Supporting staff who are unpaid carers in the workplace with Lottie

The impact of needing to care for an elderly relative is one you may well have seen staff or colleagues experience or one that’s pertinent to you. It’s not a simple process, caring can be hugely time-consuming, and have a big impact on mental and physical health. If someone is a carer, or needs to support an elderly relative, they may well need your help as an HR leader too - whether that’s in time off, flexible working, or all the way through to policy.

With those challenges in mind, disrupting the industry around care homes might not seem like the most glamorous choice, but that's the goal of Lottie, founded in 2021 by Chris and Will Donnelly and it’s perhaps less stuffy and old-fashioned than you might have pre-judged: This company is all about the tech.

Chris has a strong background in digital and tech: before co-founding Lottie, he founded and was CEO of Verb Brands, a company he launched at university and grew organically into one of the world's leading digital and tech agencies. Prior to co-founding Lottie, Will spent over 5 years advising the UK’s leading care and retirement operators and was part of the property team that helped the NHS throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. Combining Chris’ expertise in technology and Will’s experience in the social care sector, the idea for Lottie was born.

“From our own experiences, we found choosing a care home for a loved one is an extremely important decision. However, navigating the process of finding the best care home for your loved one’s unique care needs often feels very overwhelming and can be time-consuming,” explain Will and Chris. “As we started out on our journey, we found out that most first-time care choices take place following a sudden illness, injury, or loss of a carer meaning complex decisions are often made urgently and under high-pressure situations. Similarly, the care system as a whole can be confusing to understand - so many care seekers are unsure about what makes a good care home or even where to start when it comes to searching for care for a loved one. So, it's no surprise 44% of UK care seekers regretted their care decision.”

Disrupting the market is a key phrase - do Lottie feel they’re pioneers?

At the start of this year Lottie was announced as one of the top ten startups in the UK . “From the beginning, we knew exactly what we wanted to build and had a clear direction for the platform. Lottie is the first care home marketplace to share transparent care home fees, prior to the launch of Lottie many care seekers would be unaware of the weekly cost of care when searching for a care home. Now the social care sector is following in our footsteps, and it is becoming industry standard to share care home fees.

It was about making noise, too, they add. “To break through a heavily saturated market we needed to make as much noise as possible, and we’re so pleased to see that our efforts to challenge the care sector's long-standing status quo are now opening up new opportunities to change the care sector for the better. We believe we have placed a greater focus on supporting those at the centre of the care industry - care seekers and their loved ones but we’re only at the start of the journey.”