Dr Hayley Poole & Dr Rachel Kemp receiving their award
Freedom Lies in Being Bold
Rugby, of course, is a town famous for the eponymous sport. As locals and many others will know, it was William Webb Ellis who picked up a football in 1823 and ran with it, inadvertently starting the first game of Rugby. A century later, his unwitting invention is honoured every four years at the Rugby Union World Cup where the teams compete for the Webb Ellis Cup. William Webb Ellis was perhaps bored with the rules of football or simply wondered what would happen if he ran with the ball instead. His cheeky manoeuvre may have annoyed his teammates but he ended up inventing a whole new global game! There are a countless befitting quotes you could attach to this footballing faux pas-cum-innovation, but Robert Frost articulated the following wise words:
Enter your contact information below and you will be redirected to watch our Franchise Q&A video!
*We will never share your details with any third parties.
We’re sure William Webb Ellis had no regrets for his bold decision, and countless people are grateful for it. Similarly, life is all about degrees of risk: the stock market, quitting your job, telling someone you love them for the first time…and, of course, starting a business!
New challenge
The Purple House Clinic in Rugby celebrated its first birthday in May this year. Dr Hayley Poole and Dr Rachel Kemp, joint clinical directors, previously worked together in an NHS physical health-based Psychology Department. Both loved their work as Clinical Psychologists, but were looking for a new challenge. They were searching for an opportunity to break free from the bureaucracy they faced in the NHS. Dr Poole says, “I’d been working in the NHS a long time and I wanted more autonomy and choice – being able to make ‘top-down’ decisions”. Dr Poole and Dr Kemp both felt that working in private practice may offer the answer. However, working as full-time lone practitioners did not appeal. They had big ambitions to work in partnership to set up a comprehensive private, team-led, practice. But they also felt apprehensive about diverging from the safe and well-trodden path of continuing a career in the NHS. After seeing an advert about Purple House Clinic franchises, Dr Poole and Doctor Kemp decided to find out more. And it wasn’t long before they decided to take an informed ‘leap of faith’. Whilst the concept of franchising in UK healthcare is relatively new, it seemed to offer the perfect formula to step out of their comfort zone. They would be developing a large private practice of their own but, crucially, not on their own. They would benefit from an extensive support network, together with comprehensive systems provided by the franchisor, whilst also enjoying being part of a bigger, highly respected, network of clinics.
Trusting the process
Dr Rachel Kemp admits that, throughout the early months, she had to “trust everything would work out”. However, their extensive training and support from Purple House Head Office before, during and beyond launch proved invaluable. Their clinical training had not taught them the multiple skills involved in running a successful business, such as marketing, finance and HR. It was daunting to leave their ‘safe’ jobs in the NHS to start a brand new clinic which, at the outset, had no clients and no staff. However, as a franchise, they received comprehensive support from the franchisor and, crucially, most of the business infrastructure was already in place. “Trusting the process” became the mantra, and slowly-but-surely clients started to flow through the doors and more and more clinicians joined the team.
Large multi-disciplinary service
A year later, The Purple House Clinic Rugby has already grown into the large multi-disciplinary service they were dreaming of. The clinic now offers an extensive range of therapy services for mental health difficulties, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing therapy (EMDR) and Compassion Focused Therapy (CFT). The clinic also offers a range of specialist assessment services including Autism Spectrum Disorders assessment, ADHD assessment, educational psychology, occupational therapy and speech and language therapy. The directors themselves have extensive experience in providing services for psychosexual issues and physical health conditions. The clinic works with people from as young as 3-4 years old to centenarians. The Rugby clinic now has two practice administrators and a team of 14 clinicians which include Clinical Psychologists, Educational Psychologists, Forensic Psychologists, Cognitive Behavioural Therapists, an Occupational Therapist and a Speech and Language Therapist.
Positive community impact
On attending the clinic, based on St Peter’s Road in Rugby, clients can expect ample parking, a welcoming reception area and beautifully furnished consulting rooms. In the case of children, the clinical team works extra hard to ensure children feel at ease and know what to expect. Dr Poole says, “we’ve had very positive feedback from our clients about what they’ve achieved, what they’ve experienced and about the outcome”.
Spacious, private and beautiful clinic rooms at the The Purple House Clinic Rugby
The Directors are thrilled that their clinic is reaching so many clients within the vicinity of Rugby, with a number of clients travelling from further afield to access help from their team of highly qualified clinicians. The clinic is also liaising with several local organisations, including local schools, regarding on-site provision of their services. Indeed, their involvement within the local community recently bagged the pair a special award at the recent Purple House annual awards for the clinic with ‘Best Public Engagement’.
Dr Poole and Dr Kemp receive their award for ‘Best Public Engagement’
A great partnership
Dr Poole and Dr Kemp feel immensely proud of the service that they’ve created in just one year, and look forward to further expansion in the months and years ahead. Dr Poole says “We certainly didn’t expect to grow as quickly as we have”, and explains that her biggest sense of achievement to date is how quickly they’ve managed to build their range of services, their team and their excellent reputation in the local area. The two clinical directors say that they’ve enjoyed being on this journey together as a partnership. It’s provided many benefits, such as shared decision making, sharing of skills and expertise and, of course, they’ve been able to give support and encouragement to one another.
Pick up the ball and run with it
For Dr Poole and Dr Kemp, this journey involved doing something different and stepping out of the prescribed NHS career path for Clinical Psychologists. The journey was not without risks and challenges. But as Robert Frost said, ‘Freedom lies in being bold’. By taking a leap of faith, Dr Poole and Dr Kemp have created a service that they truly believe in – a service that gives rise to personal pride, impacting positively on the psychological health of many local people. They are glad that, just like William Webb Ellis, they picked up the ball and ran with it. And their advice to anyone else thinking of doing something similar? Simple:
