Feasibility

Ambition to begin a social care co-op does not necessarily mean that what you want to create is feasible. Thorough research into your market, specifically the Local Authority you wish to start providing care within, will mean you can confirm you have the right circumstances to launch, grow and become sustainable. If it's not feasible, then the plan needs to change or the project should stop.

A London based co-op experienced exactly this, putting together a fantastic and highly skilled founding group, working very closely with their local authority and achieving co-operative society registration, coupled with a small grant to develop the work. The result was that they found it would be impossible to give care in their local area without charging a very large amount for anyone not being funded by the local authority. This was because their local authority rates were unsustainable for Real Living Wage employment, only allowing for minimum wage pay if travel and training were excluded for people's pay.

The business plan and cost model showed that any support provided through the local authority frameworks would have had to be subsidised by the co-op. The only way they could have made it work was by paying the minimum wage on zero hour contracts and not paying for travel time. No one starts a co-op just to repeat the failings of the industry so the project was halted. This was hugely disappointing but thankfully they had completed the feasibility stage so at least it meant they could see the bear trap ahead without falling in.

Questions to ask of your community

• NHS and your local Continuing Healthcare team: Are they open to the equal care model and what problems are they looking to solve? For example, there may be very few providers that support children, so this may become a development priority for you.

• Local Authority and Integrated Health Commissioning: Sign up to Contracts Finder to see what your local authority has procured in the past. Try and get in front of members of the commissioning team with a list of questions. Is your Local Authority a co-operative council and a member of CCIN?

• Local Market: What is the local competition? What rates are they charging? Would they be interested in co-operating with your group?

• People on Direct Payments: If you are starting from scratch you won't be able to join local authority contracting frameworks. Direct payments are essential to help fund new support organisations and some councils offer very little of these.

• Council Rates: What rates are being offered in your area, and will they provide enough to allow you to pay decent wages? This will be a major driver of whether you choose to offer self-employed, employed work or both.

• Where are the care and support workers? Find any coffee mornings or local events supporting local workers. What issues are they facing?

• Local Aligned Organisations: Are there any partners that could help to support your new venture or who you could co-found or work with?

For local authorities, consider the possibilities of facilitating a co-operative consortia for the provision of block contracted care.