Working from the ground up: Joe’s journey to establishing a care business

‘Anyone can care’ is a term heard many times in everyday scenarios, but [we] can tell you this is simply not true. This week’s post for the Quality Care Campaign features Joe* and his experiences of becoming a CQC registered company.

Joe, a resident from the South East, is in the midst of opening his own domiciliary care business and in this new series is telling the Quality Care Campaign his story, giving insight into his experiences of CQC’s application process and becoming a registered business.

There are currently 15 million people aged 60 or over in the UK alone, with this figure expected to rise to 22 million by 2039. Let me ask you this, what happens when we reach an age where we can no longer look after ourselves? We go into care homes. But picture this: a future without care homes, or care businesses under the current CQC guidelines.

Domiciliary care is provided to those who still live in their own homes but require additional support with personal care and other activities that will allow them to maintain their independence and quality of life – and that is precisely what Joe has in mind.

Joe currently spends his time writing applications, hiring office space, composing policies and getting clients all in the space of his front room – and that’s all before he’s even received a CQC registration.

Most of us have the opportunity to choose our careers paths and others simply just fall into career their paths. Joe recalls his journey into the care industry: “I actually just stumbled into it. I was studying, and I took a part-time job as a PA which is kind of the unregulated care market.

“I took on a youth care job, did lots of private tutoring and to be perfectly honest, I wasn’t exactly into it at that point. I had the same three clients and started to think I should be doing more. I start applying for jobs in the care industry but in the offices instead and landed a supervisor job at a big company. Well, I was a support supervisor but was quickly promoted into a regular supervisor role.

“I became their head of recruitment and I was tired of being on call and sick of the irregular hours, so I thought to myself: ‘I’m not going to work in this industry again’ and then I just kept getting brought back to it.”

Joe then took a role as a co-ordinator and became a manager or a temporary manager, which is where he first had the inspiration to start his own business. He said: “I realised all these other people are doing this and some aren’t doing it particularly well and I thought I can do it better, so I kind of consolidated my contacts and started planning my own domiciliary care business.

“This I am absolutely certain of, I can do it better. There is a massive gap in the market for what I’m doing which is almost and not overly different. It’s more what everyone says they do but doesn’t really deliver on and I have found a way of actually doing it.”

Specialising in adults with disabilities, ranging from physical to sensory impairments, Joe is focusing on his application, getting clients and starting his business to help the industry. Next week, Joe explains the application itself and the problems he has faced with CQC’s registration system.

*Joe has been changed for anonymity purposes

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