WITHIN three years of launching a residential care home, Linda Woodhead was juggling her new business with a young family.

Linda opened Sherbutt House in Pocklington 37 years ago with just four residents and eight staff.

Within the first year, she gave birth to her son Craig, followed two years later by triplets, Darren, Leigh and Shelley. She later had another daughter, Chloe.

Sherbutt House is now a thriving business with 50 full-time residents and more than 80 employees - and a contender for The Press Family Business of the Year Award.

Sherbutt House, consisting of Sherbutt Residential Services Ltd and Sherbutt Home Care Services Ltd, provides care and support for adults with learning disabilities.

Darren Woodhead said his mum had sacrificed a lot of time with her own children to build the company into the success story it is today.

All of her children are now actively involved in the company: Leigh is the registered manager, Shelley is HR director, Darren, is now the finance director and oversees all aspects of IT, communications and property, Craig has an active care role, and Chloe, aged 22, is a shareholder and undertaking her masters degree at York university while assisting with remote working for IT issues.

Linda’s husband of 22 years, Peter, was also head of maintenance of all 12 properties.

In 2011 the couple retired to Spain. The pandemic struck last March when they had been due to fly back after a visit - Linda returned to work on the front line and ensure service users and staff remained safe.

“It’s been a massive concern for her children to see her working seven days a week for the last 18 months.

"She has unselfishly made trips to hospitals at 3am, got back to work for 7am, worked till 7pm most nights to ensure we get through this,” said Darren.

He said they prided themselves on being a family-run company and sharing their family values with the residents, while striving to give staff a work life balance, including well-being and bonus schemes and paying above the national living wage.

“The last 18 months have definitely been the most challenging to us as a business and if it wasn’t down to the hard work of all my family members and staff team then I don’t believe we would have kept all of our residents protected."

The business has gone digital with care software to keep loved ones updated and improve communication, with a company app for staff to help deliver the highest standards of care.

The Press Business Awards are open to businesses from all sectors and of all sizes in York, North and East Yorkshire. Enter at yorkpress.co.uk/business/awards