The role of outsourcing in care provision

Care providers are no strangers to outsourcing with services such as laundry, cleaning and meal preparation often delivered by external organisations and partners.

It’s a challenging sector, as contractors work in environments that residents call home. With little real downtime, disruptions need to be managed carefully to minimise the impact on residents. This, combined with many well documented pressures, can make outsourcing particularly challenging. While some providers are now turning to insourcing, others continue to rely on multiple contractors, all whilst trying to provide the best possible care.

The case for a single outsourcing partner

Many care providers have not fully explored the potential benefits of working with a single organisation that can manage all the non-care elements of a care business at scale. A single outsourcing partner enables care providers to focus on caring for residents. Organisations that work with huge central government departments on national and local programmes can bring their process outsourcing expertise to the care provider sector. This reduces the issues of multiple contractors needing to be sourced, checked, contracted, scheduled, and paid separately. Contractors might not have the reputation, expertise, or credentials that comes from decades of experience in public services. By working with a more established partner, care providers can free up valuable time to focus on the areas where they are the true experts – caring for residents.

Benefits of outsourcing

The benefits - and occasional challenges - of outsourcing are well known. The reduction of operational costs and time is always welcome, but often these advantages can be eroded when you need to manage lots of different contractors. Care homes need to remain viable and focus their resources on providing high-quality care. Partnering with a single provider can deliver access to a wide range of experts, improving service quality and efficiency, while allowing care providers to concentrate on core care activities. For many care providers looking to scale up, the flexible infrastructure offered by outsourcing partners supports portfolio growth. These partners have robust systems in place to manage and mitigate risks related to technology, staffing, buildings, and compliance, reducing the burden on managers.

Some care providers have successfully partnered with organisations experienced in managing non-care services, such as property and facilities management or people and workforce development. Similarities can also be drawn from successful partnerships in the NHS, where outsourcing services such as IT support, facilities management, and administrative functions allows NHS staff to focus more on delivering exceptional care to patients.

Finding the right outsourcing partner

If you can find an outsourcer who can provide one or many specialist services across the wide range of responsibilities care providers tackle each day – beyond just care – and who can support the sector’s vision and values with understanding and empathy, then why not consider speaking to them? They can help you remain profitable, viable, while enabling you to continue delivering exceptional care to your residents.

To explore how outsourcing could benefit your care services, get in touch with us to discuss how we can support your needs and enable you to focus on providing exceptional care.