Business

The business of caring

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[prev] …London to work on the NHS white paper ‘Fit for the Future’, which established the national minimum standard regulating care homes.’ Part of Jan’s role involved looking at care homes. ‘She would go into a nursing home – what used to be called a home for the elderly and mentally infirm – and see younger people with neurological conditions – motor neurone disease, Huntington’s, early onset dementia, even brain injuries – who were being cared for alongside 80- and 90-year olds. There was nothing wrong with the homes, but they were set up for the elderly, and it’s a very different kind of care. Young people are more active, fitter, have different interests.’ Jan decided to do something about it – by setting up a home herself.

Neil was delivering a live TV interview on anthracite grain dumping – in Polish

While Jan was hatching her plans, Neil – who says he can ‘survive in about four or five languages’ – was facing such challenges as working on the desk responsible for British policy on conventional weapons, and delivering a live TV interview on anthracite grain dumping – in Polish. But with a second child on the way, he was thinking about putting down more permanent roots. Then, one day, the phone rang. ‘Mum called me in Poland and said “Come and help me run this home…” She sent me the business plan, and the numbers added up.’ He cut short his posting as soon as he could, and headed home. ‘I haven’t looked back,’ he says.

While Neil was convinced by the business plan and the figures, the banks, apparently were not. ‘She went to all the high street banks. The decision was that it was all going to be through bank loans, rather than venture capitalists. But they all said: “No, it won’t work…” Finally she was put in touch with Unity Trust Bank which funds community projects, and that funded the startup.’ Jan also mortgaged her house and invested her life savings in the business. Very quickly, Jan and Neil proved those banks wrong. ‘Within six months, they were banging on our door.’ Nevertheless, Neil says he keeps talking to them, because ‘sometimes they ask us questions we hadn’t thought of, and we learn from that. There are some things they still don’t get, such as why we have training facilities where we could have beds. Their view is you can’t make money out of that – but money can’t be your sole motivator.’

“We can put everything we earn back into developing and protecting what we’ve already got. There’s no money being stripped out by external investors and venture capitalists”

An indication of how far they have now come was provided at an awards ceremony last year. ‘We took our bank manager with us. And there were at least a dozen other bank managers responsible for healthcare in the room, and every one of them came over to talk to us! So it keeps him on his toes…’

PJ Care remains a family-owned business, and there’s no desire to change. ‘It means we can put everything we earn back into developing and protecting what we’ve already got. There’s no money being stripped out by external investors and venture capitalists. It does mean the growth has been a lot slower than it would be if we accepted the venture capital that is often offered to us. It’s all been to protect what already exists as far as possible, so we’ve never overstretched ourselves.’

“All places around the country that have major trauma centres that deal with neurological problems. We wanted to be reasonably close to one of them”

Still, it doesn’t seem to have held them back; their first centre, Bluebirds – which Jan designed with the architect, whilst Neil was working behind the scenes – was full within about four months of opening. ‘That’s almost unheard of in the industry, but the speciality it has, which is particularly early onset dementia, frontotemporal dementias, was quite unique at the time. Then we started development plans for the next home…’

By 2005 they had 75 bedrooms across four centres in Milton Keynes, and felt the need to go further afield. But they didn’t want to ‘just throw a dart at a map’ as Neil puts it. ‘We spent time looking at the major trauma centres around the UK, including Addenbrookes and Papworth in Cambridge, the Royal Infirmary in Leicester, and similar centres in Manchester, Sheffield, Bristol and Liverpool… All places around the country that have major trauma centres that deal with neurological problems. We wanted to be reasonably close to one of them. The idea is, somebody comes out of hospital, they need somewhere to go.’

“As you came into Peterborough six or seven years ago, you could see the growth. Things were happening…”

Peterborough immediately presented itself as a good option. ‘It was roughly half way between Leicester and Cambridge, so picks up from both. It’s considered to be part of East Anglia, so is not “foreign” if you’re from Norwich! It’s also a city my mum knew, because she lived here, and which I’d also come to know.’ Also, crucially, it was growing. ‘As you came into Peterborough then, six or seven years ago, you could see the growth. Hampton was just going up, all the development in the city centre was just starting. Things were happening. And it was only an hour from Milton Keynes. So we said, “OK, this is a good place to build…”’

Eagle Wood was to be Neil’s project – his vision – and he went about it in typical pragmatic manner. ‘I cleared the downstairs and put a set of bedroom furniture in it. Then I put… [cont]

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