Kare Plus private care franchise promises healthy profits

Kare Plus has established itself as one of the foremost providers of quality nursing and domiciliary care

Perfectly placed to take full advantage of radical changes in the health service, leading nursing and domiciliary care franchise Kare Plus is currently tendering on behalf of its franchisees for a series of major multi-million pound NHS contracts across the UK.

Over the last 12 years the company has established itself as one of the foremost providers of quality nursing and domiciliary care, supplying medical and non-medical personnel to NHS hospitals, GP surgeries, private health and nursing care facilities, as well as families whose primary concern is to have their loved ones cared for in their own home.

Expertise
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“Kare Plus is one of only a few private care service providers in the franchising arena licensed to supply to the NHS and we are also fully accredited by the Care Quality Commission,” managing director Steve Welsh explains. “Our strong reputation, track record and clinical expertise is unrivalled in the franchising industry, which is why our franchisees are so well placed to build high growth, profitable businesses.”

Former banking and finance manager Jamie Hickson is one of a new breed of business focused people who have recognised the huge market potential and identified Kare Plus as offering the best route forward.

After only nine months as a franchisee, Jamie is already turning over between £16,000-18,000 per week, with profit margins of up to 40 per cent. He has successfully recruited a bank of around 40 medical and domiciliary staff and a registered manager, which he employed just three months in, to help him handle his rapidly growing business.

“Once I felt ready to move away from corporate life and start my own business, the clear unfulfilled demand for high quality care that I’d seen at first hand motivated me to look at setting up a company to provide these services,” Jamie confirms. “I quickly realised that going it alone would simply not be an option. The protocols and compliance requirements you need to even get through the door, let alone grow and succeed, are just frightening.

“The obvious solution was to buy into an existing, established brand with proven clinical experience and the necessary compliance documentation already in place.”

Jamie looked at four or five different franchise options, but says that once he’d spoken to Kare Plus he was convinced it was the right opportunity for him. “The Kare Plus franchise provides much greater scope in that, unlike some competitors, you’re not restricted to domiciliary care, but you can also provide medical care and nursing staff too,” he states. “Frankly, I’ve been staggered by the rate of growth I’ve experienced.”

Packages
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Kare Plus offers its franchisees the opportunity to opt for either of its separate franchise packages - Healthcare Personnel (nursing/medical care) or Personal Touch (domiciliary/ social care) - but Jamie opted for the full package, which draws together both elements and reflects the current political moves towards the integration of health and social care.

Steve Welsh explains: “The NHS is bursting at the seams and the new Health and Social Care Act is a response to this, allowing the NHS to relinquish responsibility and releasing funds to enable patients to make their own decisions about care. Further reform proposals are expected in the form of the Care and Support White Paper over the coming months, which will address the problem of our ageing population and look at how rising demand for care can be met and managed.

“Clearly, there is crossover where elderly people need domiciliary support and also medical care. So for Kare Plus franchisees it makes absolute sense to be able to exploit both opportunities.” Joining Kare Plus has enabled Jamie to jump instantly onto supplier lists of leading care and nursing homes, as well as hospitals and social services agencies, where the company is already listed as an approved provider of care services.

“We’re in the process of tendering for NHS contracts in all regions where we are looking to establish new franchisees,” Steve says. “Over the next four years we expect to be tapping into NHS contracts worth an estimated £140 million. We will also be targeting additional growth in the rapidly increasing elderly care sector, where we’re already recognised as high quality providers.”

As for Jamie, so far he’s not even looked at the lucrative area of NHS contracts. His success to date is entirely built on meeting rising demand for private care on his territory. He confidently predicts that by the end of the year he will have doubled sales and expects to achieve a six-figure salary.

“I was well paid in my previous career, but with the recession my bonuses were reducing,” he says. “Not only am I now enjoying very healthy rewards from my Kare Plus business, but I also take tremendous satisfaction from the feeling that I’m actually making a difference to people’s lives -  and that’s what really counts.”