Member Article

Shadow Health Secretary shares vision with Home Instead

Shadow health secretary and MP for Leigh, Andy Burnham, was welcomed to homecare franchise Home Instead Senior Care’s national office in Warrington last month along with Warrington South MP, David Mowatt, to discuss potential improvements in care provision across the UK.

Burnham’s visit was timely, following as it did his speech to the King’s Fund earlier this year when he launched ‘Whole Person Care’ – a one nation approach to health and care for the 21st century.

As a supporter of cross-party development to change the way care is commissioned, Burnham was keen to meet with Home Instead, along with their local MP, to learn more about the franchise’s model of care. He was welcomed by the company’s CEO and UK founder, Trevor Brocklebank, and its COO, Martin Jones.

During the meeting Burnham outlined his vision to rethink the Labour party’s health and care policies from first principles and his desire to make the country’s health and care system more person-centred. He stressed the need to move towards prevention, keeping people safe and well at home where the majority want to be.

Following the visit, Burnham said: “It was good to visit Home Instead and hear how they are trying to change care of older people for the better. They are right to reject the 15-minute visits used by others and provide personalised support. I hope others will follow their lead.”

Commenting on the meeting, Martin Jones said: “We were really interested to hear what Andy had to say, especially as his vision for a more integrated system is so closely aligned with ours. We are also grateful to David for taking the time to join us.

“What’s more, he sees no reason why government shouldn’t work with commercial organisations, recognising that we need to act as one nation to tackle the hurdles we all face as a result of our ageing population.”

Franchising continues to play a major and rapidly-growing role in the homecare market, with the model of local business ownership backed by a larger brand perfectly suited to the heavily-regulated sector. Home Instead won the top award in UK franchising last year when it was named bfa HSBC Franchisor of the Year 2013.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Stafford .