Continuity-first staffing helps Dignus scale specialist care

Growth that couldn't cost familiarity

Dignus Group has spent two decades building residential and supported living services across the East and West Midlands, with 15 homes and 85 beds for people whose learning disabilities, autism or mental health needs call for specialist support. For the people Dignus supports, consistency is a clinical need. An unfamiliar worker can mean a difficult day: routines break and trust that took months to build starts to slip.

That made the group's growth plan a staffing question before it was anything else. The plan included solo placements at intensive 3:1 and 4:1 support ratios and a first move into children's services. Both demanded workers trained for complex needs who come back, shift after shift. COO Louise Orr's test for any staffing partner was simple: could they grow with Dignus without the people they support feeling the difference?

Matched to the person, not the rota

Filling a shift at a Dignus service means matching a worker to an individual: personality, communication style, and specialist training where needed, including NAPPI. We Are Care built a pool of carers around each of their services and prioritised the same carers for rebooking, so familiar faces became the norm.

The same discipline held when it mattered most. When someone arrives through an emergency placement they are often at their most anxious, so those placements were staffed at speed from the established pool: trained, familiar professionals who already knew the service. And for the intensive solo placements, where a 3:1 ratio only works if all three workers know the person, each placement was planned around the individual's requirements, so intensive staffing felt like personal attention.

"This partnership has proven to be exactly what we hoped for, a relationship with a provider who can scale alongside us as we execute our ambitious growth strategy, while ensuring individuals receive consistent, compassionate care," said Louise Orr, COO. "That's not just good business; it's the foundation for the people we are privileged enough to support to live as fulfilling a life as possible."

Compliance closed before every shift

Behind the matching sits the checking. Before any carer reaches a Dignus service, We Are Care verifies the full set: DBS, right to work, ID, a screening interview, mandatory training and at least six months' care experience. All of it is tracked through Baton, the care operating software We Are Care built to run its own delivery. When an inspector asks, the evidence is already there.

The carers are employed by We Are Care directly, with holiday pay, pension and tax handled, and paid fairly. Fair pay keeps experienced people in post, which is what makes a continuity promise deliverable. Dignus deals with one named, director-level lead who knows their services and can make decisions, reachable by phone or WhatsApp, with no ticket queue in between.

Scaling without strangers

Across more than 7,000 hours of care, 99% of requested shifts were filled. Consistent teams learned individual communication styles and preferences, routines held, and people settled with workers they recognised. Dignus reports strong feedback from the people they support.

The business case followed the care case. Dignus committed to its expansion plan knowing staffing could keep pace, entered the children's services market with specialist support in place, and held occupancy across the portfolio, with an employed-carer model that cost less than typical staffing providers while protecting the revenue empty beds would have lost.