One case manager’s journey to building a nationwide therapist network
Neuro Case Management (NCM UK) founder Martin Gascoigne discusses the firm’s four-panel therapist system and why regulation has transformed brain and spinal injury care.
Martin Gascoigne started NCM UK as a sole trader 15 years ago. Today, the Sheffield-based organisation has an expansive network of therapists on its books scattered across the UK.
Gascoigne says: “As we grew in and around Yorkshire, our therapists were happy to travel from one side of the region to the other once in a while.
“What we didn’t give much thought to was what would happen if we were to expand beyond Yorkshire.”
It wasn’t long before they did just that with the introduction of a unique four-panel system, with panels located in the North, Central, East and West.
Each panellist was asked to come on board as an associate, rather than a full-time staff member. All happily agreed.
But still, there were occasions when a panel couldn’t provide a therapist to undertake a particular role, be it education, mobility issues or supporting a client’s returning to work.
To address this, NCM UK built links with more than 50 therapist companies across the UK.
Gascoigne says: “In the 15 years that we’ve been trading, we’ve only once not been able to cover a case, and that was in the far reaching corners of Wales.”
The panel system has been crucial to NCM UK’s success, as has Gascoigne’s understanding of the vital role played by families in their loved one’s rehab.
As he explains, it is up to the therapist to train and empower those families to support the client’s recovery when the therapist isn’t there or after formal rehab has finished.
Gascoigne says: “Recently, we’ve had a physio write a programme of tasks to do every day that the family now roll out themselves.
“They’re working directly with the physio so their son has, in effect, informal physio every day via the family.”
This reflects the evolving role of the therapist, Gascoigne says, with professionals working to increasingly strict regulations.
In order to continue practicing and excelling within the sector, therapists have to keep their qualifications up to date, with many also taking on new roles such as writing expert witness reports.
Gascoigne sees the growing credibility of the sector as a positive for both patients and the wider industry, NCM UK itself becoming IRCM regulated and CQC registered in recent years.
The latter took two years of blood, sweat and tears to complete. It was a gruelling process, Gascoigne admits. But it was worth it.
He says: “If you’re prepared to go through what we went through, that shows you’re serious about care provision.
“If your boiler was broken, you wouldn’t ask your neighbor to come around with a bag of spanners.
“You’d go online to a CORGI registered engineer. Because we’re IRCM regulated, that’s the CORGI register part of what we are now.”
Meanwhile, only around a third of the UK’s case management firms are CQC registered, Gascoigne says. And the standard upheld by NCM UK extends to the therapists working with the firm.
Gascoigne says: “Even if they’re not CQC themselves, they have to work aligned with the CQC standard.
“When we get inspected, if any therapists aren’t performing at that level, CQC will say, ‘You should not have brought them on board.’ That could jeopardise our registration.”
The result is a healthier sector where therapists are “treated as equal professionals and left alone to meet their own high standards,” Gascoigne says.
For patients navigating the complex, long-term journey of neurological rehabilitation, these standards elevate the entire profession,translating to more effective rehabilitation strategies and improved quality of life for clients.
“If you’re a family with a disabled child for example, you don’t want to worry about who you’re giving the case to,” Gascoigne concludes.
“You just want someone with all the badges of honour who can produce a very high standard of care so you know your child is looked after.”
Find out more about NCM UK at ncmuk.co.uk
