Better Caring co-CEO Peter Scutt talks about what inspired him to develop his revolutionary new online marketplace for home care.
He tells Game Changers host Sarah Harris (Shark Tank/Studio 10) that his own parents were the catalyst for the platform enabling people who are ageing, or those with a disability, to customise their own care and support.
Peter’s father was in his early 90’s and frail and his mother in her mid-80’s and both were living with dementia.
He says his dad, in particular, found it confronting having different rostered carers come through the home on a revolving basis under the traditional system.
“This personal experience; plus, a strong professional history encompassing innovation, and for-profit, for-purpose businesses; propelled me and my Co-Founder Tony Charara, to reimagine the aged care and disability support sector,”
“We wanted something that was better than the personal experience I’d been through with my parents. I wanted to give my father the support he needed but where he retained control – which meant choice over the workers and his schedule. Hence, the catalyst for the founding of Better Caring.”
TV host Sarah Harris with Better Caring CEO Peter Scutt on the Game Changers set.For the first time, Peter says Better Caring empowers people to search for and directly hire local, independent care and support workers, based on criteria that is important to them.
In a 2015 survey, almost one in five Australians reported living with disability (4.3 million people). 475,000 people are being individually funded under the National Disability Insurance Scheme to engage the support they need to live an ordinary life, included socially and economically in their community, in education and work.
Recent statistics also show that there is an overwhelming preference for older Australians to remain living independently, in their own homes and communities, with choice and dignity, for as long as possible and remain engaged in their life’s passions.
“We’re on a mission to improve access to affordable, flexible, quality home care for Australians everywhere,” says Peter.
“We want to roll out as a national solution across Australia and increase the types of services offered via the platform.”
Better Caring also provides an opportunity for approved care and support workers to take control of their own destiny by running their own business via the platform. “It’s time workers were recognised, valued and fairly compensated for the incredibly important work they do” says Peter.
More than 11,000 have signed up since the site launched in 2014, although not all will meet Better Caring’s strict requirements for safeguarding our community, says Peter.
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