Want to unlock growth for your business?

In the landscape of domiciliary care in the UK, small and medium-sized care businesses face the dual challenge of delivering top-notch care while having to get competitive and drive business growth. For owners and registered managers, understanding the different levers of growth available to you is essential. This article delves into five key strategies to unlock the potential of your domiciliary care business.

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Leveraging technology for care business growth

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The integration of digital tools in domiciliary care is no longer something that can be considered ‘another day’; it's key to unlocking business growth now. According to a recent report by Skills for Care, technology in care improves efficiency and enhances the quality of service by at least 25%! Implementing digital tools, intelligent platforms and mobile apps for your teams can be the fastest way streamline operations, facilitate better communication, and get you started on the next stage of your businesses growth journey.

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Actionable Takeaway: Assess your current tools and identify one area for digital improvement, such as adopting more modern care management or rostering software. Even better if you can find one platform that works for you and does a number of different things, as it will help cut down costs and reduce errors.

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Next Step: Explore Skills for Care’s digital toolkit for guidance on digital transformation in care.

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Diversifying care services for enhanced market reach

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Broadening your service offerings can attract a more diverse client base and meet evolving care needs. Offering specialised services like dementia care or post-operative rehabilitation support can distinguish your business in a competitive market. This UK Homecare Association report highlights the growing demand for specialised domiciliary care services, despite a reduction in the amount of businesses actually offering them! So - could you offer other services, such as handyman or gardening services? Could you train your team to deliver more complex care? Is live-in care an option for you? There are a huge range of steps available to you and the team to help you diversify your business and meet growing demand.

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Actionable Takeaway: Conduct market research to identify a new service your business can introduce, catering to unmet needs in your community. Get your core team together to explore and identify at least one potential new revenue stream for your business - you may find that your team has some great ideas that could unlock that new revenue stream faster than you’d think!

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Strengthening local networks for business success

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Building strong connections within your local and national community is crucial. Collaborating with local healthcare providers, charities, and support groups can not only enhance your business’ reputation but can create new referral opportunities and opportunities for clients in general. In addition to this, you can meet other domiciliary care providers who may have answers to questions you have about the business of care - and who you may be able to provide answers to in return! It takes a village to provide excellent care - so recognising your business’ role in that village and establishing yourself as a key player will always serve to help you grow. The importance of community engagement is underscored in this interesting study by the King's Fund, which found that fostering strong local networks improve the overall quality of care.

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Actionable Takeaway: Take the plunge! Look to take part in at least one community group, forum or event in the next three months. If you know what you’re looking for (professional development, general support, new opportunities) then even better - as you can go in with a goal, and help others better understand how to help you get there.

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Investing in your care team for quality service delivery

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Fact: all successful domiciliary care agencies have a strong team at it’s core. So, how can you look to support your team (and yourself!) to make sure you’re operating as efficiently and collaboratively as possible? Continuous training and development is proven to not only enhance care quality but also boost staff morale and retention. In fact, this interesting report from NHS England provides some great data around how prioritising team training can absolutely transform the way a service runs.

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Actionable Takeaway: Ask the team to vote on a new area they want to get trained on together, then separately ask individuals what training they would like to take. Plan out targeted training sessions accordingly, focusing on a relevant skill or knowledge area. Use online resources to help choose and create courses that help your team feel valued and give them the skills to better support their care recipients.

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Prioritising personalised care for client retention

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Personalised care is at the heart of domiciliary care. Tailoring services to individual needs leads to higher client satisfaction and retention - which leads to reputation, and leads to business growth. We know that the Care Quality Commission (CQC) clearly emphasises the importance of person-centred care in improving outcomes for care recipients - but how can you deliver incredible personalised care without over-stretching you and your teams capacity? If you’re trying to do all this on your own, that can be exhausting and lead to errors - intelligent platforms for homecare that take in information and create schedules, tasks and suggestions for personalisation accordingly can really take the load off you and your team while delivering even better person-centred care for all your clients.

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Actionable Takeaway: Don’t try to do it all by yourself - let technology help do the heavy lifting, so you can focus on what matters most. Research the best person-centred care platforms for care management and book in a few demos for the upcoming week, so you and your team can stop over-stretching and start getting time back to focus on just delivering the best care possible.

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Taking steps towards sustainable growth

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Giving each of these proven strategies a chance can significantly enhance the growth and sustainability of your domiciliary care business. So - embrace technology to streamline operations, expand your service portfolio to meet diverse needs, build strong community ties, invest in your staff, and focus on personalised care to stand out in the competitive UK care sector. Each small step towards improvement can lead to significant strides in business growth!

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Want to read more on this? Click the button below to read our article ‘Worried about the future of you business?’