The aged care disrupter is expanding its online platform in the wake of its partnership with the Federal Government to supply staff to providers left short by the COVID-19 pandemic.
As we reported here, the Government had announced the partnership in early April as part of a number of initiatives including covering the cost of hiring extra staff when staff need to self-isolate at home.
“This is designed to fill an immediate gap while the provider finds a longer-term solution. Support workers engaged via Mable will be available to the provider for up to four weeks and payable by the Department,” the Department said at the time.
The three-month tender – from 3 April to 30 June 2020 – is worth $5.771 million.
At the time, Mable had 8,000 staff available, but now tell us they have access to over 10,000 independent support people offering nursing, personal care, allied health, domestic assistance and social support across Australia.
Mable says their platform has been able to offer a technology-led solution for accessing a large, national and diverse workforce should it be needed by consumers or providers facing an uncertain COVID-19 environment.
“We have seen quite a number of providers setting up accounts and undertaking training on using the Mable platform in the context of their own contingency plans. A smaller number of providers have already engaged independent support workers through the platform,” they said.
The platform – which launched a new ad earlier this week targeting new users – has also seen an increase in the number of home care clients signing up.
Mable says they also expect demand to increase – which is why they are also actively recruiting nurses, allied health professionals or personal carers who have been stood down or had their hours cut during the pandemic.
“Because the platform operates Australia wide, we can never have too many support workers available for those who require support,” they stated.
Founded by Peter Scutt and Tony Charara in 2014 as Better Caring, Mable is backed by Ellerston Capital and Scaleup Mediafund and raised $15 million last year from investors to fund its expansion.
