ARCH (Affordable, Reliable Care at Home) – HomeTouch

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Families and councils are under pressure as the rapidly growing need for home care, largelydriven by an aging population, cannot be met by the current agency model. This threatens thecontinuity and quality of UK care.Councils have cut home care £4.6bn since 2011, causing agencies to downscale services, relyon multiple carers for each client, and reduce many visits to 15 minutes. Over 85% ofcouncils pay less than the recommended minimum £15.74 per hour for home care, of whichagencies take over 50%, which leaves carers struggling on less than the National LivingWage.Poor staff retention and rates of sickness absence are mounting. With this strain, 45% of UKcare agencies are in deficit and looking to exit. Agencies are beginning to turn away councilblock care contracts, and there is risk of market failure.Hospitals have been bearing the brunt, delaying discharges because adequate home caresupport 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 theresponsibility for arranging and managing care in the hands of the recipients and theirfamilies. But care recipients and their families struggle to arrange their own care. Individualcontracts with agencies are expensive and difficult to navigate. Efficient solutions arerequired 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-Payclients in the UK. The company has proven the concept of using technology to radicallyreduce care costs and complexities. It will offer advanced carer-recipient matching,verification and dynamic pricing, to help families, recipients, carers and councils easilydeliver and manage care.