HomeTouch Online Care Marketplace Launches Nationwide, Adds Advanced Matching Functionality

LONDON - March 6, 2017 - PRLog -- HomeTouch (http://www.myhometouch.com), the leading service for finding home care, today has launched nationally to become the UK's largest online provider of care professionals.

HomeTouch's national launch sees it add 25,000 live-in care professionals to its technology-enabled service that provides easy-to-use search using brand new carer matchmaking functionality. Now, families nationwide can select carers with specialised skills and personality traits who are also pre-vetted for compassion, reliability and initiative.

This coincides with the update of HomeTouch's platform which enables families to rapidly identify desirable attributes for their loved ones by screening for multiple criteria simultaneously. Beyond the minimum quality standards such as care qualifications and criminal background check, users can now search for criteria as detailed as dementia expertise, interest in gardening, speaking French and driving a car, for example.

The upfront assessment of pre-vetted carers who meet specific requirements solves the stressful problem faced by the sandwich generation of finding the most appropriate person to care for elderly parents.

For the first time, customers across the UK searching for live in carers can browse a comprehensive library of detailed profiles, watch videos, read client reviews, select for specific interests and skills, and interview HomeTouch carers before making an informed decision about live in home help for elderly or disabled relatives and friends.

Home carers on the platform enjoy the benefits of creating detailed profiles featuring their specialty skills, reviews from past employers, and up to 75% above industry average pay.

"The ageing population is increasingly keen to stay in the comfort and familiarity of their own homes, rather than go into residential care," said Dr Jamie Wilson, founder and CEO HomeTouch. "The traditional agency model for in-home care is outdated; consumers are embracing the ease and efficiency of online tools that they use in other areas of life to make informed decisions about the person who cares for their loved ones at home."

Eileen Burbidge, partner at Passion Capital, remarked: "By uniquely combining technology with a concerted investment in skilled staff to carefully vet carers, HomeTouch scaling up nationally benefits not just the ageing population and its children, but also brings new employment opportunities and independence to valuable professional carers."

William Laing, founder and director at Laing Buisson comments: "With the social care system under tremendous strain from the ageing population, and funding around residential care approaching breaking point, being supported in one's own home is a viable option for a large number of service users. It also feeds into the government's on-going policy of promoting independence and choice as well as providing ways in which the cost levels in social care can be better managed."

Families and recruiters seeking home care help now have access to the UK's largest choice of more than 25,000 care professionals at www.myhometouch.com.

About HomeTouch

HomeTouch (http://www.myhometouch.com) is the most advanced online service for finding in-home carers for elderly people across the UK. It uses technology to match customers with local and live-in carers who have the experience, skills and qualifications to suit specific needs to offer quality assurance and peace of mind for customers. HomeTouch carers have detailed profiles with reviews and video testimonials that highlight specialised skills and characteristics. Bypassing the agency model, carers using HomeTouch are paid 75% above average wages.

HomeTouch partners include BUPA and Guy's & St Thomas' Charity. It has also received investment from Passion Capital, members of Wild Blue Cohort (a West London angel investment network) and the Nominet Trust, the UK's leading social impact digital funder.

Notes to editors

• The new search functionality is possible as a result of HomeTouch's application ofElastic Search (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasticsearch) technology, also the technology powering search engines, dating sites and social media, including Facebook. The first application of this technology in the care industry, it uniquely enables users to search for carers with detailed criteria including languages, specialist skills with dementia, qualifications and driving.
• HomeTouch now has exclusive access to the carers on LiveInCareJobs.co.uk  which brings the number of vetted care professionals on its platform to more than 25,000 nationwide.