Scaling Care with Soul: Key Takeaways From Our Care Management Trade Show Panel

Last Friday, June 26th, the energy at The Caring Times Owners Club Theatre was buzzing. Planday’s Emma Wood had the privilege of chairing a headline panel featuring two of the sector's most prominent voices: Raina Summerson (CEO, Agincare) and Sanjiv Patel (CEO, Westgate Healthcare),

The discussion set out to tackle the big pillars shaping social care today: leadership, growth, regulation, and technology. What made the conversation truly fascinating was the contrast in perspectives. Raina brought the insights of managing a large, national care footprint, while Sanjiv offered a deep dive into the realities of scaling a growing,mutli-site care business. Yet, despite operating at different scales, it quickly became clear that their core hurdles and their passions are remarkably aligned.

Here is a breakdown of the vital insights shared during the session.

Scaling Without Losing Your Soul

When operating across multiple sites, how do you ensure that the high-quality care you pride yourself on doesn’t get diluted? The panel agreed that success boils down to two things: core values and shared objectives.

Whether you manage 5 sites or 100, those values act as your compass. Growth is only sustainable if every single team member, regardless of location, understands why they do what they do and feels aligned with the company's ultimate mission.

Innovation is a Bottom-Up Process

Too often, "innovation" is treated as a boardroom buzzword. Our panelists argued for a complete flip of that mentality. The best innovation doesn't come from a consultant's slideshow; it comes directly from the frontline staff members who are interacting with residents daily.

"True leadership means empowering your staff to create ideas and supporting them through change. When people feel ownership over an idea, adoption happens naturally."

Technology Must Enhance the Human Touch

In an industry driven by empathy, there is an understandable wariness about over-digitization. The consensus among the CEOs was clear: Technology should support more people-to-people connections, not take them away. If a piece of software frees up a manager from doing hours of administrative paperwork, that is a win—because it gives them those hours back to spend on the floor with residents and staff. Tech should be the invisible enabler of human care, not a barrier to it.

Moving Forward

Ultimately, the panel left the audience with a powerful reminder: while the regulatory landscape and technology will always keep evolving, the core of great care leadership remains unchanged. It is about empowering people, anchoring decisions in shared values, and ensuring that every modern tool we introduce serves to protect the human connection at the heart of care.

Missed the panel or want to learn more about how Planday helps care groups manage their teams more efficiently?