About

The Home Straight was founded by sisters Olivia Robertson DipCOT SROT* and Clare Cooper M.A. in March 2012 with the goal of helping older people live, for as long as possible in their own home.

They bring a combined total of over 60 years of experience of working for the common good to the mission of The Home Straight which is to help older people move to new homes or adapt their current home in response to life’s changing needs.

Olivia trained as an Occupational Therapist, expertise she has developed over a career spanning thirty years in the public sector, most recently with Angus Council’s enablement team, which helps people become more independent and improve their quality of life. Clare has worked in a variety of management, fundraising and policy roles in the charitable arts and cultural sector, also over three decades. In 2012 she was awarded a place on the Scottish Lloyds Banking Group Social Entrepreneurs programme to help start up The Home Straight.

Born in Tanzania, Clare and Olivia are the daughters of Church of Scotland Missionaries who served in Central and East Africa for 50 years where they specialised in community health and development, most particularly in designing, building and running Leprosariums. They went to school first in East Africa and then in England before going on to College and University.

“Our experience of looking after our own parents in their old age and Olivia’s special expertise in enablement has been the central source of inspiration for developing the service we would like to offer through The Home Straight. We understand the stress and time involved in helping older people decide how they might move and downsize to a new home or adapt their current home. With relations often spread far and wide, close family support through these important times of transition isn’t always possible and sometimes, even if family are close by, their time isn’t flexible enough to enable them give the many hours of support needed. That’s where The Home Straight can help.”

* Diploma of the College of Occupational Therapists, State Registered Occupational Therapist

The Home Straight is a company limited by guarantee without share capital, Company No. 420129. The Home Straight is professionally indemnified and all those who are employed by the company are PVG registered and CRB checked.

We are a Provisional Member of the National Association of Senior Move Managers

We are also the only Scottish member of The Senior Move Partnership.

We support the Voluntary Code of Practice for Social Enterprise in Scotland.