The benefits of digital rostering go beyond efficiency. Optimisation is about more than driving shorter routes, it’s about driving positive outcomes as well. Staff scheduling is a complicated, and crucial part of delivering outstanding home care. It requires an in-depth understanding of your area, your community and your team. One that goes beyond simply managing spreadsheets. Truly great digital rostering software gives you the tools to bring all of your experience, data and empathy to bear on the challenge of staff scheduling in home care. 

A good start is half the battle, though in home care it can often feel like an uphill battle at the beginning. Nourish Rostering’s overview puts you in the lifeguard’s seat; with a clear view of your service and the insight to notice trouble before it brews too long. Digital rostering centralises your vital information. You can schedule your clients’ needs and your carers availability as desired, ensuring that every appointment is covered, and every individual involved is well informed.  

You can also fill your system with pertinent information about your service and the people who make it special. Clients can detail their needs, as well as their desires and ambitions. While your carers can include their skills, their interests and their passions. Separately these are useful silos of information, but together in one system they become influential drivers of positive care outcomes. These details can then be combined with geographic factors and clinical skills as you plan appointments and build runs to best match the needs and abilities of your care community. 

That is the core power of digital rostering and home care software. The ability to bring together a wealth of information and put it at your fingertips. Unlock the expertise of your organisation by moving all the vital information from the heads and filing cabinets of your coordinators, onto a digital format. Ensuring no hour, need or opportunity gets overlooked when you are planning your care. This can feel like an uphill engagement indeed at the start! But once crested it brings speed, and specification, to your rostering process.  

Of course, nothing in home care provision is ever straightforward. Which is precisely why home care software needs to be. Any care coordinator knows the unpredictability of a home care rota. Clients’ needs change over time, availability varies for all parties, and no one can ever be certain what awaits them just around the corner.  

Any good home care rostering software needs to be reactive. Our drag-and-drop functionality is exactly that. It gives a succinct, yet detailed, overview of your schedule for the day, alongside the ability to quickly adjust appointments as necessary. Each client’s appointments are clearly shown, as well as the availability of your carers. This gives you the tools to quickly adjust when the inevitable changes need to happen. Digital rostering includes the ability to convey these changes as necessary with your team, so no one misses out on an update. 

Crucially, you can make these decisions efficiently, with the weight of experience and the information of your system behind you. Our ‘Recommend’ a carer feature includes all relevant information on your calls so that you can send the right person to the right appointment every time. These factors include travel time and distance, specified to include mode of transport, familiarity with the client, experience and specific skills required and personal preferences of both the client and potential carers. Each data point further colours the picture of your care, and you can adjust the weighting of these points to match the unique needs of your community. Therefore you are not only planning efficiently, but effectively too, so you can continue to drive positive outcomes with your care. 

Taking care of your team is a crucial part of optimising your staff scheduling. With digital rostering you can empower and inform your carers. Our all-in-one-pocket solution gives your carers a tool that has all the information they need to manage their day. An up-to-date schedule which shows not only where they need to be and when, but travel times in between. Allowing them to plan their routes effectively and adapt to changes with ease and efficiency.  

Our new ‘Time Off’ feature helps you establish and manage your teams holiday accrual. Your carers can review and request time off through their app, promoting optimisation through centralisation of your processes.  Decisions that once took half an hour can now be resolved instantaneously. This frees up your time to focus on people and outcomes, rather than balancing spreadsheets and calculators.  

People are what drives care, and outcomes are how we measure our impact. Understanding that impact comes from understanding the way our care shapes lives. Staff scheduling plays a huge role in this, and call monitoring is key to ensuring your information is up to date and accurate when reviewing your home care rostering. Information like actual appointment times highlight the variety of key care indicators. Such as: consistent patterns in appointment length, travel times, travel mileage and more. You can record, review and report to best shape your appointments to the needs of your community.  

This information can then be combined with other data points to optimise your digital rostering. Do you need to reduce the length of one appointment? Increase the length of another? Adjust runs to balance travel time? Or maybe change carers to account for public transport variances? When you digitise your processes, you position yourself to benefit from all the data you naturally accrue. With the right software, you can take full advantage of this opportunity to improve care quality, care efficiency, and care outcomes.  

Digital rostering offers a range of benefits for your service. It lets you optimise the information you are already gathering and refine it to improve your outcomes as well as your efficiency. Time saving is a fantastic benefit on its own, and one that many care providers who are digitising their staff scheduling have experienced. However, there are far more benefits to unlock beyond efficiency. Benefits that involve everyone in your community collaborating effectively to change the lives of everyone in your community. 

‘Co-production’ is a long-standing practice and a newly minted hot topic in social care. It is based on our ability to involve all relevant people, or ‘stakeholders’ as they say in corporate meeting rooms, in the process of care design. It guarantees that the people who are utilising a care service are involved in the production of that care. An undertaking that lies at the heart of person-led care.  

If people with support, families and commissioners expect this of care providers, then it is only natural that those care providers should demand it from their software suppliers as well. 

At Nourish Care, co-production is central to our design process. It bridges our technical expertise with our user’s care experience to produce effective, efficient solutions. Our user’s input guides our development, with feature requests, feedback forms and beta testing being just some of the essential ways we keep our user’s experience central to our development.  

The latest Innovation to emerge from this process is our new ‘Time Off Management’ functionality for Nourish Rostering and Community. We know that managing rosters is one of the most demanding aspects of providing home care, for both coordinators and carers. We developed our Time Off Management feature to address these challenges directly based on extensive user feedback, advice and industry insights.  

Our new functionality is designed to simplify your time off processes, making it easier to manage leave, maintain coverage, and ensure a smooth operation for everyone involved.  

The features of our new Time Off functionality are all directly tied to the feedback and input of our users. 

Holiday schemes allow for a group of settings to be built and then applied to relevant carers. This grants customisability and flexibility to coordinators while removing the need to configure each carers holiday settings individually. You can group holiday accrual, reference periods, pay methods and more to make the complexities of specificity a simple activity. 

We found the denominator of our feature requests for time off functionality was customisability. It is the most effective way to support the varied and at times unpredictable home care provider’s scheduling needs. 

Features like year start dates for holiday accrual, carry over time settings for different time off types and pay calculations all vary from service to service, and across different governments and geographies. For example, the holiday pay reference period in the UK is 52 worked weeks while in the Republic of Ireland it is a 13-week reference period. It was vital we build these features with the freedom for our users to customise the settings and wrap them around their unique service. 

We have also included a manual entitlement adjustment for coordinators for precise control when desired. A need we discovered when talking to a lot of the participants in our beta testing phase. 

Of course, it wouldn’t be Nourish without analytics and reporting functionality as well. We have a fantastic analysis page to help administrators keep track of their carers time off. It includes a calendar view of all booked, requested and refused time off, a chart of absence types e.g. holiday, sick, bereavement, a table view of the adjustments made to their carer’s entitlement, a table view of requests, their status and the option to filter or edit them as desired. 

We built several key new time off functions into our carer app as well. This gives more insight and control to carers. With our new Time Off Management functionality carers can request leave directly from the rostering app, simplifying the process of requesting time off for a variety of reasons including holidays, sickness and bereavement.

Carers can use the app to review their remaining time off allowance and keep track of requests. We centralised all this information to further our app as the leading carer support platform in home care. Information is power for a carer on the go and with this new functionality we continue to develop our ‘all-in-one pocket’ solution. It provides an overview of their currently accrued time off and helps to make the process of defining availability and accrual more straightforward for everyone involved. 

Carers can use the app to review their remaining time off allowance and keep track of requests. We centralised all this information to further our app as the leading carer support platform in home care. Information is power for a carer on the go and with this new functionality we continue to develop our ‘all-in-one pocket’ solution. It provides an overview of their currently accrued time off and helps to make the process of defining availability and accrual more straightforward for everyone involved. 

For non Nourish users who want to learn more about our approach to co-production and working with us to support their home care service, book a demo. 

We have spent years working on our rostering system to make this as quick and straightforward as possible. Something we could only achieve thanks to co-production with our users through our beta testing processes. We spoke to Samantha Rabvu, Care Manager for TLB 24/7 Healthcare, about her experience participating in our Time Off Management beta. 

“We were paper based for annual leave requests,” explained Samantha. “Which meant someone had to fill in a form and scan it or take a picture of it. Then we were constantly just printing so I could give it to the person who’s approving annual leave. So when the offer to take part in a beta test for time off came along I just thought. ‘I don’t know what it is going to look like, but it sounds like something we could really use.’

“It offered the chance to cut out the middle man, the printing, and give power to both our carers and our coordinators. It was the chance to move to real time updates, rather than requests from a variety of platforms. In December last year we had a whole lot of annual leave requests. Honestly, we lost track of them due to the volume and variety of requests. Which was a major concern for us. So, when I saw that you were building something that could show us how many people are asking for time off and those who are already taking time off before approving any more, it was a game changer for me.” 

“I felt very involved,” said Samantha. “I could see the team was really drawing out our feedback with the questions they asked. ‘How is it going?’ ‘How are you guys using it?’ ‘Are there any adjustments we should make?’ I felt like a real partner that the things were saying were being considered. When we saw one of our suggestions in the next update it was amazing. I’m sure I wasn’t the only one suggesting it, but it was awesome.  

“We were involved throughout the process, even my team here was quite involved. Any issue that they had, they knew they could bring it to me, and I would pass it on. That way we always got things resolved.” 

“They were on it,” said Samantha, “They were on the money. It was so easy. If there was an issue, I’d send a screenshot and they were on it, we looked at it in depth, it was awesome. I had a main contact point but worked with several different members of your team. I just knew that they were there. They had our back, no matter what.  

“They are awesome, friendly, approachable, and we could rely on them 100%. Even the way bad news came was awesome. When something wasn’t ready, we always knew that it was still in development, it’s just not ready yet. We understood because of the communication, and we trusted your team.” 

“We’re on the right track,” said Samantha. “This was a great starting point for me. It was fantastic. Even though I was a little unsure at the start, digital wise, this isn’t something i had a lot of experience with. The process helped us to develop skills and tactics on how to navigate the rest of the digitalization roadmap, which is great.  

“So, I’m hopeful. I’m looking forward to it, it’s exciting, because I feel involved in the process. I feel like we are growing with you, and we can build something great together.” 

The future of social care will be shaped by co-production throughout the entirely of our sector. Lived experience, collaboration, data sharing, all fold together under the guiding philosophy of teamwork and community. We received over 150 feature requests for more advanced time off functionality. Which was the starting point of our development cycle, and a continuing example of our approach to digital social care solutions. 

We still have a long way to go, and we are very excited about the journey. Why don’t you join us? 

Home care software is baked into the future of social care. We witnessed a huge increase in the uptake of digital systems across social care over the past 3 years. A change accelerated by government policy and funding. This considerable uptake brought with it a range of advantages and benefits for care providers. For example, digital rostering systems like Nourish help providers to simplify processes, reduce administration times and record more detailed information. With digital systems becoming commonplace in social care there has never been a more urgent time to switch to Nourish. Admissions for the funding available through Integrated Care Systems will close at the end of November. Even for those providers who are still getting up and running choosing the right digital rostering system is crucial for many reasons. 

Nourish gives you the tools to take full control over your home care administration. This means more than rosters designed for simple and swift use. It means a robust system compiling the wealth of data your teams naturally gather to provide you with a clear overview of what is happening in your community.  

With Nourish you can schedule your carers and clients up to four weeks in advance. Repeating these schedules with ease to improve consistency across your service. Of course, as all home care administrators understand, nothing ever goes totally to schedule. Nourish home care rostering is designed with drag and drop functionality that makes changing your schedule on short notice easier than ever. Our home care software includes a ‘recommend a carer’ feature that is scored based on a range of data points you choose and weight. Such as: familiarity with client, travel to appointment and relevant skills for the appointment’s tasks. So, you can adjust quickly, decisively and with confidence. 

Digital rostering offers benefits beyond simplifying existing paper processes. Nourish Rostering and Community unlock a range of features that put new innovations and fresh information at your fingertips. Call monitoring is a straightforward way to record actual appointment times. Nourish includes geographic location and a range of electronic call monitoring options to suit your needs. Care providers, especially those with local authority and council contracts can attest to the benefits of a robust call monitoring system. 

Crucially, with a quality home care software like Nourish, you can access data at a level previously unattainable with paper. This data is easily presentable and evidencable in trends and reports. You can track different factors regarding your team and community to give you a more detailed overview of your service. These details, like travel times and medical administration, can be fed back into your service to drive positive outcomes. As well as acting as informative evidence for your regulator. 

Nourish home care software supports care providers across your service. Home care requires a great deal of administration and organising. Beyond the design of schedules and care packages there is the crucial matter of making sure everything is in order, and everyone is properly paid. This can be quite daunting for people when they are just setting out their new home care service. Especially those less familiar with operating a business.  

Our invoicing and timesheets are a simple way for you to organise your payroll. You can use Nourish to set specific pay rates and charge rates, to match with the responsibilities of your teams and the services they provide. Our home care software includes comprehensive time-off functionality. Allowing you to set the rate at which holiday is earned, and for your team to manage and request leave through the Nourish home care app. 

Big changes are rarely simple. But with the future of social care coming at us at its current speed, now is the simplest time to do it. The best home care software comes backed up with a human team. People who will work with you to make sure you get everything you need from your system. At Nourish we pride ourselves on being person-led and community-centred. We are incredibly excited about the future of social care, and we’d love to share it with you. 

If you want to find out more about working with Nourish book a demo! 

Time is running out to get funding for Digital Care Records in home care! The Adult Social Care Transformation Fund is available to help care providers move away from paper-based admin and digitise their social care records. It is a key part of the government’s push to have 80% of social care providers using digital social care records by March 2025. However, the deadline for new applications is the end of November 2024.

There is a concentrated effort to align health and social care in the UK, with digital systems playing a fundamental role, as outlined in the 2021 white paper Integration and Innovation.

Implementing a digital system, or going through ‘digital transformation’ as it is more commonly posed can be intimidating. But the benefits are worth the investment. Digital systems can streamline your service, reducing time spent on admin and providing you with previously unavailable insights of the care you provide. There is never enough time to do everything in social care, but digital systems can help you to focus on the things that really matter to your community.

Money makes the world go round. It’s a simple fact, one that is felt keenly in home care. For many providers, digitisation was just another ‘nice to have’ aspect of care provision they could not justify in their budgets. This has since changed as more and more care providers digitise their processes. It is clear the government is moving towards digitisation in health and care, making digital social care records a ‘need to have’. 

Fortunately, funding is available to any CQC registered care provider who has not used a digital social care record before. The funding is provided by your local Integrated Care System and the approved list of digital suppliers can be found on the Assured Solutions List. While funding varies between ICSs it generally covers 50% or more of your first year licence. 

“The Adult Social Care Transformation Fund has been a great enabler for providers as they embark on their digital journeys”, explained Nourish Care’s Head of Partnerships, Denise Tack. “The funding alleviates the initial up-front implementation costs of going digital. It allows providers to rapidly gain access to essential care delivery tools such as GP Connect and eRedbag. Being able to carry a care plan in your pocket is highly transformational. Most of our customers tell me they could never go back to paper!”

At Nourish we are well-versed in supporting care providers to succeed in gaining this funding, and our experience can help make all the difference when working on the reduced timelines new applicants now face. We have helped providers across all of the ICSs and we would be happy to help you too. Reach out to us with your postcode and we will give you the relevant contact details for your local ICS. 

Once you have reached out to your local ICS they will send you a form to fill out for funding. We are on hand if you need advice while completing the application form.

It is important to note that in order to be eligible for funding care providers need to be CQC registered to support adults, be DSPT compliant, have NHS mail and be currently using paper.

We have written previously about the benefits of switching from paper to digital processes. Digitisation impacts social care. Both at its fundamental level of point of care, as well as its regulatory level of decision-making. The future of a more integrated health and social care system lies in digital processes. Information sharing brings us closer together without sacrificing our privacy. Digital social care records are at the heart of that. And with the right funding, the right system, and the right support, you can be too.

Want to find out more about the funding or have any questions answered?

Reach out to us at hello@nourishcare.com, call us on 023 8000 2288 or book a demo of Nourish here.

The Home Care Association Conference is a special event for home care providers. It brings together Association members from across the UK to share the experiences and insights. This makes it a unique opportunity to meet with a wide range of providers, suppliers and key decision makers in home care. We have been eagerly awaiting this opportunity to connect directly with the home care sector and show everyone why we’re so enthusiastic about Nourish Community.

The theme of this conference was ‘The Future of Homecare’, something we at Nourish Care are very excited to be a part of. The day certainly lived up to its billing. Politics, commissioning, and workforce development were just some of the topics we covered, and thanks to the openness and understanding of the attendees there was plenty of positivity to take back home with us. 

The Home Care Association is the premier organisation for home care providers in the UK. Its members include providers of all sizes and locations, and their conferences bring these members together to great effect. Home care can at times feel like the ‘little brother’ of the ‘little brother’ in social care, overlooked and underappreciated. 

We know the reality is far from the truth, as demand for home care continues to grow year on year in the UK. People want to be able to live long, fulfilling lives, in their own homes and communities. We relished the chance to speak to so many amazing providers about exactly how they can help the people who utilise their services achieve this ambition. These discussions are crucial to both our understanding of the realities of providing home care, and the future developments we prioritise for our own system.

The big attraction for events like ‘The Future of Homecare’ are the talks. The headline acts if you will, ready to light up the stage with their passion and perspective. We kicked things off with a bang this year as the HomeCare Association’s CEO Dr Jane Townson OBE was joined by Strategy Governance and Policy Consultant Dr Anna Dixon MBE. Dr Dixon recently chaired a Church of England Commission on ‘Reimagining Care’, drawing upon her wealth of experience which includes being the Chief Executive of Ageing Better and Director of Strategy and Chief Analyst at the Department of Health to name just a few of her previous roles. The talk highlighted the deficit of awareness around social care and the fact that we still lack enough ‘political salience’ to bring about much needed reforms. Work is being undertaken to try and address this issue, especially by fantastic organisations like Social Care Future but a lot of effort remains ahead of us. 

The other talks followed a similar trend of practical insight and experience being combined with actionable results. ‘Commissioning for Better Outcomes’ was a fascinating panel delving into the challenges of commissioning. Thea Stein, CEO of Nuffield Trust revealing a long held suspicion for many in the room that ‘The NHS does not understand Social Care…we are working through it but it is very slow’. Tim Ryley, Accountable Officer for NHS West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board shared some tips on connecting with your local ICB as a care provider, finding the right contact and the benefits of going through the Place Committee where possible.

The talks on the future of caring and workforce were similarly dappled with actionable advice. A particular point of interest for us was when George MacGinnis, Healthy Ageing Challenge Director for UK Research and Innovation pointed out that; “Tech can be complicated and designed at care providers rather than with them.” An important lesson for all suppliers and one that speaks to the mission statement at the heart of Nourish Care. 

The Home Care Association Conference is not just about coming and listening, but about taking part so you can be sure to take something back home with you. The morning and afternoon workshops covered a wide range of topics and offered something for everyone. Perhaps too much at times as it was difficult to settle on which workshop to attend!

Business growth, financial management, technology applications, recruitment, retention and PR were all up for discussion. These talks were led by people who had an in-depth understanding of the topic, but driven by the participants. The interactive sessions further reinforcing the engagement and community that makes being a part of the Home Care Association so worthwhile.

Our team feels energised by our time at The Kia Oval and ready to embrace what the future holds for home care. We could spend thousands of words going through all of the great insights, conversations and people from the conference. (Not to mention the food, quite a spread) However some things you have to experience yourself to truly appreciate and ‘The Future of Homecare’ was certainly one of them. So make sure you don’t miss out on next year, because we can’t wait to go back!

We get it, you’re sick of hearing ‘we get it’. Social care is defined by the uniqueness of care providers and the communities they support. At Nourish Care we are defined by the lessons we’ve learned from working with care providers and creating digital solutions alongside them. From joining our platform, to helping extend it to the families of the people utilising your service, we are a community effort, and we have the functionality and flexibility to work with yours. 

Matching the Needs of your Service

Customisability is essential in digital care software. In order for your service to fit a system, said system needs to have the flexibility to be shaped to your service. Our functionality is rooted in best practice and supported by the comprehensive assessment and interaction libraries our clinical team have developed alongside our users. Each Nourish user has a dedicated Customer Success Manager to work with them and make sure you get everything you need from our system.

Getting Onboard

Your dedicated Customer Success Manager will be a key part of your digital transformation with us. They guide you through your onboarding, learning about your service throughout the process. We know that a good start is half the battle and this approach helps us focus our functionality and match it to the needs of your team and community, helping your team to build their digital confidence throughout the process. Alongside our thorough initial training and set up we also provide a wealth of supporting resources and an expert support team who are only a phone call away if you need extra help.

Circle of Care

Care impacts every aspect of a person’s life, vibrating out along the connections we spend our lives building. It is only natural that these connections will want to know more about the care their loved ones receive. Our ‘Circle of Care’ feature enables you to open up your service to trusted individuals securely. You retain control over the level of access they have, allowing you to share the outstanding care your team provides with the community of the person you are supporting. ‘Wrap around’ and ‘person centred care’ can mean different things to different people, and with Nourish you are well equipped for every iteration.

Digital Security for Home Care

Social care providers are entrusted with a significant amount of private information on behalf of the people they are supporting. This means you need a system you can trust to stay secure against cyber threats. We are dedicated to protecting the confidentiality, integrity and availability of your data with our cloud-based system and permanent record keeping. We have multiple security accreditations: ISO 27001:2022, Cyber Essentials Plus, DPST Toolkit, and membership of the NHS Assured Solution List.

The Right Decision

Integrity is crucial in digital security and social action. We stand proudly by the standard we set for honesty. If we feel we are not the right fit for your service we will tell you, rather than trying to lock you into a long contract with promises of tomorrow. With our best in class functionality, collaborative approach and award winning support, joining Nourish is like any other community, but no other system, find out more.

Domiciliary care is rooted in our communities. It takes place in our living rooms, our gardens, and on the streets where we grew up. It is by design and ambition people driven and person centred. Nourish Community is the exact same. Our system is built alongside care providers, with functionality that brings together the potential of digital with the vitality of human experience in home care, empowering providers to support their communities effectively and empathetically. Digital records, real time appointment notes, a comprehensive carer app, and many more features make up the core of Nourish Community, but it is our focus on lived experience, and the ability to measure and review such experiences, that makes our system the best at supporting person centred care in people’s homes. In this blog we’ll cover the host of benefits that come with embracing digital records and workforce management for your domiciliary service with Nourish Community.

The Person Centred Power of Going Digital 

The most obvious benefit of going digital is the efficiency it can bring to a home care service. It is widely known how much time providers can save by digitising their processes. Nourish Community gives providers the tools to improve efficiency and crucially, increase their oversight into the workings of your service. By reporting people’s care digitally it is easier to review and improve upon it. Carers can share notes from their calls, coordinators can view trends over time and the people utilising the service can become involved in decision making. Knowledge is power, and with Nourish Community your team will have all the knowledge they need, in one place and on the go, to provide truly outstanding care. 

Starting on the Right Foot with Implementation 

Digital functionality is powerful, but it can be misdirected. It is crucial that your system is shaped to your service, supporting the unique way you provide care in your community. We provide all Nourish Community users with a dedicated point of contact to make sure you are getting everything you need from our system. With robust training and onboarding, your point of contact will learn about your service as you learn about our system, building an understanding and teamwork that will guide you through your digital journey with Nourish Community. So you have a smooth implementation and sound system.

Effective Functionality

Through our hands-on approach, we come to understand the intricacies of your service as you learn how to best apply our system, with the end result being an effective, caring and responsive approach to person centred care for those you support. We have a suite of features that can be tailored to the needs of your service. Our assessments ensure your care plans are comprehensive, and with our trends and reporting features you can simply review and adjust your ongoing care as desired. 

Your Back Office Backbone

Nourish Community backs up its powerful point of care functionality with best in class admin features as well, giving you every tool you need to focus on providing outstanding care. Our scheduling and invoicing features simplify your administration and provide functionality for long term planning and consistently recurring schedules. Workforce management is supported with the ability to book training, time off and sickness, so you can create both ‘carer’ and ‘client’ profiles that are always developing (just like the people themselves).

Community Care in your Pocket

The Nourish Community Mobile App gives your carers all the tools they need to support your community. Timetables and travel destinations are included, along with appointment notes, electronic call monitoring, eMAR and more so your carers get to the right place, at the right time, with the right information! The app even works when there is no internet because we all know those pesky black spots can crop up!

Using Data to Support Outstanding Care
Data is a hot topic these days, abstract as the term can become. With Nourish Community we are focussed on making data tangible and applicable in real terms for home care providers. For example, our ‘recommend a carer’ feature draws upon information you have added into your system, and graded on a scale you can adjust, to find the best partnerships between carers and clients in your community. The data is all there, and we give you the tools to apply it effectively, using data points like travel time, carer skills or appointment history. Data is a powerful tool, one we have previously explored the benefits of. We are taking data and making it real for people who utilise care, people who provide care, and the communities who are shaped by it.

Care-centred community

Home care, domiciliary care, community care, whichever name it takes, the purpose is always the same, freedom. People who utilise care in their own homes want to be empowered, elevated by their service so they can continue to live their lives to the fullest. Nourish Community combines a digital system with a comprehensive data infrastructure and an internationally recognised user experience under that one defining goal. Empowerment, from our living rooms, gardens and communities, to wherever it needs to be.

Find out more about how we can empower your community here.

Domiciliary care, also known as home care, is an incredibly personal and community driven business to start. Care lies at the heart of so many people’s lives and the decision to become a provider is as impactful on the lives of your clients as it will be for you. Many people become care providers because of personal experience, either with care themselves or with a loved one. Their drive born from their compassion, and a desire to help improve the services available in their community.  

Of course, it is also a substantial business decision. One that will require thorough forethought and constant attention to become successful. Domiciliary care software, preparing for the relevant care agency regulator, finding the right home care provider insurance, defining your statement of purpose, recruiting and retaining care workers and more are all important aspects to consider. 

Here are some top tips for anyone looking to start their own home care business based on what we have learned during our decade plus years of supporting domiciliary care providers in the UK and Ireland. 

A solid business plan is vital for any successful venture. Conduct extensive research on the local market and competition in the area to determine what services are in demand, what you can provide and what it is reasonable to charge. This will enable you to create a solid business plan and define a deliverable statement of purpose.

Work out your company’s structure, goals, and objectives by creating a business plan. Remember to consider the financial, legal, provider insurance, marketing, and management aspects of the organisation, including potential sources of funding and your target audience. For example, are you targeting a private client base or will you be competing for Local Authority contracts? 

The figures vary greatly when estimating how much it costs to set up a care agency. This is because the factors vary greatly too. You must account for everything from staff costs and equipment to home care provider insurance and software. If you are starting a small home care business in the UK, the consensus is generally between £3,000 to £15,000 to start a care agency. For those with larger ambitions it can increase to £35,000 up to £100,000. 

There’s always a lot of paperwork at the start! You’ll need to obtain home care provider’s insurance, establish policies and procedures, and register your care agency with the relevant regulator. More information can be found on the relevant regulator’s website. 

Based on your market research, create a comprehensive business plan that outlines your services, pricing, and operations. Determine the hours of operations, create job descriptions, and develop a recruitment plan for your employees. There are a number of apps and social media groups to help you with home care recruitment.  

Care provision is a deeply personal experience. People are welcoming you into their homes and asking for help at their most vulnerable. You will need an amazing team of people to help you grow a successful service. The CQC’s latest ‘State of Social Care’ report highlights successful providers’ focus on staff development and retention. How you recruit and retain care workers will have a huge impact on the quality of your care. We advise hiring for culture and compatibility. Providing care requires the right people with the right skills, and it is much easier to learn the latter than the former. 

You will also need to ensure you have the necessary leadership and qualifications. When starting a home care agency many owners are also the registered manager. Of course that begs the questions; what qualifications do I need to start a home care agency? 

The answer varies depending on where you are:

England

QCF Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care (Management of Adult Services) 
 
The CQC still accepts the below qualifications, however they are no longer obtainable for those starting a home care agency. 

A Registered Manager’s Award (RMA for short) 

NVQ Level 4 in Leadership and Management for Care Services 
While these qualifications are not mandatory, the CQC will expect you to demonstrate you have the relevant experience, qualifications and skills.

Scotland 

The Scottish Social Services Council accepts a range of qualifications which you can view here.

Wales and Northern Ireland 

The Level 5 Diploma in Leadership for Health and Social Care Services (Adults’ Management) 

It is important to note that recruitment and retention is one of the major challenges in social care currently. While there is a large amount of turnover in social care, many of the people who leave their roles, leave them for another role in care. This shows just how important it is for you to take care of your team. Burnout is a serious condition and a real possibility, and something you could very well face yourself when starting out. It’s important to extend understanding, dignity and purpose to everyone in your service, and not just your clients. An increasingly popular way to promote growth is by facilitating education for your workforce, such as the care certificate in England. 

If you are starting a home care business you will need clients. Community work and marketing are the cornerstones for developing a client base. Your ability to engage with your local community and raise awareness about the service you provide both at local events and online are crucial. Connect with local elderly groups, charities and associations. Utilise their events to spread the word about your service, such as exhibiting or conducting leaflet drops. Word of mouth is huge in social care, so the experience of your first few clients will shape the success of your business.  

There are also national organisations like the Home Care Association and Home and Community Care Ireland. These run many supportive and educational workshops for their members as well as representing their needs on a national stage. 

At the start it will feel like you have a thousand things to do every 20 minutes. Picking the right technology partner with the right home care software is vital. They can help you establish simple clear processes with rostering software and comprehensive record keeping, empowering you to focus on more of the many other things demanding your attention each day. Nourish has supported thousands of home care agencies in streamlining their service; we have more information for effectively implementing technology in home care and case studies of people using our system. 

Determine your payment model and the payment options available for your clients. A key question for everyone when starting a home care business is: will you be accepting Local Authority contracts? 
 

Depending on your area this could be a viable approach to gaining clients, however rates for LA contracts vary based on where you are. The Home Care Association have previously produced a comprehensive examination into the varying rates of commission for home care providers across the UK that can help you understand your context. Finding the right domiciliary care software such as Nourish can help alleviate your billing stresses. 

A quality control program can help you maintain the standard of care you offer, and continually improve your service provision. It is vital this includes feedback from both your clients and carers. Domiciliary care is community based, and you must listen to your whole community to ensure you understand what is going on. Your relevant care agency regulator will provide guidelines, but it is through community engagement you will find the best answers. Answers that will help you shape your statement of purpose as well. The right domiciliary care software can help you build a library of interactions and experiences to shape your quality control. There are also home care software platforms like our partners Altra which offer functionality to enhance your engagement.

Hopefully this article helps illustrate how to set up a home care agency. As you can see, starting a domiciliary care company can be challenging, but by following some of these top tips you could make the process smoother for yourself and your team. As a longstanding home care software supplier, we are here to help you every step of the way. Whether it is with specific functionality like rostering software, or more general advice like connecting you with other providers for guidance on best practice.

We’ve got over a decade of experience working with domiciliary care agencies – let us help your home care agency off the ground with sector-leading home care software.

Social Care is going through one of its most challenging periods in history. Everyday frontline workers put themselves at risk to help support the most vulnerable amongst us. Care agencies are doing everything they can to support their staff. However with increasingly vulnerable service users, limited funding and PPE supply chain frustrations, it is a Herculean task. 

The COVID-19 crisis has made the public far more aware of social care’s structural issues. And yet, these are issues over which the United Kingdom Home Care Association (UKHCA) has been hounding the government for years. As the sector’s cornerstone of information and representation, the UKHCA fights a daily battle to support social care’s critical providers. We spoke with Dr Jane Townson, CEO of UKHCA, to find out more about social care’s access to funding and PPE during the current pandemic.

The UKHCA has been a longstanding bulwark of the care agencies that constitute its membership. Right now the organisation’s primary focus is securing funding and PPE for social care during COVID-19. Dr Jane Townson explains: 

“(The Government’s) £1.6 billion is supposed to be to strengthen care for vulnerable people. Some of that has got to be used for homelessness, but the bulk of it should be for frontline social care services. How much of it has actually made its way to any social care providers yet? Virtually none. And that’s what we’re spending most of our time trying to sort out.”

Things have become particularly tough for an industry that was already running on empty. A National Living Wage increase of 6.25% kicked in on April 1st. Yet according to reports from UKHCA members, 60% of local authorities are yet to reflect that increase in the rates they pay to providers for delivering care. On top of that, the arrival of COVID-19 has further exacerbated social care’s lack of funding. 

“The amount local authorities pay for homecare is not enough in general,” Townson says. “Many companies are struggling with extremely low margins. One CEO was telling me this morning that he’s calculated that the cost of PPE alone is an extra £2.50 per hour of care delivered at the moment. In his case the sick pay is coming out at £1.16 per hour extra. And his absence rates aren’t as high as they are in other companies. That’s already £3.66 an hour more than normal, never mind the increase in the National Living Wage.

“The UKHCA calculates the UK minimum price of homecare. We calculated from the first of April that the minimum price would be £20.69 an hour. We captured some data from our members on the week of the 23rd of March. The average fee rate was coming out at £17 pounds. So they are already £4 beneath where they need to be just to be compliant with National Living Wage. Never mind talking about extra cost on top.”

UKHCA has been working closely with the Local Government Association (LGA) and the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) to try and address the most pressing issues.

“At the beginning of March, we emailed them and said: ‘Would you be willing to do some joint guidance for local authorities on how to support providers during COVID-19?’ They agreed and some guidance was issued on the 13th of March. That went to all local authorities…which mostly ignored it”, Dr Townson said. 

The guidance focussed on three key areas. First, a fee uplift to cover the increase in the national living wage. Secondly, to start paying providers on planned commission work, rather than in arrears as standard. Thirdly, to provide a temporary uplift to cover the additional costs that have arisen due to COVID-19. These would include: PPE, sick pay, as well as remote working and travel costs where relevant. 

Trying to get Local Authorities to pay attention to their guidance has proven difficult for UKHCA. 

“Local Authorities have been given the money – it’s sitting in their bank accounts,” Townson says. “But they don’t want to send it out to providers for reasons best known to themselves. We’ve been putting a lot of pressure on LGA and ADASS to try and get them to force their members to do what’s right. But they say they’re a member organisation: all they can do is give them strong guidance. They (LGA and ADASS) said they want the opportunity to work with their members first. They’ve said, ‘give us a list of the ones that aren’t behaving’. The Minister for Care is also very actively engaged with this issue. 

“So the plan is: raising concerns with ADASS and LGA about the councils that are doing nothing. If that doesn’t work, go to the Minister for Care in the Department of Health to personally phone them up. Then if that doesn’t work we go to the media to name and shame them. We have already given notice on everybody that the timescale for that process isn’t going to be a long time. It’s already the 9th of April. If the National Living Wage went up on the first of April, what possible excuse is there for them not addressing that?”

That may seem like a drastic plan, but it could be exactly what is called for in our drastic circumstances. And Townson certainly sees the urgency: 

“The provider market could collapse quite quickly because it can’t sustain these kinds of additional costs and be able to meet payroll. Especially with the fee rises they’re paying. No money means insolvency, and then (issues like) PPE become irrelevant because everyone’s business has collapsed. This really, really needs to be sorted.”

PPE shortages have been reported from the majority of care agencies. A BBC poll from last week found 80% of the 500 care agencies they surveyed are running out of supplies. In response, the Government is implementing some solutions.

The initial step was a letter sent to providers last week from the Department of Health. It outlined four companies who had been instructed to exclusively supply social care. The demand, of course, quickly went off the scale. 

“The inevitable happened,” Townson explains, “their lines got jammed. They couldn’t reply to emails and phone calls. Anyway, they’ve hardly got enough supplies as it is. So they have apparently been rationing what they give to care providers to 300 masks each. But they are also insisting on minimum orders so people are having to spend money on other stuff that they don’t need just to get the 300 face masks, so that’s not very good.”

The government is also preparing a parallel supply chain to the standard NHS supply chain to meet the urgent requirements of social care. The NHS Supply Chain set up this joint effort between them, the Ministry of Defence, Unipart Logistics and supported by Clipper Logistics. It will be for both acute and community hospital trusts and mental health and ambulance trusts. On top of that, it is also meant to service social care. 

“The supply chain isn’t up and running yet,” Townson says. “We learnt on Tuesday that they’re going to requisition all of the PPE that’s currently in the ‘business-as-usual’ supply chain with the business-as-usual suppliers. So all of the PPE suppliers that normally supply homecare companies are going to find they have no stock because it’s all been requisitioned.”

Far from being a logistical solution, Townson sees a logistical nightmare:

“I have no idea how that’s going to work: 18,000 care agencies all trying to register for an account, ordering stuff and then getting it delivered. I just don’t know how that can be done, we’ll see, but that’s what they’re doing.”

The third step the Government has taken in response to PPE shortages is an emergency drop to local resilience forums. This will be a route by which providers can access PPE. However, UKHCA has been told that this will be ‘very much emergency stock’. Which, of course, raises the question of what is an emergency, and how much stock does it warrant releasing?

“They said: ‘Oh yeah it’s going to be like, nine and a half million face masks, and 8 million aprons’,” Towson recalls. “Well, that is only going to last 2-3 days!”

There is no completely accurate data available on the number of people receiving private care. Based on available information, the UKHCA estimates there are 1,000,000 people receiving care at normal times. These people would normally receive between 1-4 visits a day. Providing care to people at this rate would quickly exhaust the 7.8 million pieces of PPE the government has already provided, leading either to equipment re-use (and the possibility of viral transfer), or to care workers delivering care whilst unprotected themselves. 

It’s clear, however, that despite logistical difficulties and financial irregularities, these are challenging times for all involved. While Dr Townson is critical of the support Local Authorities have provided up to this point, she appreciates their position.

“If you think about it Local Authorities have a lot to do generally. They are worried about things like food, homelessness, schools, isolation. There are a lot of things they’re responsible for.

“I don’t think it’s that they’re not working hard, I just don’t think that they’re focussed on social care. We have heard some good stories. In Carmarthenshire, they have offered an inflationary uplift for providers. They’re also paying on commissioned care from a particular date in March. Additionally for every hour of care delivered they’re paying a pound an hour extra to help cover the extra costs. Some of them are doing the right thing, but at the moment the vast majority of them are not.” 

UKHCA has grown accustomed to fighting the Government for change on behalf of social care providers. But what was once a more private crusade has become a very public battle. Dr Townson believes that this will raise public awareness of how vital social care is to our social fabric:

“I think people are waking up to realising what’s going on,” she says.

COVID-19 has brought to the fore issues that those within social care have been anticipating for years. Voices for change have long been loud, but little been heard. The new attention that social care is set to receive is welcome, although there are very real fears that the sector will continue to remain ‘the Cinderella service’

Though as Dr Townson points out:  

“At least Cinderella had an apron.”

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