A Better Caring solution

However they’re predicted to be a large player in connecting consumers and care workers in the CDC environment, as more people want to make their own choice about who comes to the door to deliver their home care.

Better Caring, a peer-to-peer platform connecting consumers and workers for transparent, high quality home care, has been in business for 12 months and is already proving highly successful.

People looking for a personal approach and continuity of care are taking to the Better Caring website to find a care worker that best suits their needs and circumstances.

There are currently more that 440 care workers listed on the website, and a further 2,200 undergoing the approval process.

“Our platform tries to not only create that initial ability to find and connect with each other, but to support that relationship on an ongoing basis,” says Better Caring founder Peter Scutt.

“We’re trying to empower care workers to run their own small business, taking them from an employee model, where they quite often feel like they have very little responsibility, which impacts on peoples attitudes and motivation,” he explains.

“We wanted to bring that small business owner mentality of ‘I really care about my clients because this is my business’ into the sector.”

Mr Scutt founded Better Caring from a very personal experience with care workers. His ageing parents were living in the country and like many people, they wanted to remain living in their own home.

“Our situation was very typical of many people where my sister ended up becoming the primary family carer, supporting mum and dad but also working so there was a limit to what she could do.

“I realised through my personal experience from the way the current industry operated it didn’t serve my parents very well and it didn’t serve the people doing all the important work, which is a very tough job.”

Peter Scutt combined this personal experience with his business knowledge and founded Better Caring with business partner Tony Charara.

“We thought a solution that connects people locally, in the community, would produce better outcomes for people needing support and for the people that offer the support.”

The Better Caring platform is unique in its delivery of quality care workers who work and manage their own small business with the support of the platform. Consumers can search for care workers locally and connect with the person they feel is the best fit for their personal situation.

Signing up with Better Caring is free but care workers wanting to register will have to upload some supporting documents, like a current police check, nursing qualifications, certificates and references. The Better Caring team will check all these documents and references to make sure all the requirements are in place. They even assist people to make sure they are marketing themselves properly and give advice on how to run a small business successfully.

“Once the profile is approved and goes live the care worker is open for business,” says Mr Scutt.

“We are trying to make it more attractive to become a care worker,” he says. “There are many people out there in the community, people that may have been a family carer, that have lots of skills and knowledge, and can be really valuable to others.”

Better Caring offers carers a chance to work flexibly in their local community. “You could be a mum with school aged children, looking to work between 9am and 3pm, three days a week, or a university student looking for flexible, paid part-time work to fit around your study schedule,” according to Mr Scutt.

“Or you might be recently retired or downsized, looking for flexible work opportunities. There is massive growing demand for care and support workers now and continuing into the future.

“The demand we have for quality care workers and support workers across aged care with our ageing population is going to be huge and we’re giving people the opportunity to say ‘you know what, that’s a really sensible, flexible, local opportunity for me’.”

Clients looking for support can search the Better Caring website for free for care workers in their local area. They can put in a postcode or suburb and filter through listed care workers on criteria that are important to them. Like by types of services, cultural background, whether they are pet friendly or LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex) friendly.

“We are trying to build a very diverse, flexible and responsive support solution to anyone that needs support to live independently in their home and community,” Mr Scutt explains.

If clients think a particular person might be a good fit they can contact them via the site. If it is someone they want to move forward with, the two parties agree on an hourly rate between themselves, which they can do through the site. They then self schedule appointments on an ongoing basis.

“We are trying to foster a long term relationship that works for both parties. Both need to feel that they are rewarded in that relationship,” Mr Scutt says.

Mr Scutt explains that the whole process of matching people needing care with care workers is completely transparent. “As a consumer you know who is available in your local area, what they are offering in terms of services and what they are charging. And if you engage somebody you have the right to provide feedback on that experience, making it a great mechanism for accountability and also to celebrate great care.”

Better Caring helps people to find each other but the service doesn’t stop there. They collect payments through the platform with full record keeping for both parties and have arranged for insurance on behalf of the care worker.

The organisation has introduced a reward system for those carers that present themselves well and are committed to servicing their clients.

The bronze, silver and gold badges are an indication of a care worker who is service oriented, engages with clients and has received positive feedback from consumers.

“To get positive word of mouth you need to delight your customer,” Mr Scutt explains. “We’re trying to build the capacity of care workers who understand that as a small business owner.”

Better Caring currently has care workers offering services throughout News South Wales, Victoria and parts of Queensland and Mr Scutt says people are signing up from all over Australia.

He sees the Government changes as hugely positive for Better Caring. “It’s all about people being more in control, transparency and higher quality, more affordable care.

“People’s needs and preferences are diverse and the workforce solutions needs to be diverse in order to respond to them,” he says.

“A pool of independent care workers running their own business is far more likely to be a responsive model. You know who’s coming to the door because you’ve chosen them, but it also means you build relationships.

“The social connection is an integral part of our service delivery. That’s often been lost in how the sector operates historically,” according to Mr Scutt.

“All the things we’re trying to deliver is the direction that CDC is trying to promote. In order for people to take advantage of what the government is trying to offer, which is more choice to get the outcome you want, better value for money, more personal solutions, they’re going to need fairly easy and convenient ways of finding and engaging local support. Better Caring is a logical and necessary response.”