Giant of social care says investing in staff is key to a successful business

Social care expert, Mike Parsons, founder and former chief executive of Barchester Healthcare has cited investing in his staff as one of the key reasons for his success.

Mr Parsons recently acted as keynote speaker during a meeting of Wrexham Business Professionals, sharing some of his secrets to achieving success in creating leading care home brand Barchester Healthcare from one small care home.

Wrexham Business Professionals is made up of a group of solicitor and accountancy firms collaborating to promote the development of businesses, skills and employment opportunities for professionals.

Mr Parsons spoke of investing in people and 'building a great team' as one of the main successes throughout his career. He said: “In the field of care continuity of people is so vital. People like to see familiar faces and want their nurses and carers to be the same day after day, which is particularly true if someone has dementia.

“Barchester has created an academy for the training of its staff which, I am proud to say, now numbers between 16,000 and 17,000 people.

“The academy is a fully accredited degree-awarding body and over the years thousands of staff have been through it.

“Staff turnover in care is particularly high but our experience with the academy has shown that if you give people a proper career pathway this drops by two-thirds.”

The meeting took place at Wrexham’s Ramada Plaza Hotel with a theme of the 'Business of Age'. Mr Parsons acted as guest of honour and the meeting attracted an audience of 80 members across North Wales.

Many view Barchester Healthcare as an example of how the future of healthcare should function, and as one of the sector’s 'success stories'.

Barchester Healthcare was formed by Mr Parsons after a career in advertising and time spent in the USA researching new business ideas and long term care. After seeing the assisted living facilities available in the US, in 1992 he established Country Life Care Centres which merged with Eskgrove in 1994 resulting in Barchester Healthcare.

Speaking about Barchester’s apprenticeship scheme, Mr Parsons said: “This started five years ago with just five people and last year had over 1,000 apprentices – which is more than Rolls Royce.

“Our apprenticeship scheme has been all about building a great team. It’s about taking young people, giving them a job and giving them a purpose.

“Four of the original five apprentices are still with us. They have moved up and progressed and are now managers in positions of some authority.”

The proprietor of Pendine Park care, chair of the Care Forum Wales and founder of the Wales Care Awards, Mario Kreft invited Mr Parsons to be a guest speaker for the Wrexham Business Professionals.

Mr Parsons agreed with comments made by Mr Kreft that a ‘perfect storm’ had been generated as a result of the increasing ageing population, problems with recruiting care staff as well a reduction in public spending. Mr Kreft also acknowledged that an investment in social care would make ‘good economic sense’ and that investment was required in new technologies and workforce.

Mr Kreft said: “If the perfect storm is not counterbalanced we will have a society where people won’t be able to get into hospitals and where they will not be able to remain in the community.

“It is therefore also essential that we keep the cost of care down and try where possible to keep people healthy.”

Member of the Wrexham Business Professionals, Simon Griffiths thanked all the speakers for their contributions.

He said: "The theme of the event was highly topical at a time of squeezed budgets and soaring need in terms of social care.

"While there are obviously many challenges to be faced, we must also remember that social care is a force for economic good and a major employer that can offer excellent career prospects to those who want to progress."

Barchester Healthcare was listed in the 2014 Sunday Times Top 26 big companies to work for and is recognised as being one of Britain’s Top Employers 2013.

In 2013, Mr Parsons received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Wales Care Awards and retired as Chief Executive Officer, however he remains on the board of Grove, Barchester’s holding company.