Capacity is a huge issue within the home care sector. The present status quo is struggling to meet demand because of how home care is commissioned and very poor employment conditions for carers.
The home care direct platform addresses the issue of capacity in three distinct ways.
Firstly, our platform gets better use out of the existing cohort of carers by ensuring they find work geographically near to them, rather than having them travel long distances to get to clients. If a carer is available for 40hrs work, our platform and its algorithms, make sure they are working for as much of that 40 hours as possible, rather than travelling. Importantly, Care delivered by local carers is more sustainable and therefore better quality.
Secondly, we make caring a more attractive career for those existing carers by cutting out the middlemen where appropriate. This allows more funds flow directly to carers which significantly increases their earnings ensuring they stay in the sector.
Thirdly, we attract new carers into the sector. Take a typical Mary who lives in Mullingar. Mary is involved in the local GAA club, the local parish and the community centre. Mary is interested in contributing to her local community but she has no desire to work for barely above the minimum wage with a home care agency. Our platform liberates Marys all over the country to work for themselves, allowing them set their own prices and availability. We remove the barriers of Mary working for herself by handling all her invoicing, payments, administration and tax returns. In short, we make caring an attractive career for Mary.
If the home care sector is going to have any chance of meeting future demand, we need to stop fixating on a one size fits all corporate model of provision and start fostering other models of support that turn caring into an attractive career.