About Nesta

Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society.

TrustonTap wants to improve homecare in UK to support older people to stay at home independently, with all the services they need ‘on tap’.

Background

The UK care market is in crisis; we have a growing ageing population, families often live far away from ageing relatives and there has been a reduction in state provision of care - alongside a scarcity of quality in-home care workers.

In short, there is a pressing need for radical change to meet the needs of our growing elderly population.

TrustonTap is addressing this challenge and is using the latest technology to develop a disruptive marketplace platform to connect older people and their families directly with carers, avoiding the need for traditional agencies.

Not only does this allow customers to pay substantially less for their care, but carers earn substantially more than they would through agencies.

In fact, the handpicked team of carers keep around 80 per cent of their client’s fee compared with around 40 per cent via a traditional care agency.

This means carers are better motivated and better able to deliver quality, more consistent care to their clients.

Why the ShareLab Fund?

The ShareLab fund will enable us to bring down the cost of care, while improving the supply of quality care workers to those in need of help.

So far, the team has built the main platform, conducted a successful pilot and refined the proposition based on feedback from customers and carers. We have got good evidence for the key metrics in the business, and are currently scaling up to prove the concept on a larger scale across Oxfordshire (and adjacent counties).

To date, the business has been focused on meeting the needs of older people and their families, but we are now keen to also meet the needs of local authorities in the region. This requires some further development and will focus on personal budgets of those in need of support.

Goals?

After six months, TrustonTap will have a marketplace platform that is scalable to both private and local authority funded clients. Our trusted personal assistants will be providing homecare for hundreds of older and vulnerable clients across Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buckinghamshire.

The professional back-up of TrustonTap will ensure consistency and reliability, and give peace of mind for the client and back-up for the carer.

By William Cotton, CEO & Founder, TrustonTap Ltd