Elderly companion service?

[littlevic]

Hello! I've been thinking of setting up companionship service for the elderly in my area (Surrey) and have no idea where to start or even if it's a viable business idea?!!
Friends tell me it's a great idea, but wanted to ask the wise Mumsnetters too...
It would offer anything from taking a lonely older person out for tea and a chat, to helping them with their shopping, internet issues, doctors/hospital appointments etc, meal prep... No personal/medical care though as I'm not trained. Any ideas/opinions would be gratefully received :)

Gosh Megabeth that's awful. People can be so heartless, especially when there are good people just trying to help!
I'm sure you could just stick something on Facebook and start, but seems a tad unprofessional to me, if I'm gonna do this I want to do it right, ensuring I give the best possible care whilst also covering my own arse!!! ;)

CMOTdibbler - sounds perfect. That's my aim...So glad to hear that it works for people! X

We paid an agency £23 per hour for this for my gran, they were always off early etc, didn’t seem to want to sit and chat. I asked my cleaner if she’d be interested in doing an hour, she said ok, so she went and ‘cleaned’, but most of it was a cigarette, coffee and chat with my gran-it suited them both perfectly, £12 per hour...

Athome77 wow that's expensive. I don't really know what agencies charge, it's hard to find out, they don't disclose that info very readily! But was thinking more like £12-£15 an hour ;)

Our care agency - for personal care etc - was £19p/h on a private level. For companion care i'd definitely go lower! Altho the council pay for social care here at a rate of no more than £13p/h

There are lots of costs to volunteers, recruiting the right people, training them, providing ongoing support to ensure they are doing what they should be (and not doing what they shouldn't!), plus loads and loads of dealing with problems that social care should be dealing with but don't have the capacity to do so, for example volunteers finding people in a poor physical or mental health condition or sometimes even dead, inadequate housing etc. - once someone is taken on as a client it's impossible to ignore safeguarding situations and not always easy to get statutory services to act. One full time worker may not be able to manage more than 20-30 relationships depending on severity of need. Volunteers may need quite a bit of support themselves particularly where they have experienced a crisis or death of their client. There is not much funding around, especially in affluent areas - it is rare that public services will fund this sort of thing, and schemes may typically need to have four or five smaller funders who all need applications making, reporting and general liaison. So that's why charities often cannot take on new volunteers.

We charities aren't even taking volunteers up for phone calls. There's a lot less training & overall costs involved in that side of things but can still make a huge difference

littlevic it was a care agency, so they were registered with CQC, had moving and handling training etc. The cleaner who just had her insurance was much better. But she wasnt taking my gran in her car or anything so she probably had lower insurance costs. My cleaner said she has quite a few older people were she’s there for a bit of cleaning and a lot of tea. For some older adults saying they need company is a big thing, but saying the cleaners coming seems more acceptable, if you see what I mean?

Take a look at driving miss daisy I think it’s a franchise and I think it talks about having to be registered as a private hire taxi if you are offered get transport, how this differs from a care agency taking someone shopping I’m not sure, but it would up overheads if you needed to.

Mustbe there's just very little funding and also scepticism from some funders that telephone befriending makes much of a difference. What other reason do you think there might be for not providing needed services? I have many friends working in charities and they are run ragged with cuts in funding to them and cuts in public services creating more demand. It's grim out there.

There are lots of reasons I think. The main one i've found aside from funding - which the telephone friend system reduces compared to home visits - is the thought that the service is needed. I've come across a lot of assumptions that care workers do companion roles & so other volunteers aren't needed. I used to do phone friend service when I was at Uni & the difference it made was unreal...down where I am
now it is non existant & even the council point people in the direction of care workers 😔

This sounds like an amazing idea and I'm almost angry with myself for not thinking of this sooner! I've always said I'd love to do this but age UK in my town aren't taking on and being an actual carer would involve personal care and I'm not cut out for that.

Question though; how would you get a dbs check when you can't apply to do a check on yourself?

Ignore me you can do an individual one. 😊

I think this is a great idea and have thought about it myself in the past. I've just never had the courage to quit my current boring office job. I really hope all goes well for you.

I have seen at least two people in the last week looking for something like this for their parents.

Hi OP, have you come across driving miss daisy? They are a franchise organisation who provide a 'companionship driving service', it sounds right up your street.

Hello! Hopelesslyhopeful87 - yep I've applied for a basic DBS check, it's just the in depth ones you can't do yourself :)
Rattymare - thanks, you should go for it too! (unless you live in Haslemere... haha!!)
Doctordid - that's good to know :)
3boysNeedABiggerKitchen - Thanks, yes I have looked into it, but don't fancy a franchise - would rather work for myself, but it seems like a great company :)
My website's going live in the next few days... EXCITED!!

We’re covering lots of the topics you’re asking about at our events - the next few are being held in Barnet, Central London, Wilmslow and Cheshire, and we’ll be holding them around the country in the months ahead. If you’re interested in coming along or receiving our newsletters/info about our mentors, you can sign up here. Just to be clear, it’s free to register and we’re not-for-profit. Really hope you find it useful.

I'm in South Wales so no competition littlevic.
Good Luck and let us know how it's going. :-)

How are you getting on OP? It's a really good idea.

Hi littlevic,

Were you successful in starting this business up?

Yes, come back and tell us Littlevic, I've been wondering how you're doing.