Scottish employee-owned homecare business gains from investment
An award-winning provider of homecare services for vulnerable people in the Highlands of Scotland has secured investment from Big Issue Invest. Highland Home Carers (HHC), which is 100% owned by its employees, delivers homecare and support service across the Highlands, looking after almost 400 people.
An award-winning provider of homecare services for vulnerable people in the Highlands of Scotland has secured investment from Big Issue Invest. Highland Home Carers (HHC), which is 100% owned by its employees, delivers homecare and support service across the Highlands, looking after almost 400 people.
A new finance deal with social investors including Big Issue Invest has given HHC the chance to move forward.
Highland Home Carers was originally set up by Nick Boyle, with the goal of exiting after 10 years. In 2004, he set in motion his plan to sell the company.
“The business had a good reputation and I didn’t want to sell to a competitor,” says Boyle, now Chairman of the company. “It would have felt disloyal to the employees. The way to have the best possible service was to have the greatest continuity of employees, and employee ownership solved all these issues.”
The right to share in profits is central to the social mission of HHC, motivating staff to deliver high-quality services.
The model is one that particularly suits the care industry, says HHC chief executive Stephen Pennington.
“We don’t make things and we don’t sell things, it is all about people," he says. “The people are our asset and by investing in your people you improve the quality of your service – which is at the very heart of caring.”
Highland Home Carers has more than 240 employees from a range of backgrounds and they are happy to stay with Highland Home Carers, according to Pennington.
“From anecdotal evidence, we are streets ahead of our competitors in terms of employee retention. The big problem for our competitors is recruitment and holding on to staff.”
The relatively longer distances carers have to travel in the more remote areas of the Highlands can create difficulties for corporate businesses, which often have to satisfy shareholders with high profits, leading to too much focus on the bottom line. This is far less of an issue for HHC, where the people who own the business are part of the community.
According to Nigel Kershaw, chief executive of Big Issue Invest, social investment in businesses such as HHC is making real differences to communities and HHC is just the type of business that Big Issue Invest wants to invest in.
“We see this as an investment in a community. As an employee-owned company, HHC brings not only employment but stability to the local community. They’re not likely to run off and locate in another area! Most importantly, it means some people will receive home caring where no one else is willing to provide it.”
Big Issue Invest (BII) is the social investment arm of The Big Issue. It helps to scale up social enterprises and charities throughout the UK by providing loans and investments from £50,000 to £1 million.
Find out more about Highland Home Carers and Big Issue Invest.