This crisis we are all living through is unprecedented. It is going to bring many changes to our society and many changes specifically to the home care sector as well. Hopefully many of those changes will reflect a better appreciation and treatment of carers.

However, it will also bring challenges and specifically some real challenges for existing home carers.

At the moment many carers are losing hours and some are finding themselves without work. Carers because of the “If & When” type of contracts companies give them, are much more exposed than people with normal fixed hour contracts. Once the crisis passes will work come flooding back? How will this crisis affect carers after it passes?

Firstly, the likelihood is that after this crisis, health budgets will under significant strain because of the huge spending going on at the moment and I would envisage a situation where there will be less HSE funded care and a significant increase in families paying for care themselves.

What that means is companies could have less HSE work to give out so families will be looking to pay for more private hours. This means they will be looking for value for money and one sure way to do that is to work directly with carers with no middleman.

The second possible effect will be that there will be a lot more people unemployed especially from the retail and hospitality sectors looking for work. Home care companies will understandably target those people, which could means that the existing cohort of carers will have potentially more competition for hours companies give out.

Thirdly, the HSE and families will have seen the tremendous work home carers have done during this crisis and the extra responsibilities they have taken on. This could mean an increase in personal budgets where families are allowed to use their home care packages directly with carers where appropriate.

The best way for carers to adapt to these possible changes and challenges, is to ensure they have options on which I have written before ( https://homecaredirect.ie/blog/the-importance-of-having-options-and-choices/).

One way to do that is by getting onto the Home Care Direct Platform and by doing so, lessen your dependence on HSE work from companies and increase your chance of getting work directly with families.

At Home Care Direct we are keen to get more carers up on our platform. We aren’t going to promise huge amounts of work straight away because a lot of that depends on you. However, once you pass our recruitment process, it costs you nothing to get on the platform and what we will promise is

  • That you will be joining a group of committed carers who are passionate about their caring careers.
  • That if you are a great carer and serious about building a career in care, the platform will work for you.
  • That you will be in control, setting your own charge rates, who you work with and when you are available for work. No more being told what to do.
  • That it will cost you nothing to get your profile up on the platform, once you pass our recruitment process.
  • That you will always know our commissions in advance of setting your rates (presently 13%).
  • That we and existing carers on the platform will support you in getting work, with referrals, marketing material and advice.
  • That we don’t expect you to give up existing work to get on the platform.

While we can’t guarantee you any work, by being up on the platform it enables you to react quickly when that first enquiry comes in. It might not come in for a while but because there is no cost, it’s no loss to you. When that first bit of business does come in, imagine the satisfaction of doing work with your own client, at rates you set. The average rates carers on the platform are achieving are €21/hr.

By being up on our platform, it gives you an alternative to working with home care companies. You can easily do both but it just means that unlike now, you wouldn't be 100% dependant on them.

We really would love to hear from great carers who understand how our platform works, put them through our recruitment process and get their profiles up.

We are getting busier all the time, even during this crisis. Don’t be the last to realise what you are missing. Contact us today by sending your CV to Jennifer at the below email.

Jennifer.couch@homecaredirect.ie