Market Outlook
With an increasingly ageing population, there will always be a great demand for home care services in England.
Currently, 89% of publicly-funded home care is now provided by private businesses such as Apollo Care, and that’s not including those service users who pay for their own care, known as “self-funders”. In addition, those receiving state funding for social care may do so via “direct payments” meaning they get to choose their care. By providing a competitive care package that puts the service user at the heart, Apollo stands out as a care provider of choice for a lot of people.
The sector as a whole is worth over £20 billion, with £2.2 billion gross expenditure (£1.9 billion from direct payments) from councils in England last year alone, and an estimated expenditure of 660 million from self-funders.
Growth
The UK domiciliary care sector has grown exponentially in recent years, and this only promises to increase over the coming years. According to the Lancet, it is estimated that by 2035, 200,000 more people will be classed as “high-dependency” and will be reliant on domiciliary care. That means that now is the best time to establish a reputable home care company.
Keep in mind a franchise care business gives you a safety net you wouldn’t have if you had to start from scratch – You can take advantage of a ready-made, low-risk opportunity with the processes already in place versus going solo and having to negotiate every obstacle yourself.
Apollo will work with you to get you fully trained, set up and ready to trade within a year. Some of our franchisees have managed the process while still working in their full-time jobs to minimise financial insecurity during the initial stages.
Consider it carefully – The statistics below, taken from the UK Homecare Association, speak for themselves.
| England | Scotland | Wales | Northern Ireland | UK Total | |
| Total people using local authority purchased domiciliary care services | 351,680 | 89,460 | 29,838 | 35,114 | 506,092 |
| Total local authority purchased hours | 127 million | 36 million | 8.7 million | 13.9 million | 185.6 million |
| Total expenditure on domiciliary care | 2.9 billion | 781 million | 390.7 million | 169 million | 4.2 billion |
| – Local authority expenditure | 2.2 billion | 601 million | 300.7 million | 130 million | 3.23 billion |
| – Self-funded expenditure | 660 million | 180 million | 90 million | 39 million | 969 million |
| People receiving a direct payment | 156,155 | 8,300 | 5,980 | 16,203 | 186,638 |
| Expenditure by local authority on direct payments | 1.9 billion | 113 million | 73 million | 28.8 million | 2.11 billion |
| Number of care workers | 435,000 | 64,519 | 24,858 | 12,000 | 536,377 |
| Number of locations registered to deliver homecare | 9,100 | 997 | 437 | 295 | 10,829 |
(full report can be found at www.ukhca.co.uk. All figures relate to the financial year 2017/18.)