Qld home care group Five Good Friends hiring 750 new contractors

The Queensland entrepreneurs behind a home care firm that uses technology to match clients with suitable carers are looking for 750 new workers as they expand the service nationally.

Sue Janse van Rensberg (right) assists Suellyn Shaw with the gardening.

QUEENSLAND-BASED Five Good Friends is on the hunt for at least 750 new workers as it expands across the country to meet burgeoning demand for home care services.

Chief executive Simon Lockyer said the company already has a network of 1000 independent contractors providing 20,000 home visits a month to elderly clients or people living with a disability.

“We have built a technology that dramatically enriches the level of care a person receives as well bringing transparency and flexibility to service delivery but none of it helps without good people helping disabled and senior Australians live in their homes longer,” he said.

And, with demand for home care on the rise, Five Good Friends hopes to attract 750 new helpers to its ranks nationally, with 250 contractors needed in Queensland.

“Home care has never been in such demand, and the need for helpers is not expected to slow anytime soon,” Mr Lockyer said. “The number of older Australians using home care has tripled in recent years, growing 25 per cent last year alone.”

The company’s technology matches people based on their backgrounds, skills and experience. “We think there are many people in the community that would be excellent care and support workers but they just haven’t considered it as an option,” he said.

“Lived experience is a good skill to have to enter the industry.”

The company wants to recruit people aged 18 to retirement who hold a clear national police check, insured car and drivers licence, are up to date with all relevant vaccinations and can work under an ABN, but most importantly people who are willing to build simple but meaningful connections.

Sue Janse van Rensberg assists Suellyn Shaw with the gardening.

On average a Five Good Friends home carer earns $37 an hour, works between 14 and 20 hours a week, which equates to $2500 to $3650 in monthly income.

Mr Lockyer and one of the company’s co-founders, Nathan Betteridge had a successful track record as tech entrepreneurs when they established Five Good Friends in 2016. They had previously launched the charity fundraising platform, Everyday Hero. “We saw what Everyday Hero did for the not-for-profit sector and knew we could do the same for home care,” he said. Following the sale of Everyday Hero, the pair formed Five Good Friends with ex-Retire Australia CEO Tim Russell, who is a director of retirement home developer Aura Holdings and David Waldie, the founder of medical alarms tech firm eevi.life. “We were shocked when we started that an industry so reliant on checks and balances, was so incredibly starved of software solutions,” Mr Lockyer said.

The lack of technology and process also came under the scrutiny of the 2018 Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.

“We now know well-designed technology can improve care and enable people to live safely and independently in the homes and communities they love for longer so we made the decision to share our digital know-how with the sector,” Mr Lockyer said. The technology caught the eye of EQT Partners last year with the Swedish private equity firm taking a minority stake in the company. The investment now values Five Good Friends at $60m.

“When we started there were 100,000 people on the Australian Government’s Home Care Package Program, by the end of 2023 there will be 275,000 people. That just shows the demand we have in the community for people wanting home care to remain living in their homes,” Mr Lockyer said.

So successful have they been, Five Good Friends is now ramping up its tech arm as it sells its digital platform Lookout to other home care providers. Lookout provides real-time digital support to helpers, care recipients and their families. The remote monitoring technology, informed by the data collected from more than half a million home visits, is now capable of detecting risks, ranging from cognition to falls.

“Five Good Friends’ role is to improve care and enable people to live safely and independently in the homes and communities they love, for longer and this is two-pronged, good people backed by the best in digital capability,” Mr Lockyer said.

Five Good Friends carer Sue Janse Van Rensberg said she has built a good friendship with her clients Suellyn and Tony Shaw.

Mrs Shaw said having help has made her and her husband’s life easier. “Five Good Friends for me has been a relief,” she said.

“Things were piling up and Sue is such a nice and easy- going person and she talks to my husband and usually he only has me to talk to so it’s nice to have something different. I do appreciate the help I am able to get now.”