Florence is thrilled to announce our new partnership with Tech Canal, marking a significant step forward in our mission to enhance visibility, control, and efficiency within the NHS workforce.
At Florence, we are driven by a deeply personal mission, inspired by the experiences of our founders. While working as a locum doctor, Dr Charles Armitage witnessed firsthand the daily staffing crises in hospitals and the inefficiencies in filling these critical gaps. He saw how agencies bombarded doctors, nurses, and carers with constant calls and emails, often failing to approve timesheets or issue wages on time. It became clear that there had to be a better way to support the delivery of high-quality care.
This realisation led Dr Charles to team up with Dan Blake, who brought his extensive experience in social care and business management to the table. Together, they created Florence—a platform designed to make health and social care staffing easier and more transparent. Our app directly addresses the challenges that healthcare professionals face, offering better visibility and control over agency spend, shift management, and prioritisation of internal resources to fill shifts.
Florence has been around since 2016 and serves thousands of social care providers across the UK. This next step marks our rapid expansion to support the NHS workforce, helping NHS providers and Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) achieve a delicate balance between maintaining safe staffing levels, improving patient outcomes,and hitting productivity & budget targets.
David Thorpe, Managing Partner at Tech Canal, shared his enthusiasm about the collaboration, stating, “Building on Florence’s exceptional track record in the social care sector, we look forward to helping them scale their offering for the NHS sector. This is a hugely exciting partnership for us as we look to support the NHS workforce with best-in-class digital solutions and adoption.”
Our CEO & Co-Founder, Dr Charles Armitage, emphasised the importance of this partnership, saying, “Our mission is to deliver cost-effective, safe staffing solutions that empower NHS trusts to meet their goals. We build technology that genuinely addresses the real-world challenges healthcare professionals face, and we believe this winning formula will significantly support the NHS. We’re thrilled to supercharge this mission by working closely with Tech Canal and leveraging this partnership—it’s going to be an exciting year ahead.”