When Raina Summerson joined Agincare in 2004, it had eight or nine homecare locations, and the people running it did a bit of everything: policies, on-call, tender writing, contract meetings and training. Agincare is now a national care provider, and she's its Group Chief Executive.

In this episode she tells Mark Topps who a new agency should hire first, how to keep them, and how to support them as the business grows. She calls the care coordinator "a real linchpin role", and one of the most underestimated jobs in social care.

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What you'll leave with

‍Raina's answers on who to hire first, what a care coordinator actually does, how Agincare supports new starters through their first weeks, and how to handle performance management and wellbeing on a small budget.

About Raina

‍Raina Summerson is Group Chief Executive of Agincare, a national care provider based in Dorset. She's a qualified social worker with a master's in mental health services, and she's worked in social care since 1989, in private care, local authorities and the NHS. Before joining Agincare in 2004, she spent five years as a regulatory inspector, registering and inspecting care services including domiciliary care agencies.

Who it's for

‍Owners and registered managers of new and small homecare agencies who are hiring their first office team, or promoting people into management for the first time.

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The Foundational Series is a free video series from Flock and Birdie for people starting or running a small homecare agency. In each episode, Mark Topps, co-founder of The Caring View, talks to someone who's built one. Recorded in early 2024. New to the series? Start with how to start a care agency with Camille Leavold.

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Hiring your first team? Join Flock, the free community for people running homecare agencies in the UK, and put your questions to people who've been through it.

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Who should be in a new care agency's core team?

When Agincare opens a new location, Raina starts with three roles: a registered manager, a field care supervisor and a care coordinator. The registered manager carries the legal and regulatory responsibility and leads the service. The field care supervisor supports care workers on the ground, and the coordinator runs the rota. As you grow, a deputy manager becomes important for leadership.

Hire people who can turn their hand to anything, because in the early days everyone does a bit of everything. For more on hiring, see Rachael Crook's Handover session on hiring for growth and stability.

What does a care coordinator do?

A care coordinator keeps the rota working as it changes through the day, often by the hour. They keep care workers informed and motivated, and they keep the people who draw on your services up to date. Raina says that whatever your size, it's one of the most challenging roles in social care, and people completely underestimate it.

How much should a small agency invest in training?

Raina's worry is that when money is tight, training drops to the bottom of the list, and she says it can't. If you want people to come with you as the business grows, train them beyond care: your finance lead may need more technical skills, and others may need commercial or business training.

Many new agencies buy in HR, legal, bid writing or training support, which makes sense. Someone in your team still needs to understand the advice well enough to check it. The Homecare Association and Skills for Care both have resources to start with, many of them free.

How can a new agency improve staff retention?

Focus on the first weeks, when people are most at risk of leaving, whether they're new to care or joining from another provider. After Covid, Agincare made recruitment and retention a big part of its people programme and mapped the whole candidate journey, from someone's first contact to their early months in the job. That covered joining bonuses, a buddy for new starters, welfare support, induction and training, and good line management. Reprioritising these, even after years of doing them, made a difference.

Recognition helps too. Agincare marks one, five and 10 years of service with a letter, each signed by a different person. Mark adds an idea from his own services: send a thank-you card to a care worker's home, so their family sees how valued they are.

How should you handle performance management?

Be clear about what you expect and how you'll measure it. Use supervision and appraisals as two-way conversations, so staff can tell you where they need more support too. If someone's struggling, agree a performance development plan together, with clear, measurable targets you both think are achievable. Only if that doesn't work does it become formal performance management.

Make sure your disciplinary and grievance procedures follow current law and good practice, and that managers use them. When processes are skipped, cases can end up at tribunal and get messy.

One thing Agincare has learned is about promotion. It's easy to forget that someone moving into line management may never have managed performance or had a difficult conversation with a member of staff. Train them in your procedures, and make sure they know they can come to you if they're worried.

How do you support staff wellbeing on a small budget?

Employee assistance programmes have become more common in social care since Covid, but they can be too expensive when you're starting out. Raina recommends training mental health first aiders instead: colleagues, not necessarily line managers, who can spot when someone's struggling and point them to help. It's worked very well at Agincare.

Then use the support around you, much of it free: Skills for Care, the Homecare Association, Mind, the staff wellbeing hubs many integrated care systems now run, and your local authority. As Raina puts it, "You don't have to do it all yourself."

What should you think about as you grow?

Write down your vision, mission and values early, and keep coming back to them. Raina opens Agincare's budget day every year by checking the business still lines up with them. Think about the short, medium and long term, then map the steps in between. And explain to your team what growth means for them: more career development and jobs, care for more people, and a business secure enough to reinvest in its workforce.

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