Welcome to Kirsty Meets!
Each month I meet key stakeholders and business leaders in the social care sector. This month I met Morten Mathiesen, Chief Marketing Officer, Sekoia.
I caught up with Morten to discuss Sekoia’s start up story, their introduction to the UK care sector, and commitment to championing social care.
So Morten, tell us a little about Sekoia’s start up story?
Originally, we were a group of people working on a digital “Jamie Oliver” app for schools to improve their handling of kids’ school meals. To secure a transparency for parents and support healthier living. That didn’t pan out at all! At the same time, we’d come across some social care hubs, where the talk of the town was very much the abrupt and hectic work life for people in care services. We started to unfold this and our CTO founder had done his masters from UNI on IoT in health. The more research we did, the more we started to understand the field. When we then started shadowing care teams, asking our pseudo anthropological questions, everything pointed back to that same overwhelming workday; lacking an overview, missing support, plans breaking, person-centred being undermined by an admin burden. This then became our mission. To (re) enable care and support. We wanted to be just like Q is for 007. The nerds behind social care’s many heroes. And that’s still the only thing we ask people to subscribe to in Sekoia. That mission.
When Sekoia expanded in 2015, was their any particular differences that stood out between social care in Denmark and in the UK? How did Sekoia manage / traverse / learn from these differences?
The Danish health system is quite advanced when it comes to digital and IT. So, I was quite frankly surprised to see how much of the care sector that was still pen and paper based. One of my first conversations was with a provider who had been challenged by family members to a person that had been in their care and was sadly going to court. It had taken him a week to locate and build evidence on a years old case. Yet, he struggled to understand the value proposition of digital social care records. I guess that’s a testimony to all market development. Someone also once said no to email or the Internet not knowing what this was.
Most of all I was astonished by the wealth of activities and service innovation that I came across. The list is long, and some I have seen in Scandinavia before, but care homes with cinemas, hair or nail salons, gyms, sensory gardens and even pubs! So much to be proud of here.
I follow quite a lot of care providers’ social media, and I’m astonished by the level of person-led engagement I witness. Even when visiting Sekoia’s customers. Last time in Glasgow with Holmes Care, I was part of what I believe was a Scottish strathspey!
In what ways does both the business’ and your own Danish roots inform Sekoia’s approach to social care in the UK now?
The Danish model of care is based on a rehabilitative and holistic approach, set out to enable individual’s reach and maintain their optimal physical, sensory, intellectual, mental, and social functional levels. The Welfare society to some extend bases itself on such a contract between all parts involved in securing outcomes for those in need of support.
When building software within this space, it’s quite clear to us that we’ve taken this “contract” with us. The Sekoia app is made for organisations that strive to plan, deliver and evidence their efforts in a way that’s customised to the individuals in their care, to later be able to monitor and report on outcomes. Another hands-on example is that of intrusive alerts. We don’t believe in co-creating a stressful work environment. We believe in supporting care teams delivering the best thinkable care by equipping them with a transparent and helpful user experience that produces good, informed decision-making. I like to think this is evident in our system. And the users seem to agree, scoring us 4.8 out 5 in their Google reviews.
“The Danish model of care is based on a rehabilitative and holistic approach.”
Digital Care Planning forms the basis of Sekoia’s operations. Why is digitisation important? How does the NHS Transformation Directorate roadmap help care providers with this transition?
Digital isn’t important in itself, but I think that a lot of organisations find that what they’re wanting to achieve has been very hard using pen and paper as their primary toolbox. Back to my example before about generating proof or evidence. Care teams are going from minutes to seconds in so many of their interactions when digital. Time is a luxury in the care business. Being able to generate more time on the hands of people working here is not only a well-proven business case, but a massive case for quality of life for everyone involved.
The NHS Transformation Directorate has set out a significant vision and complimentary roadmap for the digitalisation of social care. I’m beyond enthusiastic! Creating an assured supplier list has helped remove some of the barriers that our sector has been dealing with: Which suppliers to trust? What to look out for? Data security? Pricing? Funding? Even the more internal barriers are being confuted by a large programme for social care that’s rubber-stamping the whole digital transformation.
“Digital isn’t important in itself, but I think that a lot of organisations find that what they’re wanting to achieve has been very hard using pen and paper as their primary toolbox.”
It is clear then that Sekoia are committed to championing social care. Can you tell us how you have been and will continue to champion this cause?
Being a founding patron of Championing Social Care is very much in line with our company’s vision and incentive to shine a light on the incredible value of the social care sector to society. The four initiatives under this umbrella all help counter the misconception of social care that’s often produced by mass media hysteria. The fact that a controversial story sells more ads than all the good stories that remain untold.
Care Home Open Week and Care Sector’s Got Talent are two examples of events that are opening doors to our sector and helping us build a more just and positive image, which in many ways is useful. Not only recruiting and retaining people, but making sure that the public knows what the country’s largest workforce stand for. Heart and skills in an unrivalled sector.
And finally Morten, where can we find out a little more about Sekoia?
Find us on https://sekoia.co.uk/ and have a look at https://championingsocialcare.org.uk/.