The Big Interview: Yvonne Hignell’s interview with Home Care Insight magazine
Published: 08/05/2019
Bluebird Care Managing Director Yvonne Hignell has taken part in an exclusive, in-depth interview with Home Care Insight magazine.
Bluebird Care Managing Director Yvonne Hignell has taken part in an exclusive, in-depth interview with Home Care Insight magazine. During the interview, she talks openly about a range of issues that face the brand, such as the challenges of providing quality home care in a growing market, attracting and retaining a talented workforce and her concerns over the rise of unregulated care.
In part one of the interview, Yvonne discusses how Bluebird Care is preparing to meet the challenges of operating in the home care market through brand repositioning and growing through new channels. She says:
It’s about going back to basics. We want to reposition ourselves in the marketplace as the provider that can be there from those light touch, early doors services, before people really think that they need care at home. It’s also about consolidating our place in the market around domiciliary care, but then extending customer length of stay through more complex provision, so bridging the gap between health and social care and really challenging the boundaries of traditional health care that is delivered in communities.
In part two, Yvonne shares her thoughts on the current way society views social care, and that much change is needed. She says:
We don’t see how it fits into the rest of what goes on in the UK and until that mind shift happens, it’s very difficult to charge more for private pay or convince local authorities to pay more. The views around social care and the value it has in society aren’t explored deeply enough, in my opinion, and until we do, it’s very difficult to move things forward.
Part three features the full interview in detail where Yvonne describes where Bluebird Care came from, where we are, and where we want to be in the future. She says:
Over the next five years we have objectives to open another 20 to 25 new locations in the UK. Areas of growth for us are the North of England, Scotland and Wales. As I mentioned previously, our plan is to consolidate our market position and look at expansion through light touch services and also complex service lines and propositions. We want to re-establish ourselves in the market, not just as a provider, but as an employer. So it’s about driving growth through great employment opportunities, caring for and valuing our team members and increasing the customer length of stay.
You can visit Home Care Insight to read the articles in full.
