Let us introduce ourselves below and tell you the story of how Sparrow was started.

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We are a family business made up of big sister Anna and little brother Tom. Together we run Sparrow Independent Carers, an introductory agency that matches self-employed carers with people in need of care.

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Working as agency carers

Anna and Tom both worked as carers for fairly typical care agencies. We loved the job but had to admit that the over-packed schedules meant we weren’t always able to provide the standard of care we would have liked. While the care agencies we worked for charged over £30 per hour our pay was very low with well over 50% of the cost of care going directly to the agency. One day we did the sums and realised that once we included our unpaid travel time and training we were actually being paid below minimum wage. 

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Taking the step to becoming independent carers

This prompted us to advertise for work as independent carers and we were delighted to find that there was no shortage of people in need of care keen to employ us. We loved the freedom that being an independent carer brought and found we were able to take the time to provide the personal touches and details of care that made all the difference to our clients. For the first time we were paid a reasonable wage too and without all that money going to the agency our clients saved money too. It was win-win.

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The challenges of independent care

But we had to admit that taking the step to becoming an independent carer wasn’t easy. As well as carers we now had to be business owners with responsibilities for the finance and company admin as well as the care itself. Then there were the up front costs, increased admin, financial risk and issues such as insurance and training that it was hard for us to solve on our own. Without colleagues or managers to turn to for advice it could feel lonely and we could understand why most of our former colleagues decided to stay working for the agencies.

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The idea for Sparrow is hatched

Meanwhile,  the demand was greater than we could deal with and we were soon having to turn away people in need of care. What we people wanted was more independent carers like us.

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We started to think about all the barriers to becoming an independent carer that we had faced and we realised that what was needed was more than just a website to match carers and clients. We started to ask around to find out what was stopping people from becoming an independent carer. We heard lots of different answers but these four stood out to us:

 

1. I don’t know where to begin, I need a step by step guide.

2. I love care but I don’t want to have to invoice, chase money and do all the business admin.

3. Being an independent carer is too isolated. I want to work with other people.

4. I’m worried about finding clients consistently.

 

Once we identified the issue we knew that we could help to address it. Sparrow was specifically designed to address these concerns. Our main aim is to give carers the support and confidence they need to work independently of care agencies continues to be the driving force behind our work.

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So that's how Sparrow was born. We'd love you to be get involved too. Please just go to the Become a Sparrow Carer or Find a Sparrow Carer page in the menu at the top of this page and submit the form there to get in touch.