Overcoming Growth Blockers in the UK Homecare Sector: A Business Coach and former Business Owner’s Perspective

The homecare sector is vital in the UK, supporting the elderly and chronically ill. However, business owners face several growth challenges that need strategic solutions.

1. Workforce Challenges

Most homecare providers are dissatisfied with their recruitment and retention. It is important to get to grips with this. If I had a penny for every time someone advised me to “put a job advert in a local shop window”, or if I could just use this one tool I would halve my attrition rates. In my experience, success was found through accepting the essential truths that the roles are relatively low paid, job perception can be a challenge, and therefore recruitment and retention will be perennial challenges. In doing so I found satisfaction in introducing continuous small incremental improvements that made a SUBSTANTIAL difference over a longer period. Clearly, offering the best pay deal you can, along with professional development and career progression, is essential to attract and keep staff. Investing in quality training is crucial but expensive. Supplementing and expanding training programmes with online courses was one such development area. If you read any of my posts you will understand my strong belief that CULTURE is your only real differentiator in this area and this should be the matter front of mind for leaders in this industry. What is you culture? How are you developing it? How does this underpin the development of your service?

2. Regulatory Compliance

Good regulatory compliance is not the same as quality care. There is an overlap, but one is borne out by having evidence proven approach to following a framework, and the other is borne out in the feedback from care staff, customers, families and health and social care professionals. There will be pushback on this point. But consider how compliance has changed in the last 20 years. Was the framework right then or now? Because the essential elements of good care have not. The reason I say this is that good regulatory compliance is essential for you to stay in business. But it is not enough to create a solid care service and it is not enough to deliver quality care. Because of the threat to the business of poor compliance it can sometimes become the core focus of homecare services. This may be essential short-term but is not a suitable foundation long term. Compliance needs to be embedded in standard processes, systems, organisation, reporting and oversight. This way it is not an additional burden but integrated as a core part of the business. Issues are highlighted and addressed in the normal course of work. Yep, you have guessed it, your culture has a role to play here too. How is regulatory compliance embedded in your training, processes, systems, oversight and organisation structure. If you have problems, do you go back and consider where core business elements let you down so that you can fix the problems for the long term?

3. Financial Management

You will set your pay and charge rated with respect to competition, what the market will accept and what you need. You will have target volumes of business that will make sense of your business structure – target volumes creating a target gross profit to cover an expected overhead and then leading to a satisfying surplus. Therefore, you can only be confident you are arriving at your profits if you are clear on the volume of business you were expecting versus achieving, the sales mix you predicted (as gross margins vary) versus what happened, the gross margin percentage targeted versus delivered, and the overhead forecast versus changed in the P&L. If you do not plan to this level of detail, and then measure performance to plan against this detail, then your outturn at the bottom line is a roll of the dice. Why? Because plans never, ever, execute as predicted. We make the best guess, we allocate resources appropriately, the world delivered something different, and we need to have some mechanism for making appropriate adjustments. Having these steps can highlight the importance of needing to be more efficient in areas of the business, such as use of office space, Cost of Acquiring Care Staff, Cost of Acquiring Customers, training investment, technology and print costs – all of which have changed substantially over the last 10 years.

What is your Budget to Actual process, and how do you use this to improve decision making and essential challenge in your business?

4. Market Competition

Market competition has increased substantially. There are increased number of providers. There are an increased number of franchise providers. There are more homecare services finding business a challenge. Conversely, there are also some businesses defining a very successful route to long term profit. The challenge brought about by increased competition in homecare the square of the same challenge in other industries. Why? Because you are competing against the same providers in the same local market for supply and demand. Both of which have their own need and desires, their own voices.

It is more essential than ever to understand your reason for existing as a service – from both a customer and care worker perspective. What differentiates your service? Who are your target customers? How can you engage with them better than your rivals?

Specialising in niche services and offering exceptional customer service can help stand out in a crowded market. Training staff in empathy and communication enhances client satisfaction and loyalty. Showcasing testimonials can build a strong reputation.

5. Technological Integration

Technology is essential in the delivery of care – both from a quality and cost perspective. Care risks can be better managed, print costs reduced, staff better allocated, changes in need better attended to. The result is that better care can be managed with a lesser office staff base than was the need 15 years ago. But, this may not be the case if lots of manual work-arounds have been introduced because systems do not speak to each other. It is essential that not only are the right systems introduced, from applicant tracking, lead tracking, customer relations management, social media management, staff scheduling, care management, payroll and accounting, but that where needed they are able to speak to each other. What information bottlenecks exist in your business that are created overheads and manual workarounds you could do without?

6. Changing Client Expectations

Client expectation continues to change. In addition to identifying niche areas of target, clients may be looking for more holistic services to meet their needs. Integrating mental health support and social activities may attract clients seeking comprehensive care. When did you last consider the bigger picture of support your clients may need to stay at home and where the broader perspective of service delivery to that client may present further opportunities for you.

To overcome growth blockers, homecare businesses must address workforce challenges, regulatory compliance, financial constraints, market competition, technological integration, and changing client expectations. Adopting these strategies ensures exceptional care and sustainable growth.