Home care is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the UK, with many entrepreneurs looking for franchising opportunities. The benefits of a franchise are well established, with a ready-made support network, professional expertise, understanding of the regulatory environment and help with networking, recruitment and marketing.
One of the areas many local home care franchisees find tricky is knowing what services to offer and finding a way to research the needs and demand to ensure that, when they are ready to accept clients, they have the right balance of home care services to cater to the local community.
Nationwide Guardian Angel Carers team highlights some of the considerations and care services that are often most needed and how new franchisees might evaluate the right ways to best meet localised home care needs.
The Variety of Services Offered by Localised Home Care Providers
Home care can look considerably different between two individuals or families. It's important for any prospective franchise owner who doesn't have a background in home care to grasp the vast array of services they might decide to offer.
Home care is often considered a standardised service where qualified carers deliver:
- Visiting care for a set allocation of hours on specific days of the week.
- Defined care tasks such as preparing a meal and helping with tasks around the home like cleaning and grocery shopping.
In reality, home care is an adaptive and rapidly evolving sector, and one of the most important factors for success is to appreciate the diversity of care needs, preferences, and requirements care recipients may have.
For example, many people place great value on companionship care and combating loneliness and isolation, which are prevalent in older adults who live alone and may find it difficult to attend social events or visit friends without support.
Home carers also provide entirely tailored care, which is structured around the wishes of the client. They may want a carer to stay within their home overnight, to attend for specific times to keep them company during bathing or mealtimes or decide they'd prefer a live-in carer to remain in their home on an agreed schedule, extending the assistance on offer.
Rather than building a home care franchise on any generalised system, it's essential that a franchisee look into the local demographic and sector, see the gaps that exist, and work out how they can leverage skill, talent, compassion and respect to deliver services that make a real difference.
Researching Home Care Demand and Service Shortages
Of course, the picture for a new home care provider in Central London, Manchester or Brighton will differ substantially from that for a service setting up in a semi-rural area or a region with an extreme shortage of home care providers.
While the latest figures available from the Office for National Statistics data back to the 2021 census, they provide some useful insights that franchisees may find interesting:
- Locations that are considered rural have the highest proportion of residents who are at or above State Pension age – and, therefore, the largest percentage of local people who may need home care services or wish to have this option.
- Coastal regions have similar demographics, whereas larger metropolitan cities have seen a steep decline in older residents. Between 2001 and 2015, the number of people aged 65 or above in rural areas increased by 37%.
- Conversely, the supply of spaces within residential care homes is at its lowest in major cities. The census found that all of the ten areas with the least available beds per 100,000 residents in retirement were London boroughs.
Looking into demographics, shortages in care provision and the number of people requiring care who may not have a sufficient number of options can direct the way franchisees structure and adapt their care offering to their local community.
For example, they might recognise a strong demand for domiciliary or personal care services to ensure all older adults living locally who would prefer to remain independent in their own homes have access to the support they need to make that possible.
In larger metropolitan areas, they might determine that a shortage in residential care provisions indicates a significant need for overnight and live-in care, where individuals who need more continual support to remain happy, well and cared for would benefit from this more personalised support.
Delivering Customisable Home Care with an Adequate Blend of Services
The ideal in most regions is to offer a number of care options that cater to the majority while retaining the option of implementing more specialist care on an on-demand basis.
While workforce shortages throughout the adult social care system are widely documented, there remains a robust supply of talented, passionate workers who will consider career opportunities that offer excellent pay, recognition, rewards and a positive, inclusive working environment.
Tapping into that availability and taking steps to recruit specialist, nursing or live-in care staff enables home care managers and owners both to offer wider-scope domiciliary, personal care and visiting care services while being able to match individual needs with specific carers with the character, interests and personality to provide superb ongoing care.
Home care franchisees might also wish to think about more targeted specialist care, where carers provide home-from-hospital, stroke rehabilitation, palliative or family respite care. These services can add value to local families while often being more ad hoc or organised around the schedule and needs of the client or their loved ones.
There isn't one home care model that is suitable for every region or every location, and franchisees should be proactive about researching, speaking to community representatives, and assessing the best ways they can meet the needs within their area.
For more information and insights around domiciliary care franchise opportunities, customising service provisions to your region, town or area, or matching care services with localised needs, please contact the Guardian Angel Carers team at any time.
Read more about Guardian Angel Carers - Guardian Angel Carers Advocates for Specialist Home Care Support for Younger Adults with Chronic Conditions
About Guardian Angel Carers:
Guardian Angel Carers is a leading home care provider dedicated to delivering compassionate, personalised care services. With a strong focus on independence, dignity, and quality of life, the
company supports individuals in the comfort of their own homes, offering a range of services from companionship to complex care needs.
******
Source Company – https://www.gacarers.co.uk/
