ARCH (Affordable, Reliable Care at Home) – HomeTouch

e51227e9-f69e-401e-91e3-b216e5ba3a6f

Closed

Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK
Innovate UK

£1,249,200

March 31, 2016

March 31, 2018

Families and councils are under pressure as the rapidly growing need for home care, largely
driven by an aging population, cannot be met by the current agency model. This threatens the
continuity and quality of UK care.
Councils have cut home care £4.6bn since 2011, causing agencies to downscale services, rely
on multiple carers for each client, and reduce many visits to 15 minutes. Over 85% of
councils pay less than the recommended minimum £15.74 per hour for home care, of which
agencies take over 50%, which leaves carers struggling on less than the National Living
Wage.
Poor staff retention and rates of sickness absence are mounting. With this strain, 45% of UK
care agencies are in deficit and looking to exit. Agencies are beginning to turn away council
block care contracts, and there is risk of market failure.
Hospitals have been bearing the brunt, delaying discharges because adequate home care
support is not available. Known as “bed blocking”, this issue costs the NHS £699m per year.
Facing these breakdowns, councils increasingly promote “Direct-Payments” which put the
responsibility for arranging and managing care in the hands of the recipients and their
families. But care recipients and their families struggle to arrange their own care. Individual
contracts with agencies are expensive and difficult to navigate. Efficient solutions are
required to streamline the care matching and managing process and make it financially viable.
HomeTouch is an established care introductory agency with both private and Direct-Pay
clients in the UK. The company has proven the concept of using technology to radically
reduce care costs and complexities. It will offer advanced carer-recipient matching,
verification and dynamic pricing, to help families, recipients, carers and councils easily
deliver and manage care.