National Entrepreneurs Day - Meet Kim and Chris

On National Entrepreneurs Day, we wanted you to meet the faces behind Wales England Care Ltd. We asked Kim and Chris a few questions, including where they saw the future of their company and why they started it! See our interviews below. 

Meet Kim: 

How did you feel when you started your company?
'I started by giving up my senior job role in one of the largest training companies in Wales. I was extremely nervous and excited at the same time as I had previously started my own business at the age of 28, where I owned a share of a care home with two others. I understood what it was like to go alone as such, without having the security of a company and people to fall back on.

Chris supported me with this decision, which made the decision easier.'

Why you did you start Wales England Care ltd?
'I wanted to start the business because I had set up Health and Social Care departments involving training in two other companies (the second company being the one I left to go alone). When I joined them, they had a contract of £500,000 and when I left, they had grown to £3.2 million!

I am extremely passionate about the care industry and love helping others achieve things that they never thought possible. In the early days, we were mainly supporting unemployed people through our provision. I absolutely loved supporting them and they were truly an inspiration to me. Especially, seeing people overcome so many barriers to go on and gain employment or go to college or university. I am so proud of every one of them and I really miss this provision.
However, my background is Apprenticeships, and people within this industry know me for that. This is why they wanted to support me with gaining contracts to be able to offer the apprenticeship provision. As they say, the rest is history. We now cover all of Wales and we are a prime contract holder in our own right within the ESFA (England and UK government).'

How do you feel about what you’ve achieved so far?
'I always struggle with this question because I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for the learners and the team of people that are around me. I see it as a joint effort really.'

Where would you like your business to be in the future and what drives you to be bigger and better?
'Firstly, we want to be a global business. Secondly, the drive I have is the satisfaction that I get when I see people develop and achieve, and when I go and visit a service user who truly appreciates the care that they've received. To sit and have a conversation with them fills me with so much pride and pushes me, even more, to be able to offer the best possible service. That is what makes me tick and what drives me to want to grow both our training and domiciliary care services.'

Is there anything else you would like to add?
'I wouldn’t be where I am today without the support from Chris and my family. They have always been there to support me.
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When you run a business, it can be exhilarating, exhausting, and sometimes scary. However, I always remember that making a difference in someone else’s life fills you with so much satisfaction there is nothing in the world that I love more than that. That is why I do what I do and will continue to for as long as I can.'

Meet Chris:
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How did you feel when you started your company?
'It was Kim who started the Company back in 2009. I was working full time as an Engineer and helped around my shifts and on my days off. The first few years were tough but exhilarating at the same time, watching Kim excel in everything she did yet being concerned about her health as she worked up to twenty hours a day. I was spending more and more time supporting Kim with all of the background work from installing phone lines, creating IT suites and managing admin processes and a year later, I gave up my twenty plus year career in Engineering and joined Kim full time in the business. It has been the biggest rollercoaster EVER! but knowing the difference we make in people’s lives makes it all worthwhile.'

Why you did you start Wales England Care ltd?
'When Kim and I first met, almost twenty years ago now, Kim was working as a Care Assistant and she was deliberating on whether or not to take up a position as a Health & Social Care Assessor. I asked her what she had to lose and a few weeks later she had taken her first step into the training world. Kim loved it and quickly rose through the ranks to Senior Manager having overseen enormous growth in her sector by taking over four competitor companies. Kim had started suggesting to me that she could do it on her own and make a difference in the Health & Social Care sector. We talked about it and the risks involved and decided that Kim should let herself loose into the business world.'

How do you feel about what you’ve achieved so far?
'There are so many amazing stories I could tell you about the people who have come through our doors with no qualifications, no confidence and , in their minds, no future who have left us having achieved things they thought were impossible for them. Some have left having achieved numerous qualifications in their time with us and others have left being able to read and write for the first time in their lives. We have had generations of families come to us and almost everyone who has come through our doors has left with a confidence in themselves that they had never had before and gone on to achieve their goals however big or small.

Having also been a Domiciliary Care provider since 2017, the incredible satisfaction you get knowing that, as a company, we are helping vulnerable people live independently in their own homes in their twilight years is second to none. Kim and I have both been out on runs with the carers, and still do occasionally, and to see the difference we make to people’s lives is amazing.'

Where would you like your business to be in the future and what drives you to be bigger and better?
'In the future, I want us to be able to change people’s lives by supporting them through all aspects of our business. I want us to continue to be leaders in Health & Social Care training, improving our standards year on year and become one of the best providers in the UK. I want the Domiciliary Care to continue to expand throughout Wales and England providing the best possible service to those who rely on us. We have other projects in mind that we want to explore as well, one of those is Kim’s desire to have a nursing home within the next two years and I would like to provide respite care holidays for families. Also, we are not limiting ourselves to the UK and have already had discussions with holiday proprietors in Malta and will be meeting the Health Minister for Malta next week to discuss Health & Social Care on the islands. Dubai could be next on our list as we have our eyes set on becoming a Global Company.'

Is there anything else you would like to add?
'Our business is nothing without the teams of people we have around us, from the Care staff to the Delivery team, the Admin team, the Quality team, IT and Marketing, the SMT and our fellow Directors. Equally so, our business is nothing without our learners and our care citizens. But most of all, our business would be nothing without the drive, enthusiasm, passion and determination of our Managing Director, my wife, Kim Churcher.'

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