Why Tom Page, founder of West Park Care in Harrogate, avoids employing carers on zero hour contracts

The founder of West Park Care saw first-hand how inadequate the service was for his grandfather. Ultimately leading to him having to move into a care home.

Before setting up West Park Care in 2018, Mr Page worked as an account manager for a bathroom manufacturer supplying the likes of B&Q and Homebase.

Mr Page said: “I was doing a lot of work on assisted living with B&Q and Homebase. I saw the elderly market and how much need there was.

“At the same time my grandfather required care at home. To be totally blunt, the care he was receiving was terrible. He received nothing more than 15 minute calls and he had a different carer every call.

“I witnessed first-hand my mum having to deal with it and it being an absolute nightmare for her and then eventually this led to him deteriorating even quicker and he ended up in a care home.

“He never wanted to go into a care home, the family never really wanted him to go into a care home but he ended up going into a care home because the quality of home care just wasn’t there for him.”

Looking into the matter further and using his background in dealing with customers, Mr Page felt that the zero hour contract model, widely adopted across the industry, wasn’t compatible with high quality care.

In 2018 he incorporated West Park Care, with the home care business taking on its first clients in February 2019. The Harrogate-based business today has 35 employees of which 28 are carers.

“All of our care staff are fully contracted to us – they’re salaried employees,” Mr Page says. “None of them are on zero hours contracts, which is quite unusual for the sector.”

West Park Care also has higher pay rates than is the norm in the industry to help with staff retention.

Mr Page said: “We pay higher because we value the carers and we want them to stay with us. My logic with it was you can save a bit of money with zero hour contracts but you’re not showing any loyalty to your staff then.

“You’re then spending a lot more money on recruiting care staff. The biggest cost for us when we take on a care staff member is the fact we do a full two week induction.

“There’s a huge cost to pay someone for two weeks while they train. If they then leave, that’s just a completely wasted cost to us. We would rather retain them by paying them well and treating them properly.”

It hasn’t been plain sailing for West Park Care. Just over a year after taking on its first clients, the pandemic hit.

The early days of the pandemic were “quite scary”, says Mr Page, as they didn’t know what was happening. One of the biggest issues was managing staff fear with everyone bar essential workers being ordered to stay at home.

Clients were also understandably nervous given the impact of Covid on older demographics.

Mr Page said: “It was a case for us of making sure that we had the PPE (personal protective equipment). We reacted really quickly so we were never short on PPE.”

West Park Care also stopped taking on new clients instead focusing on consolidating what it already had.

“We already sent small teams to people but we lowered it even further to try and lower the risk of different people going into houses,” Mr Page says. “If somebody only had one call a day, we tried to make it so that only one carer went to see them during the pandemic as much as possible, just to lower that risk.”

However, this was a “massive drain” on the business and came at a great cost and “completely stopped” growth at West Park Care.

“We were effectively treading water for a while,” Mr Page says. “It was a very difficult time but we did get through it.”

He added: “It showed that our processes were correct, it showed that our infection control was correct because we actually didn’t have any issues with Covid at all. We had staff who had it but they isolated.”

While wider society by and large has returned to normal, there are still a lot of West Park Care’s clients who are still fearful of Covid.

“You’ll see elderly people in supermarkets with their masks on looking nervous if you go near them because they’re still living with the fear of catching Covid-19,” Mr Page says.

The home care business is still maintaining masking for its care workers, who are also regularly being tested.

Despite its care worker centric approach, recruitment is still “incredibly difficult” across the sector.

Mr Page said: “In early 2019, when I was recruiting, I would put a job advert out, we would get maybe 40 applicants, we’d interview four or five and hire one or two.

“Now I’ll put a job advert out and we’re lucky if we get five applicants. It’s that much worse.”

He says this is due to a “perfect storm” with Brexit seeing an exodus of social care workers as well as pressure that industry has been under through Covid.

“There’s a bit of burnout in the sector as well,” Mr Page says. “A lot of people that worked long hours through Covid have maybe stepped away from the industry so I think there’s been a bit of drain out of the industry.”

Demand for home care is higher than ever because of the issues care homes faced through the pandemic.

“It is a positive for us because we are currently growing,” Mr Page says. “The only thing limiting growth is the staff shortages and the difficulties in recruitment.”

West Park Care recently opened an office in Otley as it looks to expand its service to West Yorkshire.

“The plan for us is to have ten locations scattered across Yorkshire and to be recognised as the place to go if you want quality care for your loved ones or for yourself,” Mr Page says.

His ultimate aim is for West Park Care to become the “premier quality home care provider”.

It might be a long road to achieving that ambition but Mr Page knows that having the right people on board will be key.

Curriculum Vitae

Title: Managing Director, West Park Care

Date of birth: 14/02/1988

Lives: Harrogate

Favourite holiday destination: South Africa, I proposed to my wife on Table Mountain

Last book read: The Comfort Crisis by Michael Easter

Favourite song: Brown Eyed Girl, Van Morrison

Car driven: Land Rover

Most proud of: On a personal level, leaving a successful career to start a business because I knew home care could be done better and for the business the reputation we have built for delivering the very best home care in the area. I also have to mention my wife as she works in the business, and we have achieved a lot together both professionally and personally.