"You just have to imagine the person you're caring for is your little boy or girl in a few years' time," says Andrew Cannon, managing director of Bupa Care Services. It's a pretty powerful sentiment but one which sums up his commitment to the cause.
And his cause is to reposition the care home business. "If you look at the sector as a whole everyone can see that it's underfunded," he says, "We have an ageing population with greater care needs than ever before. The sector needs to change to offer a wider range of support and more tailored options. We also need a workforce that is even better trained and more committed to meeting these increasingly complex needs."
Cannon is responsible for the overseeing of Bupa's 300 care homes in the UK. Before he took up the role in 2012, he was the company's Director of Healthcare Delivery and Head of Customer Service.
What Bupa wants, says Cannon, is to broaden the range of services it offers in the sector. "People want to have care delivered in their home and they want it to be high quality," he says.
"We want working in a care home to be a really positive career choice for people, and we want society to value this work more than it currently does."
To this end, Bupa is investing an enormous amount of money in training and development (£12m last year). Says Cannon, "People need to know they are going to get development [opportunities] and rewards if they work in the sector."
The company also wants the care homes business to up its game technologically and is investing a significant amount in new technology to create electronic care records.
One of the problems with the care homes industry is that there are still huge barriers to the public. "We need to break down this idea of a care home being a scary place at the edge of town," Cannon says, adding, "The work done in the sector has real meaning and nobility but we can only improve perceptions by giving people access to this." So far, he believes, the industry hasn't successfully measured and demonstrated how well this is happening.
One way of going about it is by being a bit more transparent, says Cannon and to this end, Bupa is part of National Care Home Open Day, which takes place this year on 20 June. Cannon explains: "It's about throwing the doors open to the local communities and saying 'come and see the great work we are doing'."
This transparency will be aided by the technological advances too; Cannon says in the future, families will be able to view their relatives' electronic care records.
Recruitment-wise, the sector needs compassion, commitment and patience, says Cannon and Bupa is working hard to attract people who have those things: "We know there are big nursing shortages so we are investing money in benefits so they have access to healthcare.
"We are trying to create an environment where people are rewarded so it becomes a career choice. We are also investing in progression so they can build career paths for themselves."
Cannon adds: "I believe in having 'best-in-class' home managers. We have a rigorous selection process and invest a significant amount of time and effort to ensure we have the best talent leading our homes. We also believe in making sure our home managers receive support in vital areas such as recruitment, marketing and quality."
Everyone in a Bupa care home receives training, from the cooks and maintenance people to its carers and home managers and this training leads the sector. The Person First, Dementia Second approach was designed especially for Bupa by Bradford University Dementia Care Centre and Bupa was the first care home operator to be awarded the gold standard for excellence in staff development by Investors in People.
In the future, says Cannon, "We will see more sophisticated demands from future cadres of older people. That means the sector needs to change to offer a wider range of support and more tailored options. People are coming into care homes older and frailer than ever before with a combination of age-related illnesses and chronic conditions such as dementia and Parkinson's and to meet these rising expectations we will need a workforce that is even better trained and more committed."
Most of it comes down to money, says Cannon. "People have a perception of Bupa as private healthcare but actually 70% of our residents are publicly funded. We are looking after some of the most vulnerable people in the UK. But how do we get people to work in these environments when there isn't enough money? It's a challenge that we haven't yet overcome, if I am honest," he says, adding, "If you can recruit for compassion and empathy then you will get the right people but the fees we get paid don't always allow us to reinvest as much as we like in this and this is a sector-wide challenge."
However, Cannon says that once Bupa attracts the right person, they don't go: "People stay with us for a long long time because they recognise the difference they are making in people's lives."
Find out more about Bupa's vacancies here
Written by Hazel Davis for the Guardian, to a brief agreed with Bupa. Funded by Bupa
