Interview with Ken Deary – Managing Director of Right at Home

As part of our interview series, we are speaking to some of the most important influencers in the home care industry. In these interviews we get reflections on 2017 and thoughts about what 2018 and beyond has for the home care industry.

In this interview we speak to Ken Deary, who is the founder and Managing Director of multi award winning Right at Home in the UK.

1 – What is the biggest change you have seen in home care in 2017?

Raising Standards

Ken said that the biggest change that he had seen was the Regulator (the Care Quality Commission) finally getting some teeth. The benefit of this has been that Ken believes that it is really helping to raise standards in the care industry. The two areas where this has particularly been seen is in safety and in the leadership of care organisations. Whilst many have reacted positively to this raising of standards, there are some that have found it difficult.

The other benefit of the role the CQC is playing is that by helping organisations raise standards they are also raising the quality of care, which can only benefit an industry that at times can suffer from negative press. This raising of standards can only benefit users, buyers and providers of home care services as by raising the overall experience you will raise perceptions and faith in the industry.

Profitable work

Ken believes that to make home care a success, and an industry that has a positive reputation, it is important that organisations are able to run profitably. Consequently, he has seen home care providers being bullish and handing back low margin work back to councils and instead focusing on care that is provided at a fairer price.

Whilst the CQC is doing its upmost to raise standards, Ken was concerned that the councils could have the opposite effect by refusing to pay a fair price for care, in such circumstances this could in turn lead to organisations inevitably cutting corners and affecting the quality of care to the most important person, the client.

Ken said that the UK Home Care Association (UKHCA) are also doing some fantastic work in supporting home care organisations. They have calculated a minimum price for care as £17.86ph from April 2018. Ken believes that its difficult to maintain standards if you are charging lower than this. When it comes to paying for care, this should be considered when calculating your costs.  

He also said that the work the UKHCA are doing in lobbying government on behalf of care home organisations is to be commended, as they truly have the interest of the service users at heart.

2 – What are the biggest challenges the market will see in 2018?

The biggest challenge, according to Ken, will be able to service the ever expanding home care market. The ageing population coupled with more people looking at alternatives to residential care means that providing high quality care, across the industry will be a challenge at times. 18% of the population is over 65 and 2.4% over age 85. These numbers are only going to increase.

Another key stat that Ken referenced was that by 2036 over half of local authorities expect more than 25% of their population to be over 65. This, over the long term, is going to cause a huge challenge to the home care industry.

To make this really work, Ken believes that there needs to be more of a concerted effort from central government to manage social care to make sure there is an appropriate infrastructure in place to manage and help fund the care of an ageing population.

3 – How do you see the home care market expanding in 2018?

Ken believes that there will be record demand for home care services in 2018. As part of this, Ken expects to see a significant increase in people looking for private home care provision, which in turn is going to lead more franchise models, which provide support infrastructures to providers , such as the Right at Home model, to become prevalent in the industry.

Ken believes that a franchise model can help ensure good quality care, delivered to a consistent standard. Plus with the added regulatory requirements, Ken believes that a franchise model is best positioned to service this, as some smaller organisations may struggle to stay on top of everything.

4 – Is recruitment and retention of staff an issue for the industry?

Ken believes that there are in the region of 80K staff from the EU working in the care sector. This represents about 6% of the industry and there is also about a 7% vacancy rate (and growing!). Therefore, Brexit is going to cause the industry a significant headache if they end up losing some EU workers and also not able to fill vacancies with those coming in from the EU.

Ken recognises that other industries will be impacted but is obviously concerned about the home care industry too. Ken said the UKHCA were making a strong case to government on why they need to be able to retain access to EU workers in some form. Ken was fully supportive of the work UKHCA are doing.

5 – How do you see new clients accessing the home care market in the future

Ken said that historically the key source for private referrals was through word of mouth and through asking friends and family. He said that any good quality business will grow with referrals and that they will always have an important part to play.

However, he is also seeing an increase in people going online, and using sites like UK Care Guide, to find care. This is being driven by buyers of these services (often the children of the client) increasingly being more tech savvy, and time poor, and therefore naturally going to places like Google to find an answer to a question. Therefore, going forward, there will be more emphasis on home care businesses having a significant online presence.

A bit about Ken

Ken started his work career in insurance and qualified as an accountant. Realising the accounting world was not for him, he moved to franchising and ended up running one of McDonald’s most successful franchises. Picking up many awards along the way.

He used this expertise to then purchase the master franchise licence for Right at Home in the UK. He started franchising back in September 2011 and has already built the business up to 50 franchise offices around the UK . Going forward, the plan is to obviously build the business. However, Ken is keen to ensure that it is done in a sustainable way.

The most important thing to Ken is for him to have franchisees that have the right values and quality. Just last month Right at Home won the Best Management Franchise in the UK beating off all the major UK household names to retain this award for the second year running. A great example of how social care can provide best in class businesses.

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source https://ukcareguide.co.uk/interview-ken-deary-managing-director-right-home/