I first became interested in the home care market when I was a mentor for a young woman who launched a care business whose clients were mainly funded by the local authority. Her main problem was cash flow – she didn’t have enough cash to pay her growing number of carers while waiting for social services to pay her either on time or even a few months late. To help her chase payments, I ‘broke the rules’ a few times, by stating I was calling on behalf of the Prince’s Trust. Well, I am a Prince’s Trust mentor, but people reacted as if I was calling on behalf of Prince Charles, resulting, amazingly, in prompt payment!

But our luck finally ran out. My mentee had to take on freelance work just to pay her carers, and in the end, she gave up and returned to full time employment.

I am exploring the home care market once again because it is rapidly growing, with increasing demand and insufficient supply. I believe that it can offer opportunities for people who want to be self-employed, and those who want to start a small business or community enterprise. There are huge problems in this sector, however there are signs that many of these problems can be overcome by adopting innovative approaches as described below.