{"id":16483,"date":"2022-11-23T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2022-11-23T12:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/?p=16483"},"modified":"2022-11-21T08:36:31","modified_gmt":"2022-11-21T08:36:31","slug":"homecare-trailblazers-in-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/homecare-trailblazers-in-northern-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Homecare Trailblazers in Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

Richard and Emily Magrath are currently the biggest providers in the Caremark network. As of late 2021, they\u2019re delivering approximately 9,000 hours of care per week \u2013 in fact, they doubled their number of hours over the height of the COVID pandemic. They have about 350 staff, around 700 clients \u2013 and have now moved to 5,000 square foot offices covering two floors, due to their growth.<\/p>\n

Caremark Belfast and North Down is clearly a powerhouse of homecare provision. But despite all these big numbers, that\u2019s not what drives this husband-and-wife team. For them, delivering quality care to clients \u2013 and caring for everyone around them, really \u2013 beats personal gain any day. \u201cYour focus should be people. Profit will follow if you look after people,\u201d advises Richard, and looking at their incredible growth, who could disagree?<\/p>\n

One of the keystones of this people-first ethic comes from their emphasis on family. It\u2019s been an intrinsic part of their approach, right from day one \u2013 which was many years ago, as Emily relates, when \u201cRichard sat down beside me as I was feeding our six-month-old baby and said, \u2018I think we should start a business together\u2019. I said, \u2018no\u2019 \u2013 and he said, \u2018yes\u2019!\u201d. After taking Emily to a Franchise Expo, he finally won her over. Nearly ten years later, they have four children, with the older ones now even starting to help with the business. They\u2019ve cultivated a familial warmth that extends to all staff \u2013 \u201cI know it\u2019s cheesy,\u201d says Emily, \u201cbut we very much have tried to create a Caremark family here\u201d.<\/p>\n

Naturally, the Caremark formula provided the platform for their amazing growth. Before starting with Caremark, Richard was a successful businessman \u2013 however, as he explains, \u201cI was involved in property during the 2008 crash that a lot of people were badly burned by, so I wanted to get into something that is pretty much recession-proof, and that has a good future.\u201d A franchise model in the homecare sector answered their needs for both stability, and the community-mindedness that the two are passionate about. Plus, with Caremark on their side, their lack of sector experience was readily dealt with. \u201cFranchising was safer and enabled us to quickly hit the ground running. We didn’t have experience of the health and social care sector, so to have a blueprint that says, \u2018this is how you get started\u2019 was great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though they met with many other homecare franchisors in this research stage, Caremark were head-and-shoulders above the rest. Others didn\u2019t come across so well \u2013 \u201cYes, I’m a businessman, but just \u2018money, money, money\u2019 didn’t sit well with us,\u201d says Richard. \u201cThere was one meeting like that which lasted just 10 minutes. But then when we met with Caremark, money wasn\u2019t really mentioned. They said, \u2018We build our brand on the quality of care that we give vulnerable people in the community\u2019. Emily and I wanted to raise the bar in the standard of care \u2013 we could see Caremark did too\u201d.<\/p>\n

Caremark\u2019s Franchise Support Centre have provided a lot of support to the pair over the years \u2013 now Richard and Emily\u2019s franchise has flourished to the point where they are able to help others in the care industry themselves. In fact, they\u2019re promoting excellence in the sector throughout their region, with the second floor in their office mostly dedicated to a new Training Academy. They\u2019ve also created a local Dementia Caf\u00e9, they\u2019ve recruited a dedicated Wellbeing Officer for staff, and have done their own research to identify the hours of unmet caring needs in their community. Generating all this ambitious, socially positive work while raising four boys must be exhausting! As Emily says, \u201cIt’s not all rosy in the beginning, it is hard work \u2013 but it’s worth it\u201d \u2013 and thankfully they are now able to take well-earned family holidays.<\/p>\n

Outside of holidays though, when it comes to enjoying the rewards of their progress, this family-minded couple don\u2019t keep it to themselves \u2013 they\u2019re far keener to show gratitude to staff than to just pat each other on the back. They often bring lunch for everyone, they give staff bonuses, every office birthday is marked \u2013 \u201cWe celebrate success a lot in the office with food!\u201d says Emily. \u201cThose are our values \u2013 it’s how we treat people,\u201d Richard adds. \u201cWe don’t ask anybody to do something that we\u2019re not prepared to do ourselves. We treat people with courtesy \u2013 the way that we would like to be treated ourselves, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

And despite all the hard work, would you recommend becoming a Caremark franchisee? A big \u2018yes\u2019 from both \u2013 \u201cWe are making a big change in people’s lives. That’s what’s also the bottom line is. We’re making a huge impact on vulnerable people in our community \u2013 that\u2019s my mother and my grandmother, you know? It’s very, very rewarding.\u201d To them, the importance and value of homecare can only increase. \u201cResidential care is probably a thing of the past,\u201d Richard suggests. \u201cAnd for somebody to stay in their home, to recognise the pictures on the wall or, the carpet, the seats in the room \u2013 simple stuff like that \u2013 it’s very important to people as they get older. If we can keep people in their own home, the longer the better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, we all want to hear some words of advice from Caremark\u2019s biggest franchise, and Richard and Emily do have some useful pointers for those starting out. The first is to plan for growth \u2013 for example, don\u2019t let yourself get into a \u2018panic recruitment process\u2019, having let the need for a role take you by surprise. Secondly, \u2018recruit for character\u2019 \u2013 think about how someone would fit with the Caremark culture, not just their on-paper ability. As Richard says, \u201cAbility can always be taught to a certain extent, but if someone\u2019s character isn\u2019t right for the team, they\u2019re not really going to be able to learn\u201d.<\/p>\n

Richard and Emily are a very down-to-earth couple, and they\u2019re 100% motivated by the good work they do. Although they\u2019ve accomplished a vast amount, for them it\u2019s all about gratitude rather than glory \u2013 on their amazing journey, Emily reflects, \u201cWhat we have got out of it over the years, the people that we’ve met and the team that we’ve created, has been wonderful for us\u201d. Before long they\u2019ll hit 10,000 hours of care, and mark the 10th anniversary of their industrious, highly-motivated office. You can be sure they\u2019ll celebrate these remarkable milestones as a family \u2026all 350 of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Richard and Emily Magrath are currently the biggest providers in the Caremark network. As of late 2021, they\u2019re delivering approximately 9,000 hours of care per week \u2013 in fact, they doubled their number of hours over the height of the COVID pandemic. They have about 350 staff, around 700 clients \u2013 and have now moved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":16484,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1468,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-caremark","category-care-franchises"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/RichardEmily-Magrath.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.franchiselocal.co.uk\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}