Opinion


‘Uberfication’could open doors for the care sector


Sara McKee, founder of Evermore Global, discusses why she believes care homes should embrace a gig economy that encourages workers to be their own bosses, and explains how much could be learnt across the sector from the Uber business model


The dire financial situation of the UK’s care home sector due to the lack of funding for social care is a well worn strain being played across the country. Operators and sector pundits have now added the Living Wage to the list of reasons why care homes are failing, and they are failing. Accountancy firm Moore Stephens


claims that around one in eight care homes are at risk of becoming insolvent within the next three years,1


while the


Care Quality Commission (CQC) expressed concerns about the fragility of the adult social care market in its 2015/16 State of Care report.2 But what if we stopped playing the


same old tune and started thinking differently? What if operators stopped blaming the Government and started looking at ways to change their business models to better suit a new era? After all, people’s lives are involved. This was the focus of our discussion at


a recent roundtable attended by senior public and private sector leaders from the North West. We drew people from across a broad spectrum including local representatives from the NHS, the city council, housing trusts, property developers, architects and legal firms. Their response was that the care sector


was at a cross roads, but with huge potential for growth. They felt that providers have been talking about shrinking local authority budgets for years, but haven’t adapted to changing market conditions. Roundtable attendees said providers must completely rethink the way services are designed and delivered, and even how it is labelled, in order for the sector to survive. Together we concluded that providing


older people with a technology-backed, on-demand service where the workforce is deployed at the point of need could be a solution. The ‘Uberfication’ of care has the potential to provide greater convenience and more choice for the consumer, give


18 Sara McKee


the workforce greater flexibility and offer economies for operators.


Learning from Uber Uber is a a location-based smartphone App that matches passengers to private taxi drivers. It was launched in San Francisco in 2009 and is now available in more than 66 countries and 507 cities worldwide. Let’s look at why Uber is popular and


what the care sector could learn from it. At the heart of Uber is its customer centricity. It has been designed around customer needs. The company tapped into people’s frustrations with the existing offer – taxis that were either hard to find or late, and expensive – and designed a product that offered an alternative. The process of booking with Uber has


been made simple by the creation of an App that is easy to use. A few taps of a button on your phone and a cab appears. They’re transparent – prices are now quoted upfront – and have built trust by making driver ratings available. In the same way, care services need to


be better designed around the person. Whether care is being paid for by local authority funds or the individual is forking


out £1,500 per week privately, the choices are limited, and as we build increasingly larger warehouses of 99 plus beds, then as a consumer we become lost in the crowds. Some might say that the person- centred care agenda has addressed this issue, but I’d argue that it hasn’t. In many care homes the services are


run around the needs of the operation rather than the desires of the residents. Think about how a resident must feel if they can’t have a meal at the time they want it or a bedtime drink, where their day is designed around staff rosters and prescribed activities, rather than what will be most fulfilling for them? It’s lack of control, choice and dare we


say the opposite of a ‘person-centred’ approach. What’s more, the system still requires a lot of explanation and can be quite daunting for residents and their families.


Redefining the product Uber has redefined what a taxi company should look like and how the service is offered. It has disrupted the market and forever changed consumer expectations when it comes to the taxi industry. The care sector needs to do the


www.thecarehomeenvi ronment .com • January 2017


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