Less than one third (26%) of people could confidently describe what live-in care is, according to a national poll commissioned by home care provider Bluebird Care.

Bluebird Care has appointed its first head of live-in care, Ted Richardson, to lead a new programme to support franchise partners to deliver more live-in care services and to better educate their local communities on the benefits. Currently around 20% of the provider’s 202 UK franchise businesses offer live-in care programmes.

Bluebird Care is running a series of workshops and roadshows to support franchise partners to expand their services as part of the £600,000 investment in a transformation and growth programme announced in February this year.

The educational workshops will be supported by a new series of tools and resources on a dedicated online platform, and specific recruitment practices designed to attract the best live-in care experts to Bluebird Care’s teams.

“The national poll we conducted revealed extremely low levels of understanding of live-in care. Without the proper understanding of different care options, people are not being given a full choice of how – and where – they age,” said Richardson.

He added: “For too long, people have only been offered live-in care as an option at the end of their care journey, or when they have really high levels of dependency. We want to change that by putting the choice in people’s hands about when they access live-in care from an earlier stage. Alongside transforming the lifestyle options available to them, earlier access to live-in care can also help keep people well for longer, preventing or limiting a potentially more expensive care home placement, while enabling older people to live and age in a way that best works for them.”