Novacare, an online recruitment platform, was set up by Stephen Wilson to modernise the health and care sector. Wilson has 30 years of experience in the industry and his next steps are to get the Scottish Government involved so more businesses sign up.
Name: Stephen Wilson
Age: 49
Position: Founder/CEO
WHY DID YOU SET UP THE BUSINESS?
THERE’S no other service of its type in the health and social care sector. I spent 30 years working in the sector and saw the need for technology to solve the sector's problems.
This isn’t my first business. I have managed, commissioned services, closed outdated hospitals and opened specialist units across the NHS. I set up my first business as a care provider 10 years ago and it was very successful. Five years ago I started putting money into research and development towards what became Novacare.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
ONE of the biggest problems for the care sector is it is stuck in the twentieth century – people are still shuffling bits of paper in what is a very complex business. None have moved this complexity onto the digital platform. How do you recruit quickly, safely and effectively and work with legislation when you are faced with Brexit?
Scotland is unique because we want people to work here and we have a growing elderly and shrinking working population. We have a new applicant portal coming out in a month and in the new year we will have a product to manage staff. It’s a big digital platform that runs the company for you 24/7 and makes you more efficient and responsive to people’s needs. Our system is very secure – we run penetration tests to make sure it can’t be hacked and partner with Microsoft so physical security is stored in multiple locations here in the UK.
Data is backed up and encrypted so even if you get into the system you can’t access it. We want to make sure there is a single version of information and it's protected 24/7 in a physical location.
WHAT IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
OUR speciality is health and social care which is the biggest employer in the UK in terms of care homes, care at home and the NHS. There are 25,000 registered care provider businesses in the UK and each could employ between 50 and up to 1000 people.
People are amazed at the system. They are guided on how to recruit people into the sector based on best practice. It takes about 20 minutes to learn the system compared to six months for others. It is so intuitive to use so they don’t need training for it – if staff go on holiday someone else can easily pick it up. It also checks whether candidates can work in the UK, etc.
HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM COMPETING BUSINESSES?
THERE’S nothing that does what we do but a business could use a similar app. We check references automatically, use AI for document checks and facial recognition, integrate with Disclosure Scotland and DBS. We follow the regulators and legislative best practice and have knowledge of the sector. We have met with Cosla, the Scottish Government, Scottish Care, Social Work Scotland (SWS), UK Homecare Association (UKHCA), local authorities, Care Inspectorate (CI), Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), NHS, ADASS and Disclosure Scotland – and that’s just in the past month. By working with them we aim to provide solutions which meets everyone’s needs.
We have 15 staff are very tech-minded and are all based in Edinburgh. We have staff from all over the world – Spain, Italy, China, Russia and Switzerland – and they bring specific skills like coding and design intelligence.
IS SCOTLAND A GOOD PLACE FOR THIS TYPE OF BUSINESS?
IT’S the best place to a tech company. It’s a small nation but there’s a wealth of experience, knowledge and diversity and we have a very forward-thinking Government with regards to how health and social care can be modelled. We will make sure health needs are met whether you have money or not.
WHAT DO YOU ENJOY MOST ABOUT RUNNING THE BUSINESS?
IT’S a challenge and is never boring. Every day proves another challenge in how to make things better, smarter and faster. Brexit is the latest challenge for us.
WHERE DO YOU HOPE THE BUSINESS WILL BE IN 10 YEARS’ TIME?
SIMILAR to Google and Apple in that when you think of technology for social care you will think of us and Scotland. There are a whole range of other products that will come out – AI, wearable tech and robotics.
The first main hurdle is to gain support from the Scottish Government to sign up all health and social care businesses in the country.
We have phenomenal potential in Scotland and, like Novacare, there are people willing to invest on behalf of the country.
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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