Hello, I’m James Ibbotson, Chief Executive Officer for Medux UK, which means I’m in charge of Medequip which includes Medequip Connect and Manage At Home, and more recently Ross Care and Consolor too.
People who know me know that I am very proud of the work and achievements of all these companies in helping people to live independently, and I have to tell you, I love my job.
We have fabulous owners in Medux, who manage to pull off that trick of pushing us to do better at the same time as being incredibly supportive. I have a fantastic Board of Directors, who all know what they are supposed to be doing and just get on with it, go the extra mile when it’s needed and epitomise the company values.
And, to top it all, we will soon have nearly 2500 colleagues who don’t just turn up for work, they show up for work. Every day I get to read the most amazing feedback from our public sector partners, and from people we support and their families.
Over the coming months you’ll be hearing more from them and from each of the Directors, as they share their thoughts and views on the issues affecting them, the companies, and the people we work with.
Like a lot of organisations, Medequip and Ross Care have been following and contributing to the discussions about the future of our health and social care system.
Community Equipment, Technology Enabled Care and Wheelchair Services are, and will be, fundamental building blocks of any new arrangement.
But, as we are learning, so too are the voices, experiences and aspirations of people who have cause to draw on care and support, and their families.
So, we watched with interest as Andy Burnham made his announcement a few weeks ago from Golders Green in North London.
It was obviously intensely personal for the Prime Minister, and at the risk of stating the obvious, it’s personal to every one of us here at Medequip and Ross Care.
I had strong ties with the Siddall family who were joint owners of our original parent company.
Siddall & Hilton was founded in Sowerby Bridge by Rowland Siddall and Thomas Hilton, originally making bedsteads and woven-wire mattresses. The business later supplied beds to field and convalescent hospitals, and developed metalwork techniques for hospital beds and healthcare furniture. From that emerged Sidhil Limited, and from there Medequip.
Of course they were a business-minded lot, but they always wanted to do right by people.
In 2024 Social Care Future was kind enough to invite Medequip to be part of the Big Connect, their community of practice for organisations that provide services. We have been represented at the annual gatherings for the last few years and enjoyed the inclusive ways these events are run.
It was great to see two convenors of the Social Care Future movement, Anna Severwright and Andy McCabe, invited to be in the audience as the Prime Minister made the announcement.
This is a hard-earned moment for Social Care Future. It is a movement led by people with lived experience of drawing on social care and support and they have worked tirelessly and skilfully to be heard by politicians, policy makers and anyone who makes decisions about how services are funded and delivered.
Alongside our experience and learning from the Equipment Matters group, Social Care Future has shown Medequip and Ross Care the importance of truly involving and listening to people who use our services.
We will continue to be allies of the Social Care Future movement and commit to actively participating in the “big conversations” led by Baroness Louise Casey.
We truly believe that with over 130 years of combined experience working with most of the local authorities and NHS organisations across the country, supporting millions of people over that time, with the personal commitment of our Board and owners, and with the involvement of people who use our services, we can play an important role in the future of social care and health in this country.
It always makes me smile when any particular report, review or policy guidance makes statements about how best to work with the private sector, to manage cost or risk, to ensure accountability or perhaps even to ensure business continuity.
There is no shortage of expressions of concern when it comes to working with the private sector in health and social care. Some of these concerns are genuine and real. As we have all seen, there are examples of excessive profits, extractive behaviours, poor practice and lack of transparency.
But just like CQC finds in the health and social care statutory sector, and is experienced across what is known as the VCFSE sector, there is a wide range of performance, quality and value for money across the board.
So it is for the private sector.
There is no single voice for this sector in the conversations about the future. That’s understandable when you consider the range of businesses that the public sector either procures or purchases from. We can see a range of owners, investors and commercial values and behaviours.
For the equipment, technology and services we specialise in, we are lucky to have BHTA and TSA putting in a shift to support central and local government and the NHS, and we’ll continue to do all we can to both contribute to and support their efforts.
This seems especially important now. With the dramatic reduction in NHS staff, the footprints of some ICBs changing again and the reorganisation of Local Authorities boundaries into Strategic Authorities, there is a risk of dilution in commissioning experience and knowledge and variation in the quality of commissioning and procurement practice.
That’s not just our concern for the future. It was highlighted as a current issue by CQC in their summary of Local Authority assessments and in the recent LGA/ADASS report into the compulsory liquidation of NRS.
But Medux UK respects the history of its companies and takes a long-term view on return on its investments. It is committed to supporting the statutory services who have chosen us as their partners, as well as the wider health and social care system.
Relational ways of working are not new to us, and were demonstrated in many ways during the pandemic, in response to the financial pressure on the public sector and especially in the aftermath of the NRS liquidation.
Looking to galvanise a consensus approach to improving social care, Andy Burnham said something like “when its personal, affects all of us, and is so important, we all need to find ways to work together, even when we don’t agree on every detail.”
Across all our current contracts, and beyond, we will continue to work with the range of partner organisations and people involved in making improvements.
As I said to the efficiency expert who suggested restricting the time our Technician Drivers could spend with people, “no thank you, we’re here to help”.
We may be big, but we’re local, this stuff is important to us and we care too.