Care franchise is recession proof

The company, which has 27 offices across the UK, is actually growing 20 per cent a month. Revenue currently stands at £18m. Brocklebank says: “Three quarters of our offices haven’t been open two years yet. We won an NHS award back in April and our growth is because of our quality care rather than care at the expense of quality.”

Home Instead Senior Care struggled to find clients in the beginning but Brocklebank says that process is becoming easier as people realise there is an alternative to going into full-time care.

“Most people just need help with the basics," he says. "In the past, you’ve had to look after yourself or you had to move into a home. What we’re now saying is with perhaps just a couple of hours of care several times a week, we can hep you stay in your home a lot longer.”

The company has also been helped by changes to the social services system. People needing care can take the money rather than the services that money would have bought; they can then hire Home Instead Senior Care to help them with the basics that social services wouldn’t have otherwise helped with.

Brocklebank gives an example: “We had a lady with a dog who was her best friend and companion. She couldn’t walk the dog so social services said it had to go. If they’d taken that dog away, her quality of life would have plummeted. Instead, she took direct payments from social services, reduced her care package and then got us to take the dog for a walk once a day.”

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