Time To Thrive: The Home Care Revolution, a new book by Amrit Dhaliwal, Chief Executive of home care provider Walfinch, celebrates the home care sector and its carers. It also presents a plan to redefine the care sector so that it works for clients, carers, care providers, the NHS and the whole community.
This book is something that is directed at people looking at making change, smaller providers and new providers.
Amrit suggests 12 practical steps to revolutionise the sector – the first plan to be put forward by an insider, and it focuses on transforming and improving the role of carers and care careers.
We interviewed Amrit about why he wrote the book and what it aims to achieve.
- Can you share a little about the book and what inspired you to write it?
Amrit: I started my first home care company as a franchisee, in 2012. I’d had two award-winning hospitality businesses but I wanted to do something more meaningful. My girlfriend (now my wife) suggested home care. I am forever grateful for that.
I soon saw many ways in which the care business could be improved, so I started my own care business, Walfinch, in 2019, to put my ideas into practice.
But I could see that wider changes were needed, so I decided to do something about it. That’s why I wrote this book.
I had also found it really hard to get information about home care, which also drove that thinking.
It’s very upbeat. I’m and confident that we can improve the whole model of home care. I worked out what needed to change, and it involves completely redefining home care. My book sets out 12 practical ways to achieve it.
A redefined care sector will attract more carers, help care providers to deliver better services, attract more entrepreneurs looking for rewarding opportunities to improve lives, and help people seeking home care.
- Who do you think will benefit most from reading the book?
Mainly smaller providers and people looking at getting into the sector – but there is something in it for everyone, because care is an issue that affects our whole society.
- What message or themes do you hope readers take away from your book?
It says that we really need to redefine and rebrand care. All its messages are grouped around that, and practical ways to achieve it. Mainly it looks at:
One, that care presents a huge opportunity for starting and growing a business. Present and future demand for care services is huge. If demand was this healthy in any other sector, investors would be piling in.
Two, that the UK model of care is not the only way. Different countries have different care models that we can learn from. What’s more, the UK care model can be changed. Germany changed its whole care model after the reunification of East and West Germany and it works. The report What can England learn from the long-term care system in Germany by the Nuffield Trust, sets out what these lessons are.
Three, redefining home care must start with carers. I’m not saying they should be out on the street demonstrating! But all care providers, the government, and society, must recognise them as the professionals they are. No-one should ever say, as I hear occasionally: “I’m just a carer”.
A care career should be desirable and respected, like nursing or dentistry or medicine – it’s just as important. Care employers should fund career training (on top of the mandatory training) and give carers paid time study, so they can progress up the care career ladder. In my experience it’s money well spent because carers stay with you.
Four, care providers need to promote the care career. I suggest that providers get together to create a fund for this. I want to see adverts for the care career on the sides of buses, on giant billboards, on television and social media. I want to see carers taking part in popular TV programmes, explaining the rewards and possibilities of what they do.
I suggest many more ideas in the book, but all of them aim to attract more carers and more entrepreneurs into the care sector, and tackle some of the challenges that beset the care sector right now.
The book also includes chapters on how to set up a care business, both as a franchisee and on your own, and there’s a chapter about how to buy care for loved ones.
- Do you have a personal connection to the care sector that influenced your decision to support The Care Workers’ Charity?
I first understood the importance of care when the family was caring for my grandfather. Then, once I set up my first care business as a franchisee, I learnt so much from the carers, especially Jackie Wormald, the first Registered Manager I worked with. Since then I have worked alongside hundreds of carers and I know that without them, there would be no care. They have my utmost respect, and so does the work of the Care Workers’ Charity.
- What are your thoughts on the challenges faced by care workers today?
We need to reevaluate the work that carers do. I devote a whole chapter of the book to this, setting out practical ways we can improve working conditions, including offering extra care and management training, mentoring, consulting the team about what works for them and what doesn’t, offering fair pay and fair contracts, flexible hours, mental health and wellbeing support, help with things like car maintenance, and promoting a sense of fun in the workplace – because care can be fun.
There’s also a section on how all this can be achieved. Yes, it will cost providers more – but it will pay for itself in improved carer recruitment and retention.
- How do you think storytelling, like in your book, can help raise awareness for the care sector?
I hope the book changes the picture of the care sector, for people considering getting into the business, for prospective carers, for prospective clients and their families, and for society. It includes case studies – wonderful true stories of how care has changed clients’ lives. Those kinds of stories are not seen often enough. I know the book will get into the care media and the franchise media, but I hope it gets into the mainstream media too. The truth about what quality care and professional carers can achieve needs to reach everyone.
- How do you feel knowing that your book will directly support care workers in need?
I am delighted. One of the reasons I got into the home care sector was to give something back.
- Why do you think it’s important for more people to support charities like The Care Workers’ Charity?
It’s vital. The care sector is often invisible, and so are carers. The charity works not just to help care workers, but to increase their visibility, and that can only be a good thing..
- What would you say to someone considering purchasing your book in support of this cause?
Buy it! The more we sell, the more profit will come to the charity – and the more people will discover the truth about the opportunities in the care sector and how it can be changed to be something we can all be proud of
- What was the writing process like for you?
It was tough finding the time to devote to my wife and family, as well as getting enough quiet time to think about what I wanted to say. Writing is harder than it looks, especially if you include statistics and evidence to back up your case, which is essential if you want to be taken seriously. But it’s also quite exciting – especially when you hold your book for the first time!
- Did you face any challenges while writing the book, and how did you overcome them?
Writing around a growing company and a growing family is not easy, and sometimes I wished the writing went faster, but I never stopped because I know how successful the care sector can be, and I was determined to get my vision out there.
Other people in the sector and wider society may disagree with my ideas, but that’s OK. This is the first book to talk about redefining care, by someone from within the care sector. If it sparks conversations, and even controversy, that’s what it’s meant to do – anything to make care, and carers, more visible.
- Do you have any advice for aspiring authors, especially those looking to use their work for a good cause?
I know from personal experience that the care sector is a treasure trove of true stories. There are clients with the most inspiring backgrounds, who are happy to talk about their lives. Meanwhile, many carers have fascinating stories to tell about their experiences. It’s time some of those stories were heard. Carers, get writing!