KIND call centre workers are ringing the changes in a friendship partnership with senior citizens at a Greenock care home.

Employees from EE at Cartsburn have joined forces with staff and residents at Bagatelle to launch Care Home Companions - a scheme aimed at getting older people chatting on the phone to help alleviate loneliness.

Around 30 members of the EE team have already pledged to make two 30-minute calls twice a week to the older ladies and gents in the home, and will build it up to a call for someone every day.

The centre has provided the home with a phone and staff will call the residents at designated times through the week.

EE concierge Liesa Low says the initiative has been a great success so far.

She told the Telegraph: "The staff are loving it.

"It's giving them a chance to speak to people they wouldn't normally have any contact with.

"They're finding out about all the wee things they have in common and it's helping them develop a whole new way of communicating.

"They have to show a lot of patience and understanding and listen very carefully, and know how to keep the conversation going."

Care Home Companions started as a national pilot back in 2020 and has just been rolled out across Scotland.

Staff at the Greenock call centre started training for the volunteer roles last year.

Liesa said the team are keen to extend the scheme out to other care homes, and to introduce video calls to forge even stronger friendships.

To celebrate the launch of the Care Home Companions partnership, Norma Rennie's EE team dropped off some games, puzzles and sensory items for residents bought with £250 vouchers from the company.

The big-hearted workers also planted winter veg seeds which will grow into crops to be harvested in the autumn.

Team member and talented performer Kye Danny West even treated residents to some tunes and there was a lunchtime barbecue.

Bagatelle activity development co-ordinator Diana Knox said there had been fantastic feedback from residents so far.

She added: "This is a wonderful thing for our residents.

"A lot of families can't visit as much as they would like to.

"With this initiative, residents will always have someone to chat to and will always know they have a friend on the other end of the line.

"It's going to be fantastic for building connections and gives our residents something to look forward to every week."

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GOOD CALL The team from EE with Diana Knox and resident Anne Norwell, who was the second person to receive a phone call under the new scheme.