A NORTHWICH homecare provider has officially received one of the UK's highest accolades in business after 'impressing' the Queen.

Home Instead Senior Care, which has an office based in Hartford, provides care for 130 clients across Northwich and Knutsford.

The homecare provider found out it would be the first recipient of the Queen's Award for Enterprise for innovation last year.

Staff were officially presented with the top honour by Lord Lieutenant David Briggs, who is Her Majesty's representative for Cheshire, on January 20.

He said: "The Queen has been so impressed with your single-minded determination to give the elderly what they want – to cherish or dare I say to love and to truly care for them – and for that you are today presented with the award.”

Home Instead Senior Care is the first provider of its kind to receive this particular award due to the different model of companionship-based care they brought to the UK care sector in 2005.

Martin Jones, Home Instead Senior Care's UK managing director, said: “We are the first and only homecare brand ever to have received a Queen’s Award for Enterprise.

“To receive the award for innovation is, I think, a real reflection of the truly pioneering approach we have taken to providing care for older people in Knutsford and Northwich and across the UK.

“Receiving this award has been a wonderful way for us to celebrate the start of 2017 and we’re looking forward to another fantastic year ahead of us.”