CARE-HOMES MUST LEARN FROM THE PRIVATE SCHOOLS SECTOR

At last, the UK‘s news media are recognising that long-term care is a crucial issue, at a time when councils are capping fees and Government is making care funding more complex.

Until now, care-home owners have relied on their national trade bodies to represent their interests, and promote their case.

The moment has arrived, however, for care-home-owners to follow the lead provided by private schools.

Think about it:  there are so many similarities between the objectives of private schools and private care-homes.

Both need to convince people of the need to choose the right place (whether for their children or their ageing parents); and both need to plan for the funding of that placement.

Private schools have been confronting this issue for years, so they have a range of mechanisms in place – like editorial supplements arranged with local and regional newspapers through their trade body.

Care-homes, on the other hand, are at the mercy of local newspapers‘ plans for occasional supplements, in which home-owners are urged to advertise to obtain some editorial exposure.

This is a huge opportunity for the “trade associations” for care-homes to follow the lead of the private schools‘ sector.  But they may fail to grab than opportunity.

This leaves individual care-home owners and groups to do it for themselves.

Recent headlines about retirement-age changes, care-home standards, care funding, and preparation for long-term care, have put care-home services at the centre of the news-agenda.

The care-home industry shows no sign of being able to grab this opportunity – leaving individual care-home owners and groups free to take a lead.

That lead should be a mix of engaging the local/regional news media, and capturing the fact that more care-home decision-takers (often the younger generation relatives) are now using the internet and online media to influence their actions.

Every care-home owner and group, therefore, should address the question:   “Are you promoting your services through your local/regional news media – and are you fully accessible to anyone using the internet to find a care-home”?