Premier Community – Access Workspace Case Study
Access Workspace for Care has helped Premier Community to grow from a 30 carer business to a business with 400 carers.
Access’s software solution has enabled Premier to take better care of their staff and deliver more personalised care, while saving £40,000 in operational costs for each additional 500 hours of care.
Who is Premier Community?
Premier Community is a home care company who been operating since 1996. They now employ over 400 care workers and have expanded to multiple locations across the East Midlands.
The company has won numerous awards for the quality of their services, and for their use of technology to enhance care delivery and management.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director at Premier Community
I’m the managing director and it’s my responsibility to make sure we are on point with our company values.
My mother started the business. As she was a nurse, her standards were very high. I joined the business 10 years ago.
Tim Isterling, Communications Manager at Premier Community
I am the communications manager. Premier Community has been going for 27 years and looks to provide people with independence in their own home, be that through mobility products or care services.
Nicola Cope, Business Operations Manager at Premier Community
I’ve been working at Premier Community for 14 years.
I'm responsible for ensuring that Premier operates in a professional manner, delivering outstanding care to our clients and maximising our capacity so we can meet the demand for care in our region.
Tracy Marsden, Community Registered Manager at Premier Community
I’m a registered manager for Derbyshire North. I’ve been here since October 2019. A key focus of mine is ensuring our care plans, risk assessments and so on, are all person centred and comprehensive.
We help people to have a better life, predominantly old people but also some younger people with learning difficulties.
Laura Piwowar, Care Assistant at Premier Community
I’m a community carer providing person-centred care to vulnerable people. Being a carer is not easy. Some people think we spend our days popping around having cups of tea with little old ladies who we want to adopt as our grandmothers.
Actually, being a carer is hard work, but it’s rewarding to go out every day and make a difference to someone’s life. It’s not only about helping them out, it can be just providing some company. For a lot of people, we’re the only people that they see every day.
What were the challenges they faced?
Prior to using Access Workspace for Care, Premier Community was spending a lot of time trying to run their business using outdated technology.
When I joined my mother in running the business, the rotas were done on Excel and the timesheets were paper based. Everything was a bit chaotic. Timesheets had to be on time before payroll, so carers were rushing to hand them in. Our managers were spending their time on preparing data rather than on delivering care. The first thing I said to mum is we need to organise this, and we need to systemise it.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Care plans were a headache to maintain and update.
Before Access we were like busy fools. We’d have to type out our care plans, print them all out, and deliver them to a service user. Within 72 hours that care plan could change, and we’d have to do it all over again.
Nicola Cope, Business Operations Manager
The organisation was not as unified as it could be.
Before we got Access it was a lot harder to communicate, a lot harder to get the culture right.
Tim Isterling, Communications Manager
It was tough to find and recruit suitable candidates.
Recruitment in the care sector is really challenging. We are competing with many different employers and care work can be a hard job for the pay that is offered.
Tim Isterling, Communications Manager
What was the solution?
Premier Community tried out a few different software solutions before finally settling on Access Workspace for Care.
We went through a phase in our business where we'd look at, what I call ‘arms-length’ solutions. And it's very difficult as a large business to keep the focus on that and the software ultimately drifts. With Access Workspace for Care, the user experience is a lot simpler. So the people who are using the software can get the most out of it.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Access Workspace for Care
Access Workspace for Care is designed to make using software a more intuitive and productive experience. It offers a suite of apps so that everything is in one place with a single sign-on.
Premier Community use the following apps in Access Workspace for Care:
Access Workspace for Care has helped our business grow to where it is today. We use all the apps within Access Workspace to run an effective care business on a day-to-day basis.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
The apps I use are Access Care Planning, Access Care Compliance, Access PeoplePlanner, Access Workspace, and Access Engage. They're all in one place on the computer. For me Access Workspace for Care is vital, because it gives me everything I need at my fingertips.
Tracy Marsden, Community Registered Manager
Access PeoplePlanner
Access PeoplePlanner combines employee management, client management, planning and rostering, and payroll. It is designed to save time, reduce costs, and provide reliable, easily accessible data. The app is simple to learn and use.
Access PeoplePlanner launched well for us. It’s so easy to use, even for people that are not tech minded. It’s easy to teach yourself. With PeoplePlanner, the accountability’s there. You can see what’s happening, if anything’s being missed and, if any staff are not available. It just makes everything easier compared to before we had it.
Nicola Cope, Business Operations Manager
Access Care Planning
Access Care Planning is an all-in-one care planning and management app that enables providers to deliver safe and personalised care more efficiently. The app provides a digitalised system for processes and documents that can be accessed via mobile.
For Premier Community the next core app after getting Access PeoplePlanner was Access Care Planning. We were very paper based when I joined, and Care Planning enabled us to achieve the digitisation of our care planning. Now Care Planning gives us a live loop where we can see updates to our care plans in real time.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Access Care Planning allows care plans to be set up in the office without unnecessary home visits.
Access Care Planning allows me to set up care plans electronically in the office, without having to travel to visit the person. This means I don’t have to be constantly going in and out of the office, and I can work more effectively. Of course, it’s still important for me to visit the person, but it doesn’t need to be done at the point of setup.
Tracy Marsden, Community Registered Manager
Access Care Compliance
Access Care Compliance is designed to help providers become more compliant with the CQC’s new inspection framework, and run more effective, systemised audits, and mock inspections.
Access Care Compliance allows me as a director to audit and touchpoint every piece of the software that we use. It simplifies the process and enables us to be consistent and compliant. Care Compliance gives us a direct link to the Care Quality Commission so we can report any issues in a timely way.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Access EarlyPay
Access EarlyPay is a mobile app that is designed to give staff instant access to the pay they have already earned.
Access EarlyPay means if we need to access some funds in an emergency, we can have them transferred into our bank from our wages. You can only transfer a maximum of 50% of your pay, so you can’t spend all of it before payday. It means if you’ve got an emergency, maybe your car’s broken down, and you need to draw some money out, you can.
Laura Piwowar, Care Assistant
Access Screening
Access Screening offers automated pre-employment screening checks for faster onboarding and more efficient hiring.
Access Screening allowed us to make sure our new recruits were compliant with all their checks and references. It automated a lot of those processes for our recruiters.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
What are the outcomes of using Access Workspace for Care?
Access Workspace for Care has helped Premier Community to grow from a 30 carer business to a business with 400 carers. They currently provide 14,000 visits on a weekly basis, all managed through Access Workspace for Care.
Premier Community estimates that using Access software saves them £40,000 in operational costs for each 500 hours of care they add to their service. This means they can grow at scale, a rarity in social care.
Access Workspace for Care
Access Workspace for Care provides Premier Community with a central hub from which they can manage every aspect of their service.
Within Access Workspace we have dashboards for each app that can show us live data of our care delivery. All our apps are talking to each other. We can make a change on PeoplePlanner and it will show up on Access Care Planning. Carers can report a concern on Access Care Planning, which will be instantly updated by a registered manager. It’s much more efficient now we have all our apps embedded together in one space.
Tim Isterling, Communications Manager
Access Workspace for Care has allowed Premier Community to be more proactive in how they run their business.
Access Workspace provides the building blocks of our service. Each bit of software enables us to remain consistent with the delivery of care and takes away any surprises. We can manage the information at our fingertips and if we have issues or problems, we can identify them straight away. That’s the most important thing for a home care business, to be constantly on the front foot and not reactive.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Access Workspace for Care enables managers to make more informed, data-driven decisions.
Access Workplace gives me as the managing director the ability to drill down into different data silos and make analytical decisions, rather than relying on gut feeling. It allows me to test my theories against what’s actually being produced.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Access PeoplePlanner
Access PeoplePlanner helps Premier Community in the day-to-day management of their staff and informs their plans for future development.
The care industry is ever changing and every day is different. We have new people, new services coming in, we have services ending. Having Access PeoplePlanner at our fingertips allows us to see where that is happening. We can ensure that service users have the timings they request. We can establish that staff members are correctly deployed within their own area. We can identify areas of our service which need developing. We can see where we could take on new clients and where we might need to look at recruiting.
Nicola Cope, Business Operations Manager
Access Care Planning
Access Care Planning helps Premier Community deliver high quality, safe and personalised care with greater efficiency.
With Care Planning, each care worker knows what the service user requires for that particular visit. It might be personal care, food and nutrition, or medication. It might be they want their dog feeding, or they need help with cooking or household cleaning. Care Planning will tell the care worker not just what the client wants but their individual preferences, such as the kinds of foods they like or how many sugars they have in their tea.
Laura Piwowar, Care Assistant
In particular, the concerns feature allows Premier Community to be more responsive to staff concerns about service users.
My favourite feature in Access Care Planning is the concerns. If the staff raise a concern, I can respond to staff personally, so they know I’ve actioned it. So staff know they’re being listened to and what they’ve asked for is being actioned. And service users get a much better service.
Tracy Marsden, Community Registered Manager
Access Care Compliance
Access Care Compliance helps Premier Community meet the key lines of enquiry (KLOE) that the CQC inspectors use to guide their inspections.
With Access Care Compliance we can log things. When people have falls, we know how many falls there were. If there were any missed visits, we can make sure we’re responding appropriately. This ensures we’re addressing the key lines of enquiry (KLOEs) that the CQC wants as to meet.
Tracy Marsden, Community Registered Manager
Access EarlyPay
Access EarlyPay allows Premier Community to take better care of their staff which in turn helps retention.
In today’s world, attracting and retaining staff is important, especially in home care. Access EarlyPay allows our staff members to access their earnings instantly and we think it’s had an effect on retention.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Access EarlyPay has been a hit with Premier Community’s staff.
With Access EarlyPay the feedback from our staff is amazing. Before, they’d pick up shifts, they’d do extra work to help pay for things, but waiting four weeks for their pay was a struggle. So EarlyPay has impacted our staff’s lives because they can now withdraw some wages early if they need and they don’t have to owe people money.
Nicola Cope, Business Operations Manager
Access Screening
Access Screening helps Premier Community streamline their recruitment process and stay one step in front of their competitors.
Access Screening automatically sends Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks off, tracks and chases references. Our recruiters can focus on applicants because the screening system runs itself.
"Applicants can submit their supporting documents online and we don’t have to store or process hard copies. The online process is two weeks quicker, which saves a lot of time and energy in the recruitment process. This means we’re more responsive, allowing us to get ahead of the competition.
Tim Isterling, Communications Manager
The future
Access is helping Premier Community to grow their services while keeping costs low.
If we’re looking at our growth and our history, we’d say that for every 500 hours of care that we’ve grown, we’ve saved on recruiting two or three additional staff to make sure our processes stay consistent. So that’s £40,000 saved every time we grow 500 hours because Access’ software is so effective.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Access Workspace for Care
Access Workspace for Care will continue to play a valuable role in Premier Community’s future growth by helping them win new local authority contracts.
A big part of growing as a care company is tendering for and winning new contracts. What’s important for a local authority is that you’ve got a handle on your data, and you can present that information quickly. Access Workspace for Care enables us to produce a more effective tender which offers better value for money for the local authority.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Why Access?
Access will continue to be a valued partner of Premier Community to refine existing solutions and collaborate on developing new solutions.
Having Access Workspace as an overarching element makes Access the first place we go to find a solution. We prefer Access because our users already know the product and how it feels. With any new product, half the battle is the training and upskilling of your workforce.
"Every time we’ve had a problem, the apps in Access Workspace have allowed us to fix the problem and break through growth barriers. In particular, the discussions with our relationship manager at Access have allowed us to constantly evolve each app to make sure it continues to work for us as a business.
"Especially in the last couple of years with Access, it’s been a real benefit for us to have that relationship and that knowledge at the end of the phone. We’re really excited about the future of our business and the home care industry. There’s obviously challenges with workforce retention, but we feel like we’ve got all the tools we need to make the best fist of it as a business and continue to provide high quality care.
Dan Isterling, Managing Director
Access has grown hand in hand with us. For example, I wanted to monitor staff availability balance to ensure we’re operating at safe staffing levels. But there wasn’t anything on People Planner at the time to handle this.
"I asked Dan (our managing director) to speak to Access and they worked on it and they brought in this fantastic new feature which makes my job so much easier. Now at a click of a button I can see where any staffing imbalance is, I can see what we need and what we don’t need.
"Also Access Support is quick and helpful. If it’s something for which we don’t need an answer immediately, I’ll submit a ticket and the support team are fast to get back to me and talk me through it. If it’s complex, they’ll ask me to give them control of my screen so they can show me how to do it.
Nicola Cope, Business Operations Manager
I use Access Workspace daily. If I think of any changes that could make a difference, I raise them alongside the other registered managers during our regular meetings with Dan (our managing director). Then Dan discusses what we’ve said with Access and comes back to us with the options that Access can offer.
Tracey Marsden, Community Registered Manager
The people at Access are friendly and approachable. We’ve used other systems and we’ve never been able to have the connection that we do with Access.
"As Access has developed things, we’ve been able to grow with them and that’s been key. Our relationship with Access grants us early access to their new products. Access is a company that is always evolving, and this keeps us moving forward.
"Access get what we’re trying to do and are always coming up with creative ways to help us do it better. You just can’t beat that.
Tim Isterling, Communications Manager
Learn more about Access' home care software and see how our software solution gives you a single digital overview of your entire organisation. With a suite of complementary apps, you will have the data and insights to deliver more personalised, more responsive care.
Contact us today to discover how you can use accurate, real-time information to improve efficiency and productivity in your care service.