie Luncarty’s care home team is made up of sisters, two mothers and daughters, step-siblings, a mother and stepson and a couple.

With so many family ties, you could be forgiven for thinking the home is a hotspot for spats and arguments.

But new home manager Cheryl Banks says it’s the opposite.

“I was shocked when I learned so many staff were related,” she said. “They are all really professional and tend to leave their relationships at the door.”

For sisters Kayleigh and Lauren Chalk, being related and working together is a positive. Kayleigh, 32, a senior carer said: “We can be open with each other and we can say how it is.” Lauren, 30, added: “We don’t see each other as sisters, we work more as professionals. But the benefit of being related is there’s a silent understanding between us, a better communication.”

Care assistants Karen Walker and daughter Erin Walker have worked in no fewer than four jobs together, the last as inhome carers.

They put their successful co-worker relationship down to the fact they are, in Karen’s words, “totally opposite”.

She said: “I’m quite forward and Erin is not. “I’m the one that jumps in first and asks questions later. Erin is very laid back. She makes me a lot calmer.”

Carer Carolyn Nicholl has not only her son Scott,

28, as a colleague but her stepdaughter Rachel Guthrie, 21.

Rachel says she keeps the family element out of her work, saying: “I don’t think about it.

“When we’re working together we’re colleagues, not family members.

“We’ll catch up with each other outside of work and that’s when we check in and see how things are going for us in the home.” Isabel Garrido moved here from Andalucia, Spain, with her partner Jorge Moya.

They have one important rule, though: they don’t discuss work outside of work.

Isabel said: “We make sure we have other subjects we talk about. “I think it’s brought us closer together because of that.”

Other family co-workers at the home include: Katie Burns and her stepson Martyn White and Louisa Harley and her daughter Grace.

For Cheryl, having family members make up so much of her staff is a bonus.

“At the end of the day they have each other’s backs and that’s a really valuable thing when you’re working in this profession,” she said.