Overview

Launching a recruitment business within healthcare comes with significant pressure. In specialist sectors like mental health recruitment, trust, consistency and reputation are critical from day one.

When we sat down with Olivia Spruce, founder of MindMatch Recruitment, the conversation focused on the realities of scaling a specialist agency and the operational foundations needed to support long-term growth.

After more than 25 years in healthcare recruitment, Olivia launched MindMatch Recruitment to focus specifically on mental health and neurodiversity recruitment, supplying therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and registered mental health nurses across the healthcare sector.

“The aim of the company is not just for it to be a lifestyle business. We really want to scale it and take it forward.” (Olivia Spruce)

The Challenge

For many recruitment businesses, growth is not simply about generating more demand. The real challenge is building enough operational stability behind the scenes to support that growth sustainably.

That pressure can become particularly intense within healthcare recruitment, where candidates and clients rely heavily on consistency and timely payments.

According to Xero Small Business Insights, cash flow remains one of the biggest barriers affecting small business growth in the UK (Xero Small Business Insights, 2026). Recruitment businesses often feel this pressure more sharply because of payroll cycles, contractor expectations and delayed client payments.

MindMatch Recruitment needed a structure that could support growth while maintaining the high level of service expected within a specialist healthcare market.

The Solution

MindMatch Recruitment partnered with Sonovate to create a more dependable operational and funding structure behind the business.

Like many growing agencies, there were understandable concerns around changing providers while continuing to scale. Operational disruption can often slow momentum at an important stage of growth.

“The thought of transitioning between one provider to another was very, very, very daunting.” (Olivia Spruce)

What stood out most during the onboarding process, however, was the consistency of communication and support. The transition allowed the business to focus less on operational pressure and more on long-term growth plans.

Research from Deloitte continues to highlight how fragmented systems and operational inefficiencies can slow scaling businesses and create avoidable friction (Deloitte, 2026).

Supporting Growth Ambitions

As MindMatch Recruitment continued to grow, dependable cash flow and responsive support created greater confidence across the business.

In specialist recruitment markets, agility matters. Opportunities can move quickly, and businesses need the infrastructure behind them to respond without unnecessary delays or uncertainty.

“Agility when you’re building a business and building scale is so important. If there’s a market opportunity out there, you really need to be able to move.” (Olivia Spruce)

Having more operational stability also created more room to focus on candidate relationships, marketing investment and long-term planning, all important factors when building a respected specialist brand.

Outcomes

Since launching, MindMatch Recruitment has continued scaling within a highly specialised market while maintaining the standards and responsiveness expected across healthcare recruitment.

More dependable cash flow has supported operational stability, candidate payments and future growth plans, while responsive support has helped reduce friction during an important stage of scaling.

Most importantly, the business has been able to stay focused on delivering a strong service to both candidates and clients within the mental health sector.

Final Thoughts

MindMatch Recruitment’s journey reflects a wider reality across the recruitment industry. Growth is not driven by ambition alone. It also depends on having the operational foundations, support and confidence to scale sustainably.

For specialist agencies in particular, strong infrastructure behind the scenes can become just as important as performance at the front end.