FRANCHISEFOCUS INVESTMENT: £9,995 Brexit means… business?
Despite political uncertainty in the UK, Visiting Angels’ higher wages means finding care staff isn’t a struggle
F
rom Theresa May's claim that "Brexit means Brexit" to the delays and uncertainty surrounding a deal, and its subsequent impact on the country, a lot has changed over the past few years. However you voted in the referendum, the country wasn't prepared for many of the current issues arising in leaving the EU. Successful homecare franchise Visiting Angels launched its UK operation in the last three years. A successful pilot business has been built in South Yorkshire and the first four franchisees have been recruited to join the growing national network. UK managing director Dan Archer is very much of the opinion that Brexit can mean business for the right opportunity with the right approach. Many would assume – given that thousands of European citizens work in the care sector – that the uncertainty over Brexit would be a problem for Dan’s business. He says that this could not be further from the truth.
"Taking an approach that puts carers at the heart of business means Brexit isn’t a barrier to growth"
“Many homecare providers recruit from the European Union. It is common for homecare businesses to complete contracts for local authority care packages where the charge rates are low and, as a result, the pay rates have to be low. At the minimum wage end of the market, caring roles can often be filled by European staff Our business, however, is very different. “Our business is a private homecare
provider; we charge more and we can afford to pay more. As a result, we do not struggle to find care staff because
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working for Visiting Angels is an attractive alternative to working for many of our competitors. Also, as many as 50 per cent of our caregivers are new to care and wouldn’t consider working for a typical homecare provider.” Having a history of working within
care providers, Dan knows the European staffing model well, but suspects that uncertainty about the future, related to Brexit, could potentially deter workers from coming to the UK. “Since Brexit there has been a decline in the number of people willing to come to the UK to work in care, whether this is because they do not know if they’ll be able to stay or if it’s because they feel less welcome than they did. We find, though, that this makes staffing harder for our competitors, which is actually good news for us. In my pilot franchise in South Yorkshire, we are winning business from other care companies because we have a solution to the staffing problem.”
For Visiting Angels, if you are able to
say yes to a new care client when your competitors can’t, then Brexit can present an opportunity. For this franchise, taking an approach that puts the carers at the heart of the business means Brexit hasn’t been a barrier to growth. Dan concludes: “The shortage of people
working in other care businesses and the lack of capacity in residential care means that there is unprecedented demand for the Visiting Angels service. "We have an ageing population and that will be the case no matter what flavour of Brexit we get.” l
CONTACT Visiting Angels Care
0114 433 3000
visitingangelsfranchise.co.uk darcher@visiting-angels.co.uk
Investment level: Under £10k
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