A SOUTH Lakeland homecare company is expanding and has created 18 new jobs.

Westmorland Homecare has recruited after opening a new satellite office in Grange-over-Sands.

The office is manned by four full-time staff members and the company has taken on 14 new healthcare assistants to look after people in Cartmel and the Furness peninsula.

It is hoped that more staff will be taken on in future as its operation grows in this part of south Cumbria.

A Kendal-based company, Westmorland Homecare provides hundreds of hours of care each week.

It enables elderly patients and frail people to live independently in their own home.

Its services include specialist home care, such as help with housekeeping and meal preparation, and personal care, such as help with dressing, bathing, and getting in and out of bed.

Dr Josh Macauley, joint director of Westmorland Homecare, said: “We cover an area that ranges from Grasmere in the north, Carnforth in the south, Sedbergh in the east and west along the peninsula.

“We have been operating in the Grange-over-Sands area for a while.

"But staff and clients there wanted to have a local base where people can pop in and talk to us and ask any questions they might have. Opening this satellite office means we can deliver care more effectively because we have local staff looking after local people. It means we can help the community of Grange by being an even more integral part of it. We already have clients in Grange, Flookburgh and Newby Bridge and this office will also allow us to look after people in Ulverston, which is new for us.

“We expect the number of staff we employ to grow because there is a huge demand in that area for our services.

“Our ambition is to be the very best care provider possible and by a having well-resourced, well-staffed organisation embedded within the community we can deliver the best service possible. We want to be able to expand our social clubs into areas like Grange-over-Sands.”

The office is located in the old British Legion building at Kents Bank Road.