Today, we’re celebrating our 9th year since we first started. And what better way to introduce our brand new blog? On here, we’ll be sharing information, stories, and more about what we get up to.

To think, 9 whole years have passed since Dawn and Sophia first started Teign Angels! We’ve had the privilege to support just under 200 people in those 9 years, across Newton Abbot and surrounding areas. We remember every single person we’ve supported, and often reminisce as we drive past their old homes.

Noël in Manaton, letting the doves and robins in her window to eat from her hand; Percy in Denbury, who used to have us howling with laughter; Margaret in Kingskerswell, with her daughter’s kittens who would follow us wherever we went; Lorna in Stokeinteignhead…Joseph still puts cheese on his crumpets and grills them! And so many other wonderful people besides.

We’ve accomplished a lot in these past nine years. We’ve built up a reputation for providing ‘the gold standard’ of care, as it has been described. We’ve been recommended by community healthcare professionals to so many people, and we’ve worked alongside them to help deliver the best care we can.

We’ve got a presence on multiple different boards, groups, and panels across the country, including:

• The National Palliative Care and Homelessness Network
• The Community Services Review Co-Production/Co-Design group
• The National Wound Care Strategy Programme, until it ended earlier this year

This year, we launched a DIY guide on advance care planning, for anyone to access for free. ‘Talking for England’ aims to get people doing exactly that: talking for England about what matters most to them. We’ve also introduced free sessions on advance care planning specifically for schools and colleges in our local area, to introduce it to tomorrow’s workforce.

And we’re continuing to build on our support for unpaid carers. In 2024, we were one of the first care providers in the southwest to sign up to the Young Carers Covenant, committing to providing bespoke support to young carers and young adult carers that we work alongside. We signed up to the Carer Friendly Devon schemes this year, run by Devon Carers, to further our support for all unpaid carers, including those within our own team.

We’re so beyond proud of all of our wonderful team, who work tirelessly day-in, day-out to support the amazing people we visit. Over half of our team have been with us since we started, and we couldn’t be more pleased that we get to work alongside them all every single day.

Finally, we want to take a moment to thank a very special lady; a social worker, without whom, Teign Angels would not be what it is today. It might not have even gotten off the ground. She helped us find the very first person we supported – Richard in Kingskerswell. Throughout the years since, she referred people to us all the time…many of whom we still support to this day. She was always looking out for us, and every time we worked with her on reviewing or implementing care for people, we knew she’d fight their corner, no matter what. To have supported her, albeit briefly, at the end of her life was nothing short of an honour.

So here’s to Dorothy ‘Dot’ Walker; a legend of social care in Devon.

As we head towards our first decade next year, we’re excited to see what the future holds for us. We’ve got some plans in motion at the moment, so watch this space!