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Episode 26

Is home care franchising right for your organization? A conversation with Radfield Home Care UK

Jeff Howell (00:01):

Welcome to home health, 360 a podcast presented by AlayaCare. I’m your host, Jeff Howell. And this is the show about learning from the best in home healthcare from around the globe.

Jeff Howell (00:18):

Welcome everyone to another edition of home health, 360, where we speak with home health and home care leaders from across the globe. Today, we are reaching out across the pond and speaking with one of the co-founders of one of the fastest growing home care franchises in the UK rad field home care is a highly regarded award-winning care service for elderly people, wishing to remain living in their homes. A top 20 home care winner for four years in a row and awarded one of the top 100 overall franchises in the UK. Alex Green. Welcome to the show.

Alex Green (00:54):

Thanks Jeff.

Jeff Howell (00:56):

So Alex, I’ve read a few articles on your growth. Bring us through a little bit of a history lesson on rad field.

Alex Green (01:02):

Yeah, sure. So we’re in our 40th year as a brand rad field started as a, a residential home for elderly people started by my mom and dad in 1982. It was small, it was family. It was where we grew up, so it was home. And that’s kind of where everything started for us. My, our mom was a nurse and she wanted to do something to sort of bring her skills to bear and build a business for the family. So she and my dad founded Bradfield their care home. And then from there they got their parents involved. So my grandparents all helped in the, in the, in the home. And our first you think about sort of where we were in 1982, our first clients that came in were, were Victorians. So we had one gentleman there who had attended queen Victor’s funeral as a child.

Alex Green (01:54):

So it was a very different world. Very different care was being provided for people, but I think what what really made it work was the family values. So the way the home operated was like, it was our home, you know, there were kids running around, that was me and my sister, Hannah. And, and there were the older people there being looked after and all the care professionals came in and it was a family unit. So that was really where everything, everything came from, I suppose, that was our foundation. And then in 2008 we had a discussion with, with our parents. They decided they wanted to retire. I’d been off doing various other things. So working in finance, working in community development, community radio, and Hannah had been off with the medical career. So she become a GP. And there was a discussion had around how do we continue family business, the family legacy.

Alex Green (02:45):

And that was where RA home care we realized times had changed a little bit. The, the sort of market for the type of care home that we’d operated up to then had changed. People wanted to stay home instead of into a residential youth. And, you know, the residential care sector was moving much more towards the elderly mentally in firm or nursing care. And that wasn’t really what we did particularly. So Bradfield home care started, and that was where things kicked off really. I suppose we, we started building our, our home care business in Rosebury and then we expanded that out ourselves into neighboring areas. And then after a few years of du, well, you know, probably eight years of doing that, we realized that it was time to take the move into franchising. That’s what happened. We, we started to build the franchise business people who could bring our values to life in their own communities. You know, who would be invested, who would be committed, who would share our passion and values and then bring rad field to life in each area that they wanted to operate in. So that was kind of, that’s where we, that’s where we came from. That’s how we’ve got to where we are now.

Jeff Howell (03:53):

And do you still do, do you still have a residential home? Is it like what’s the wo would be the breakdown between home care and, and REI?

Alex Green (04:00):

Yeah, we don’t, we don’t operate residential home anymore. So our parents decided to retire. They, they sold the premises and retired and we carried on with the home care business. Got it. We still operate our own home care business in, in Rosebury where we’re based. So our local offices are pilots office, if you like, it’s where we test things. It’s where we, you know, drive the standards through. And then we have the franchise network.

Jeff Howell (04:25):

Yeah. I love it when you know, franchisors are eating their own dog food and, you know, you, you can sort of you’re the end user as well. So is it strictly non-medical services then?

Alex Green (04:37):

Yeah, I think, I mean, that’s, it’s probably a bit unique in the UK because we have the NHS you know, most medical services are provided through the NHS. So unlike other markets like India and, and certainly, you know, other, other markets around the world where the home care tends to sit alongside medical care in the home. It doesn’t really work here because, you know, most people don’t want to pay for medical care in their home cause they get it free through the NHS. So we’re a little bit of a unique marketplace, so yeah, it’s all, it’s all care. None of it’s medical.

Jeff Howell (05:08):

Okay. And and then would you have NHS as a payer or having any government payers or is strictly private pay?

Alex Green (05:17):

We work mostly in the private sector. So most of our clients are private. They contract with us. We do work for local authorities. We do work for the NHS where we’re appropriate. So we often help out where there’s lack of capacity within the sort of the, the existing provision. So they’ll say, can you provide care for this client? We need some extra capacity creating sometimes it’s around specialist care that we can offer a, a service that they need. But yeah, I mean, it’s, it’s, there is a mix, but it tends to be more, more private that we focus on.

Jeff Howell (05:49):

So I have to ask you in going to your website, I went down the path of what’s the journey for someone who wants to become a, a franchisee and I’ve been on probably thousands of home care websites, and this is the first home care franchise aptitude test that I’ve ever seen. And I thought it was brilliant. So bring me through how, how did that come to be? And I, I think, you know, the, you know, the feeling that I had when I, when I was there was that there is a standard that you have, and it really kind of flipped the, the mindset of, oh, Hey, I actually have to be qualified and apply for this, rather than, you know, in a lot of websites, you have the opposite feeling where they’re happy to have people come by. So I’m, I’m positive that you do this for segmenting and, and weeding out, you know, the good potential franchisees from the bad. And so, so bring me through, you know, what does that journey look like if, if they, someone went to your website, went down that quiz.

Alex Green (06:53):

Of course. Yeah. I mean, it’s good to hear that that was the impression you got from it, Jeff, cuz that’s the intention

Jeff Howell (06:59):

Brave.

Alex Green (07:00):

The, the first reason we built that was we, we deal with a huge number of inquiries to get down to one person who is suitable appropriate, wants to do it is in a position to do it. We’re talking to maybe 150 between a hundred, 200 people. So it’s a lot of, you know, low level inquiries that you have to go through. So that creates a lot of work for us. So what we thought was actually, if we put a bit of a test in place to sort for someone to kind of self-assess and maybe we’ll be able to self-select or they’ll be able to self-select them outta that process, if it’s not right for you. Cause for most people it’s, it’s not right. You know it’s, it’s not an easy business to get into. It’s a very rewarding business in many ways, but it’s not easy. So people who are looking for, you know, a pure money making thing or something that their hands off and they can just sit there and, and let it run. It’s not for them. So we’ll put this test in place just to kind of put little bit of a barrier, a little bit of an assessment up in place for people to use. So then hopefully if they go through that and then they still contact to us, they’ll, they’ll be a little bit more kind of understanding what’s needed. What’s necessary.

Jeff Howell (08:06):

The fact that you named it, an aptitude test. I, I thought that word really stood out to me that you know, I just thought this is a very smartly designed thing. And you know, it sort of challenges those prospective franchisees right away that maybe this isn’t for you, right. Or, or maybe it is, and it’s even better for you than you even think right now. And there’s something to learn as you go through this aptitude test and you’re being asked these 13 questions that I, I thought it was just, you know, so many companies should be doing these you see sometimes what, what are called quiz funnels to really help qualify who your prospect or buyer is. And you know, you see you guys are certainly the only home care company that I’ve seen do this.

Alex Green (08:53):

Yeah. It’s, it’s, it’s such an important purchase if you like, it’s, you know, we, we, we don’t sell franchises. We find people who want to join us and be partners with us. And I think the thing that kind of really stands out is in, in franchising, there’s a huge amount of psychology that sits behind the relationship. So the psychology of finding the right people who, who approach it in the right way, who understand what they’re getting into and, and also understand how to get the most outta it. It’s, it’s really interesting when there’s a, there’s an organization called franchise relationship Institute in Australia, run run by Greg Nathan, and they’ve done a lot of work into researching. What are the main things that make someone successful in franchise? So for, for a franchisee, a franchise partner, as we call them the, the, the two key things that will make them successful is, is having sort of family backing and support.

Alex Green (09:44):

So social capital, the ability to build their business and then brand passion comes in second. So those, the two absolutely, you know, most important things for someone to, to be successful as a franchisee. So it means you have to find the right brand for you. There has to be a marriage where this is on average, eight years of your life, that you are committing a lot of money a lot of time. So it has to be passionate marriage where you found the right brand, you are committed to and you’re gonna work well. And then from our perspective, as the franchisor, then the relationship really works. There’s an understanding of what we have to put into that relationship, what they have to put into that relationship to make it work. So this whole kind of early, early assessment is to find those people who are gonna make it work and to make sure that we don’t have people coming through who are not in it, in it for the right reason

Jeff Howell (10:36):

And the, and the hundred to 200 people you said, is that, is that like per month?

Alex Green (10:40):

No, no, no. It’s, it’s just kind of a statistics. So if, if you’re looking at, you know, how many leads do you need to generate to generate one sale? So one, one person signing with you as a franchise partner, you, you know, they’re the kind of, it’s pretty rough and ready, but you know, you’re, you’re having to talk to that volume of people,

Jeff Howell (10:56):

Right. So you’re rejecting over 99% really?

Alex Green (10:59):

Yeah. From, from, from early inquiries. Yeah, definitely. I mean, most, most people who, who sort of come to you are not serious. They, they don’t have a lot of intent. They may be contacting every single franchise that they can find to find out what they want. Do they don’t know it’s home care. They dunno what they want do. So you know, so there there’s, there’s, there’s a sort weeding out process that you go through the funnel, those people kinda narrow down and then yeah, you end, you end up finding a few

Jeff Howell (11:24):

People. Yeah. And I’ve done the same thing where anytime I’ve ever hired a freelancer to help out with something, and I know I’m gonna get a couple hundred responses. I actually have them go fill in a form and make it a little bit painful. And then you get the part, the part-timers weed themselves out. so speaking of franchises, what, so when COVID hits, I’m curious what demand for new franchises look like if you guys actually just kind of shut down expansion plans and it was just all hands on deck to support your existing franchisees. How, how did all that look?

Alex Green (12:02):

Yeah, it was, it was interesting times at the beginning of it all, cuz we, no one knew quite what to expect, what we, what we experienced. I think we, we, we were fortunate that we prepared early. So I think in, in February we were making plans for pandemic cause we saw the headlines coming around the world. What do we do? We either sit there and hope it goes away. Or we do some planning and if the worst comes, then we are ready for it. So we, we did that planning, which was really good in the end. More on the care side of the business than the franchise sales side of the business or franchisee support side. In terms of what happened went quiet for a bit, a few months and then the inquiries started to pick up. So we had through the lockdown, we had a lot of people contacting us, wanting to talk about franchising, I’d say low level of intent, but a lot of people wanted to find out what their options were, maybe worrying about whether their job was gonna come back or not, you know, not knowing what the future held.

Alex Green (13:02):

You know, it’s a big shift, isn’t it? A change of life everything’s up in the air. So we had a lot of, a lot of inquiries. We didn’t have any sales, so no one was in a position to take things through. But that’s understandable, you know, while everyone’s still in lockdown and things are so uncertain. We didn’t, we didn’t move anyone through to sales, but I think as soon as then the lockdowns ended, things started to get bit more back to normal. We certainly saw a people coming through with, with some serious intent more recently. I think we, we’re seeing a lower volume of inquiries now than we were through the lockdown, but we’re seeing a much higher level of intent in those inquiries. So we’re converting more of those people. And I’m not entirely sure what’s driving that, but I suppose maybe people through the lockdown who were inquiring, they, they did their inquiries.

Alex Green (13:52):

They decided what they were gonna do. Now. People who are inquiring are a little bit more serious, they’ve had that time to think and they, they know this is right for them. And we are seeing that a lot of the people we’re talking to now are coming to us saying, I want to do home care. This is my mission. This is what I wanna do. And I wanna find the brand that’s right for me to do care because cuz I suppose of all, all of our experiences through the pandemic of seeing the impact care can have with people, maybe, you know, having personal experience of loss or, or having people who struggled through that, certainly something that has, has resonated with people.

Jeff Howell (14:23):

Yeah, that’s interesting. I think the with everyone having gone through such a you know, sort of black Swan event where, you know, everyone’s doing a lot of soul searching and if you’ve gone through the great resignation or even if you haven’t resigned, but you’re just doing this re reflection that COVID has caused love the idea. I’ve never heard anyone explain it in that way where you, you know, in, in the, before COVID you had tire kickers and then now you have the fortunate circumstance of having fewer leads that you have to go through. But there’s a very high conversion rate. I’m curious. Have you noticed something similar with caregiver applications?

Alex Green (15:07):

That’s, that’s a different story entirely it’s it was quite interesting. During, during the pandemic, we had a particular sort of rule that was created in the UK where people who were furloughed from their jobs could work in the care sector. So they were allowed to be furloughed. They were allowed to keep the furlough money, but they were also allowed to work as care professionals as well. So we had a lot of people come to us to work for us through the lockdown, I suppose, partly because they were doing nothing else, partly because they wanted to contribute, make a difference. So we had people coming from office jobs from, you know, management jobs. We had cabin crew, we had all sorts of people coming through, working for us as care professionals through the lockdown. And that was quite, quite different, quite unique. We, we are lucky we, we haven’t seen a great resignation.

Alex Green (15:53):

So I think maybe the way we work with our care professionals is, is Testament to that. We, we look after people, you know, each of our offices is a family there there’s, there’s a lot of support for our care professionals. And we, we worked hard on that through the pandemic, but we are seeing, I mean, as a country we’re seeing it’s, it’s, it’s pretty tough recruitment market at the moment. So finding new people who want to come in to work in the care sector is hard and it’s not just the pandemic. Of course we, we had Brexit before that where the rules on immigration changed substantially. So whereas before the care sector had relied heavily on people coming into the UK to work not so much us, the NHS has been hit hard by that. And a lot of other care sectors areas of the care sector have been hit hard by that.

Alex Green (16:39):

So we had a big reduction in the number of people coming in were able to work in, in, in care. The recruitment in care is very tough at the moment in the, and few months a rule change happened again around immigration. Cause I think they recognized that maybe there needed to be a little bit more flexibility with that. So they changed the rules so that with a created a sponsorship scheme. So if you find a candidate from abroad who you want to sponsor to come in, there’s a lot OFTs and CS around that, but that has opened the floodgate. So we are getting inundated with applications of people from all over the world who want to come into the UK and work as care professionals. So it’s been a real rollercoaster

Jeff Howell (17:16):

Ride. Yeah. I know the in, in the United States, you know, sort of a similar issue with you know, migration and, and changes to policies. And there certainly are you know, industries that rely on immigrants that come in and, and do that work. What are your thoughts on you know, what are some big thi things that have changed in light of COVID whether, you know, either you’re doing virtual visits or how you’re tracking caregivers, are you, are you doing any virtual online training for them? Like do, do fewer people come to the office? Like what, what would you say are the biggest changes on how you, you guys operate with respect to how COVID has changed those things?

Alex Green (18:01):

Yeah, it was, it was, it was interesting. So through the lockdowns, we, we anticipated a lot of people, the council care. So we, we even wrote to all of our clients and said, look, guys, you know, if you want us to stop coming to see, we completely understand it’s about safety. It’s about keep them safe. So we wrote to everybody, we made that offer and we didn’t have one, one client say no. So throughout the lockdown, we had, you know, consistent level of care that we were providing. So that, that changed well, so I didn’t change much, you know, lockdown didn’t impact on how much care we were actually delivering. I think also, I mean, there was also a big, big hesitancy around care homes. So people who maybe were gonna go into, into care homes thought again, because of some of the problems that we’ve had with people catching COVID within the care homes.

Alex Green (18:47):

So a lot of people try to stay at home. So it didn’t really impact, demand on that. And I think what we’re seeing now, we, we, as a private care provider, we, we tend to work pretty much closely directly with our clients. So we’re not we’re not having to deliver volume care where so some local authorities are having to move into a lot of virtual visits or using tech in different ways to support that. We’re not we’re, you know, our, our clients tend to pay us to visit them and do work with them so directly. So we’re in a slightly different position, but there are some interesting developments out there around how, how tech can be used to support care. We we’ve been running pilots in tech for two, three years now in terms of the care delivery tech. So we, we test things we test until we break them.

Alex Green (19:32):

We test to find out if they actually work. You know, there’s, there’s a few systems that we actually use now live with our clients, cuz they’re really helpful, but there’s a lot of other systems that we’ve been because they don’t work at the moment. They’re not the technologies isn’t mature yet or whatever reason. And there’s some interesting developments around sort using, you know, tablets in the home or little robots. So there’s a fantastic company that we work with called OK. Each day, which is a UK company, they have a tablet. And they literally, it’s a button that you press that says I’m okay and you press it each day. So, okay. Day, it’s a great way. Really simple. And that’s, I think that’s the lesson here is, is simplicity in what we’ve found because what you can do with that tablet, it doesn’t do anything else.

Alex Green (20:19):

You can, you can contact us using it. You can talk to friends and family using it, but it doesn’t do anything. It sits in your house. There’s and it’s programmed to say, if this person doesn’t push this button by 10:00 AM, we’re gonna raise an alarm. So if that person doesn’t hit the button, they’ll get a phone call from a call center to say, are you okay? You didn’t press your button today. And if they don’t answer, then that will escalate up the chain. So then we might be called or the family might be called to say, this person, person we’re we’re concerned, they haven’t pushed the button. We can’t get hold of them to be raising intervention. So for someone who is able to live at home without care, but they’re a little bit vulnerable, they might be at risk of falling or the family might be concerned about them.

Alex Green (21:01):

Then we can go in and we can put that. We can put that system into someone’s house. We don’t have to provide care, but we can in a kind of very non-intrusive way, make sure that person’s okay. And there’s some interesting things that have come out of that system is, you know, some people don’t push their button because they want to get a phone call because they’re lonely and that’s okay too. You know? So the, the, the company that runs that system, they’re absolutely fine to have a chat with people on the phone, but that’s a great example of a really simple thing that we can use as an early intervention to get people who don’t need care yet, but need something. And it’s, it’s that stock gap. It fills that gap a little bit. You know, other systems like genie connect. So genie it’s like a robot doesn’t run around, but it sits there.

Alex Green (21:44):

It’s just got a screen, but it’s an interactive system where you can actually talk to people, keep keeping, contact and communication with people, right? The way up to kind of more advanced tech. So, you know, you can fill your house with sensors, that detect movement that do all the work and with an AI hub in the middle, that kinda detects patterns of movement. You’ve got some way of keeping someone than just being on their own. So we have this range of tech now that we’ve tested, we know how to use it. We know how to implement it. We know where the right case, you know, use cases are to put that into someone’s home where it, we know it works. It’s not gonna let them down, we know how to use it. And we can really help people with that. So that’s some examples, I suppose, of how, how the pandemic has changed a little bit, because we are probably a little bit more invested in the technology because there is a, certainly a need for it. And it’s just, it’s just grown our kind of interest in that, in that area and our work piloting and, and championing systems that really make a difference.

Jeff Howell (22:44):

Mm-Hmm yeah. And certainly provide a competitive advantage as well when when families are looking to choose from one brand versus another.

Alex Green (22:52):

Yeah. And also, I suppose there is about a shortfall at the moment in, in capacity for providing care. So a lot of companies you phone up and say, can you provide care for my mom? And they say no. Because they haven’t got the care professionals to provide the care. So in that instance as well, having some system that you can put in that improves the safety level while care, while you’re waiting to get a care service in place, that’s a great thing as well. So yeah. Lots of different ways it can be used.

Jeff Howell (23:17):

Yeah. Well, that’s, that’s a good point. Speaking of staffing shortages, you had raised some insightful comments about, you know, the reduction in, in immigration. And now that’s sort of back on, on the UPW. Curious if you have any other thoughts on you know, in north America, we, you know, we have the same struggles as well, right? Like it’s pretty simple problem. It’s really supply and demand. But I’m, I’m curious, you know, know some of the things that I’ve seen some agencies do is they’ve automated a lot of their systems, so that the time from a caregiver applying for a job to the time that they get the job, in one case, a company went from a pro process of days down to hours. I, I’m just curious if what you’re seeing in the UK and, you know obviously it’s a very big issue globally and not, there’s no simple answers, but I’m curious if, if you’re seeing, you know, some of the things you might be seeing on how agencies are trying to tackle this challenge.

Alex Green (24:22):

Yeah. I think, I think it’s a, it’s a case of doing everything really well. You know, there’s no one silver bullet that will fix the problem. You’ve just gotta be doing everything as well as you can. So, and I think, you know, we’ve certainly done that. We, we implemented a new recruitment platform with an ATS system on the back of it a new website to kind of help, help that process. So we’ve definitely been working hard to streamline the application process, you know, using chatbots to engage candidates, whether they wanna talk to us at three in the afternoon or three in the morning using, you know, social media platforms with chatbots enabled so that we can have conversations with candidates any time of day lots of, kind of that, that front end stuff. But I think it’s also, it’s about the values that you portray to people and how you portray the job, because, you know, there’s a bit of a perception around care that it’s hard work.

Alex Green (25:12):

It’s not what people want to do. And I think that’s something it’s our job to change that, you know, we, as care as, as you know, leaders in care, we have to show people what the reality of the work is. And yes, it can be tough, but it’s about, you know, finding those people who would do it regardless. They, they, they like the fact that it’s tough, cause they’re making a difference. You know, not, not everybody wants an easy life all the time. Some people want challenge in life. They wanna feel like they’re impacting, they’re making a difference, the change in lives. And I think that’s, that’s the key thing is if, if, if we, as a care provider can facilitate that, if we can create ways that our care care professionals are empowered, you know, they’re engaged, they’re trained, they’re supported and they’re able to make a difference.

Alex Green (25:54):

That’s where it really comes in through the recruitment process. We’ll find them and they’ll stay with us. And that’s something we’ve been working on a lot is how do we communicate that to people? There there’s, there’s some interesting work around brand, you know, what does it mean? You can say things, but you’ve gotta actually show people that you do them you know, for a brand to come to life. You know, you have to really put your heart on your sleeve and, and be out there. So something we’ve been working on is a, is a movement, a campaign that we call be. There’s very much about being there for people. We are there to help them remain connected to the world, to their families. We’re there to their lives, the way want from a, that also cascades for, to, to help them be themselves so that they can be connected, be part of a team, part of a family and be inspired in the work that they’re doing because you know, their work changes lives every day.

Alex Green (26:55):

And we need to celebrate that to me. It’s kind of, you know, a lot of, a lot of the, the care worker, the care role is, is, is seeing quite low down, you know, whereas paramedics are seeing PR pretty high up, you know, it’s, it’s a high status job. And actually, you know, if you think about it, there’s not, they’re different, but a, a care professional going into a client’s home can be saving a life, can be making a huge difference every day. And I think it’s around addressing that balance and maybe, you know, showing people how important the role is that’s and that’s down to us to do that.

Jeff Howell (27:27):

Yeah. And certainly health starts with the social determinants of health of the, the social determinants of health, you know, or like being lonely and having, having some, some dignity and, you know, and, and just being happy you know, that’s where everything, that’s like the very first part of being healthy. So

Alex Green (27:49):

I was gonna say to, to, to be happy, you have to be yourself, you know, you have to be whole, you know, and if, if, if your life has been impacted by, you know, illness, by disability, by things, you know, you, you’re probably not gonna be living your best life. You’re not, you’re not feeling your best. So, you know, the job of a care provider is to, as far as they can address some of those things and, and put some of those pieces back, back together you know, to help that person overcome some of those challenges. And, and, and you can’t move beyond that until you fix that thing, which is, if someone isn’t feeding themselves, they’re not gonna be happy. They’re not gonna be, you know, able to take part in their life to the, to the fullest. So that’s our job primarily is to make sure that we can do

Jeff Howell (28:29):

That. Right. What do you think are some common misconceptions about home care that maybe the average person out there has?

Alex Green (28:38):

Yeah. It’s an interesting one. That it’s more the fact that people don’t care to think about care until they have to, most people want to get on with their lives and not think about care because it’s not, it’s not nice. Is it, you know, thinking about the fact that you’re gonna need care one day, not great. So most people forget about it until something happens and when something happens, it’s too late. So the typical thing is, you know, you’ve got a parent or, you know, relative who is struggling at home and they refuse to have care and they keep refusing and then they have a fall, they break a hip or something, terrible house, then they’re in hospital. And then all of a sudden, the world of care lands on them and they have to start up to the there’s this thing called care that they need.

Alex Green (29:22):

So our job, I suppose, is to get people thinking about care because the sooner people will kind of, and I think it’s around changing perception. You know, I think care is, is difficult. Cause when you, when you accept care into your life, then there’s a, there’s a thing there around losing control, losing, losing self determination. It’s, it’s quite a big step to take. And so what we have to do is, is, is, is explain how care can make such a difference to someone’s life. So you can, you can actually prevent the fall from happening if you bring in the care a little bit sooner, but that’s a real tough battle because for most people care is the thing that you, you do when you have to, not the thing when you, when you want to. You know, so but that’s a really important thing for us is the more we can explain to people, the benefits of care and to overcome that misconception around what care is, it’s not, it’s not the end, it’s the beginning, it’s, it’s our way of preventing deterioration. It’s a way of, you know, slowing decline and, and preventing bad things from happening. That actually, it’s a positive thing to accept some care into your life when you need it. So I think that’s probably the biggest misconceptions is to get people over that kind of hurdle of accepting care. You don’t need a lot of care just a little bit, but yeah, that’s, that’s where I go, you know, my conclusion on that one,

Jeff Howell (30:40):

Right? Yeah. It’s like we need to reach this inflection point. You know, like for example, mental health is becoming de-stigmatized right? Like you have celebrities talking about absolutely. You know, being in being in therapy and, and it’s we just have to reach that point where, you know we as humans love to deny things and love to procrastinate and not admit that, you know just because I’m getting care, doesn’t mean it’s, you know, that’s a bad thing. It, we really need to all be more proactive in life.

Alex Green (31:13):

Absolutely. Yeah.

Jeff Howell (31:15):

We’re bumping up against our time here, Alex, I’ll get you outta here on this last question, give us a reason why you’re optimistic about future the future of home care.

Alex Green (31:24):

The main thing is people wanna stay at home and they wanna stay at home for as long as possible, and they wanna stay healthy and well for as long as possible. So there’s, there’s a, there’s a need for home care, you know, massively important to, to help people stay at home and live the lives they want to live. And also there’s an increasing number of people who are gonna knee care. The demographics are only going in one direction. There are more and more people every year who need care and that’s, you know, that’s absolutely the, the, what we’re facing up to. So I think there’s, there’s a demand for it. I think what the, what the pandemic has showed us is that there’s an appreciation for care when it’s explained and people understand what, what it is. So I think the perception of care is changing.

Alex Green (32:06):

And I suppose just from another perspective, you know, delivering care in the home environment is undoubtedly the most cost effective way of providing care. And that’s gonna be interesting in the UK with, with the NHS, you know, and, and, and how care is provided. It’s tends to be, you know, in institutions, whereas actually a lot of care can be provided at home and that’s the medical side of things as well. So I think there are real opportunities to look at how care can be more joined up, how social care can be more joined up with the NHS, how we can all work together to provide, you know, the care people need the care people want in the setting that they wanted, which is their home. So I think, you know, there’s lots of reasons to be optimistic and, you know, for rad field you know, we’ve got a 40 year legacy people who we work with our experiences enormous, and, you know, that creates a huge amount of opportunity for the future. So people who want to work in this sector, you, we can really help them build successful businesses.

Jeff Howell (33:00):

Well, that’s great. I don’t you’re probably the, the longest tenured family business that I’ve come across in home care. So I love your story. It dating all the way back to residential care in 1982 and, you know, I genuinely feel that I am I’m, I’m very grateful to be, you know, part of this podcast, cuz I get to speak with people and, and hear all these great stories. And some of my takeaways from today are love the idea of, you know, the top two things for a successful franchisee actually come down to the family infrastructure and then the passion that they have for your specific brand. No one’s ever sort of put that context onto it for me. Yeah. Obviously when you start your own business you know, it’s a lot easier to sort of fall in love with yourself than to treat a franchise as if it’s your own.

Jeff Howell (33:54):

So having that genuine passion and belief and you know, the, the spirit behind, you know, sort of treating the franchises if as if you were the original founder, love the okay. Each day that is so simple that sometimes the best answer is, is, you know, the simplest one love your comment about how, you know, what’s the solution. Well, just do everything, you know, to your best ability and just try to do everything well. And that there’s just no, you know, magic button that’s going to, you know, solve everything for us. Love the idea of the being there for the, the caregivers really like caring for the caregivers. And then you know, you, you had an insightful comment about, you know, preventing the negative health events proactively and that, you know, it’s not the end, it’s, it’s the beginning.

Jeff Howell (34:46):

And you know, we, as humans are just very resistant to you know, sort of doing things until the very last minute so Alex thanks for coming on today. This has been tremendous and you know, I’ve taken some notes and I definitely have some takeaways and I wish rad field all the best. And I certainly have I’m on a couple of UK based newsletters and that’s where I see you guys all the time. So I’m sure you guys are still gonna do really well. And I might have to go through the the franchise aptitude test just to see what all the questions are. So you can, you can kick me out at the end if my, if I submit the application

Alex Green (35:26):

For sure. No worries. Thanks for the opportunity to talk to you, Jeff. It’s been really good.

Jeff Howell (35:31):

Thanks Alex.

Jeff Howell (35:34):

Home health 360 is presented by AlayaCare. First off, I wanna thank our amazing guests and listeners to get more episodes. You can go to alayacare.com/homehealth360 that’s spelled home health 360 or search home health 360 on any of your favorite podcasting platforms. The easiest way to stay up to date on our new shows is to subscribe on apple podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. We also have a newsletter you can sign up for on alayacare.com/homehealth360 to get alerts for new shows and more valuable content from AlayaCare right into your inbox. Thanks for listening. And we’ll see you next time.

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Episode Description

In this episode we welcome Alex Green, founder of Radfield Home Care UK one of the fastest growing home care franchises in the UK. Alex describes how Radfield developed their very own home care franchise aptitude test to assess whether home care franchising is right for your organization, and how home care organizations can build their business. Listen to learn more.

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