How Kingsway Care protected its people and purpose during rapid growth

How strong values, strategic focus, and honest leadership helped Kingsway Care grow sustainably

When Vicky Haines joined Kingsway Care in 2021, she was stepping into a sector she had not originally planned to work in. 

After 10 years as a probation officer in Brighton, Vicky joined Kingsway Care founder Ollie Carter at a business that was still in its early stages. Kingsway Care launched in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, and was borne out of Ollie’s own experience of arranging care for an elderly relative. The carers supporting his relative were completing the required tasks, but there was little time for companionship, conversation, or relationship-building. 

‘We talk constantly about a loneliness epidemic in our ageing population,’ Vicky says. ‘We know that lots of older people don’t see anybody all day, or the carer is the only person that they see all day. So, we need to be better.’ 

That insight became central to Kingsway Care’s value proposition. The Brighton-based domiciliary care provider does not simply help people remain in their own homes. It aims to provide care that is personal, relationship-led, and rooted in dignity. 

Today, Kingsway Care has grown to 44 people, including six office-based staff and a team of carers working in the community. It supports 74 clients, ranging in age from 23 to nearly 100, with needs spanning frailty, age-related medical conditions, paralysis, and long-term emotional support. 

But growth has not come from chasing volume. It has come from making careful strategic choices about who Kingsway serves, how it supports its team, and what kind of care it wants to be known for. 

Understanding the market 

One of the most important decisions Kingsway made was to focus heavily on the private care market. Today, around 95% of its clients pay privately. 

That was not the original plan. But as Vicky began to understand the care sector, the business had to consider where it could deliver the highest standard of care while remaining financially sustainable. 

Local authority-funded care plays a vital role, but Vicky says the funding model can make it difficult for providers to offer longer, relationship-based visits. By contrast, private clients often have more flexibility to choose preventative care before a crisis occurs. 

‘They can say, “We feel a bit wobbly, we don’t want to have a fall, can we have five hours a week?’’ she explains. 

This reflects the kind of thinking explored through the Sustainable Business Model Canvas on the Help to Grow: Management Course: understanding not only the service being provided, but the customer segments, revenue model, cost pressures, and partnerships that make the business viable. 

Kingsway also had to understand who its real target audience was. Although care is delivered to older and vulnerable people, the person making the initial enquiry is often an adult son or daughter. 

‘We did a lot of work on understanding who our audience is,’ Vicky says. ‘Yes, we’re delivering care to people in their 70s and 80s, but they’re not always securing their care. It’s their children who are ringing up.’ 

That is segmentation, targeting, and positioning in practice. With a limited marketing budget, Kingsway could not afford to speak to everyone. Instead, it focused on reaching the people most likely to be looking for high-quality care on behalf of a loved one. 

Building a culture carers want to stay in 

For Vicky, the quality of care starts with the quality of the team. Kingsway’s growth has been built on recruiting carers with the right motivation and creating a culture where they feel supported, valued, and able to progress. 

‘We only want to provide care that we would want to be given to our own family,’ she says. 

That belief affects everything from recruitment to leadership. Vicky and registered manager Lisa still take part in the on-call rota every eight weeks. They go out on client visits, cover emergencies, and support carers in the field. 

On one recent evening, Lisa went out to support a carer after a client had fallen and cut her head. The carer later emailed to say that, in 20 years in the corporate sector, he had never experienced that level of leadership support. 

For Vicky, that is what culture looks like in practice. Kingsway’s leaders do not ask carers to do work they would not do themselves. That visible commitment helps create trust, one of the foundations of employee engagement. 

It also reflects the Four Enablers of Engagement taught on the Help to Grow: Management Course: a clear strategic narrative, engaging managers, employee voice, and organisational integrity. Kingsway’s carers understand the purpose of the business, see leaders living its values, and know they will be listened to when decisions are made. 

That culture has helped staff retention. Many carers have been with the business since the beginning, giving Kingsway the consistency it needs to maintain high-quality relationships with clients. 

Leading through a difficult change 

That culture was tested in early 2023, just as Vicky was completing the Help to Grow: Management Course. 

Kingsway had recently made a significant decision: to move carers away from zero-hours contracts and offer fixed-hour contracts instead. The aim was to professionalise the role, improve security, and show carers that the business valued their work. 

It was the right decision culturally, but it increased the company’s fixed costs. Then, over a short period, several clients died or moved into residential care as their needs increased. Kingsway lost around 25% of its care hours almost overnight. 

Vicky suddenly faced a serious change leadership challenge. 

‘I knew there was an amount of money that I had to reduce,’ she says. ‘My options were to make four or five people redundant, or to speak to the entire team individually.’ 

Rather than cutting jobs, she chose transparency. Vicky held individual conversations with carers, explained the situation clearly, and reduced contracted hours across the team. It was not easy. Some people were worried, and the process took several months to manage. 

But the alternative would have damaged the culture Kingsway had worked so hard to build. 

The timing of the course proved invaluable. Vicky was studying change management while leading through a live change in her own business. The course gave her practical frameworks, while the peer group gave her the chance to ask other business leaders how they had handled similar situations. 

‘It was horrendous at the time,’ she says. ‘But coming out the other side with all of our carers intact, I learned so much.’ 

Because Kingsway had continued investing in marketing, new client enquiries came in during the same period. By the time contracts were reduced, many carers were still working close to their previous hours. The business had protected its people and kept its values intact. 

Growing with purpose 

Kingsway is now in a position it has not been in for some time. It has enough capacity in the team to say yes to new clients. The challenge is maintaining that balance as demand continues to grow.

Future plans could include opening another branch, potentially in areas such as Haywards Heath or Burgess Hill. Vicky is also interested in the idea of a small residential setting, built around the same ethos as Kingsway’s home care service. 

For now, the focus is on growing carefully and sustainably. 

Kingsway Care’s story shows that growth is not just about increasing headcount or revenue. It is about making strategic choices, understanding your market, building a culture people believe in, and leading with honesty when circumstances change. 

As Vicky’s experience shows, the real test of a business’s values often comes when things become difficult. 

Kingsway came through that test with its team intact, and its purpose stronger than ever.

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