02/10/2026
J.E.P - The Business Interview 30/09/2026
Agency marks a decade of care and dedication in the community
A coffee catch-up with a friend gave Angela Body the push she needed to launch 4Health Home Care Agency. Now, ten years on, she reflects on the journey and the industry's ongoing changes. Emily Moore reports
When Angela Body met her friend and former colleague, Priscilla Minchinton, for coffee just over ten years ago, she didn't expect their get-together to be anything more than a general catch-up.
As it turned out, however, that social meeting gave Angela the final push she needed to take the plunge and set up her own business.
"I had retired from the hospital a few years ago, but after two years of retirement, I realised just how much I was missing nursing," explained the managing director of 4Health Home Care Agency. "As I was spending a lot of time in the UK visiting my daughters, I decided to do some live-in care work while I was over there.
"While doing that, I was struck by the relationship between the agency I was working with and the NHS. The GPs, district nurses and agency teams were all working together to ensure that the patient stayed at the centre of their care."
Having mentioned to a friend how impressed she was by the model, the next thing Angela knew she was describing the arrangement to Dr Nigel Minihane, then a GP on the island.
"I asked him why we didn't have something similar here and his response was, 'Set it up,'" she recalled. "I went away to think about it, and although I was very tempted, there was also a fear factor around it as I considered where I would get the staff and whether I would be able to do it. Then Island Medical [Practice] said that I had to do it because she had given in her notice."
With Priscilla's action giving Angela the confidence to go ahead, 4Health Home Care Agency was established ten years ago as a GP-supported agency whose team included, from day one, registered nurses.
And that, Angela says, remains a key point of differentiation for 4Health.
"We are different because we are affiliated with two GP practices – Island Medical and Castle Quay – although we support clients from all practices," she said. "We are also different because, thanks to my background as a registered nurse, I could see the advantage of having registered nurses working clinically on the floor, overseeing the care."
While the business started with just Angela and Priscilla delivering care to a "couple of patients", the agency has grown significantly over the past decade, now employing a team of 110 people who support 120 clients.
"We offer everything from hour-long visits and welfare checks to 24/7 and live-in care," said Angela.
But although the business has grown, the founding principles, says Angela, remain unchanged, with an unwavering focus on standards and governance.
"At our core, 4Health is about providing good care, and to provide those high standards consistently requires a lot of governance, training and the staff to support that," she said.
"Before the Jersey Care Commission was set up, I looked at the Scottish health care system to find the standards, policies and procedures to which we all adhered. Now, of course, we have the standards set by the JCC, which I think is very positive as they help to standardise the care we provide and give very clear outcomes that carers and agencies should achieve."
But while describing that as a "positive development in the care industry", Angela also has some frustrations over the way in which community care has evolved in the past ten years.
"Looking after people in their own homes and running an agency where you want to provide high standards of governance is very challenging," she said. "Having a detailed training programme and the staff to deliver it doesn't come cheaply but is essential to providing good care.
"It is therefore a little frustrating when blanket accounting for the government's Long Term Care Scheme is encouraged only to pay the LTC rates, which may not cover the level or amount of care needed. I don't think that all professionals understand what goes into running a private company that is committed to meeting and exceeding the standards. However, I would never compromise on that care or cut out the training or supervision to make our care cheaper."
Indeed, that focus on training is central to 4Health's recruitment and development philosophy.
"The care sector is facing a challenging time, as the ageing population is increasing the demand for our services," Angela reflected. "One of the greatest challenges we face is recruitment, as every agency in Jersey is pulling from the same pool.
"While we have recruited some carers from overseas, it is not easy to find staff locally, and I'm not sure why. It's a lovely and hugely rewarding profession, with great opportunities for career progression and every day is different. I have been in healthcare for many years, and I still learn and grow every day. And, of course, every day, you are making a difference to people's lives."
Faced with difficulties recruiting locally, Angela said many of the 4Health team had joined the business from the UK or Europe and that they had also employed some carers from Zimbabwe.
"However experienced those carers are, they still go through our in-house training so that they are familiar with our policies and procedures," she said.
"Trina Marcroft, our office manager, and Lorraine Nolan, our training and HR manager, are qualified in several areas. Between them, they deliver courses on everything from resuscitation and BLS support to challenging behaviour. Meanwhile, our registered nurses deliver medication and safe handling training, and we also work closely with Dementia Jersey, as around 60% of our clients have memory loss of some form or other."
With the demand for care increasing all the time, Angela says that 4Health is looking at ways in which technology can support clients.
"A lot of clients have cameras in their homes and some who might be confused and tempted to wander have sensors on their doors," she explained. "Some also have sensors attached to their watches or jackets, and we have sensor mats by people's beds."
While that technology may have been in place for a while, Angela is particularly excited about a new pilot scheme funded by Digital Jersey's Impact Jersey programme.
"Evondos is designed to help clients manage their medication more effectively while supporting independent living," said Angela.
"It is a device that reminds clients to take their tablets at the time they need to take them and then dispenses the required medication at that time. If they do not take the tablets, the machine alerts us, so we can check in on them.
"This is ideal for people who do not need a carer but who may forget to take their medication at a certain time. It enables people to retain their independence, while reducing their care costs and freeing up staff, so that they can go where they are really needed.
"It is not about replacing carers but about meeting the demand differently, so that when people do need care, there is someone available to deliver it. The machine also enables us to have video calls with patients and carry out welfare checks, taking observations such as their blood pressure and pulse, without physically going to see them."
This development in technology is, says Angela, one of the biggest changes she has seen in the sector over the past decade.
"If someone had said to me ten years ago that a device like that could help people to manage their medication and that you would be able to take people's vital signs without a nurse, I would never have believed it," she smiled.
But while that has been a positive change, Angela says she is saddened by the way that access to healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists, occupational therapists and social workers has changed over time.
"When I first started, it was much easier to access these professionals," she reflected. "Now, it takes two months to get an occupational therapy assessment, unless you go private, and that is a long time to wait. It is also detrimental to the government's aim of keeping people in their own homes for as long as possible and to keep hospital beds free for those who really need them.
"Because of the lack of occupational therapists and physiotherapists to assess what people need, some islanders are having to stay in hospital longer than necessary, which isn't good for them or for the hospital."
Indeed, Angela is a strong believer that if it is safe for people to stay at home, that is the best option for them.
"It is so important that people can stay at home, as they are usually happier and healthier in their own space, surrounded by their own things, their pictures and their family," she said. "We also encourage people to keep up their hobbies and to go for little walks with our carers, as walking is essential for elderly people. Staying at home also enables them to continue with our carers, going to the supermarket or to coffee mornings, which helps them to retain a sense of normality and gives them more social interaction."
And that, she says, can be a particularly valuable way of encouraging clients to "accept care".
"One of the things you quickly realise in this industry is that often people don't want care," she acknowledged. "They are forced into it because they need it. Part of our role is therefore breaking down that initial resistance and building a relationship so that they start welcoming the carer.
"That is one of the lovely things about working in care, as you are always meeting new people and making a positive impact on their lives. And that is one of the reasons that I will be forever grateful to Priscilla for making me take this step ten years ago."
