Care Home, Nursing Home, Residential Care

This page gives facts, resources and guidance notes on the UK Care Home, Nursing Home and Residential Care sectors. The purpose is to provide a range of resources to allow you to better research and prepare for obtaining commercial finance or funding for your business within these sectors.

What To Expect – Finance, Loans & Mortgages

In general the high street lenders have a mixed appetite for this sector. We see the different banks move between wanting to lend more to the sector and backing away. It is very much a mixed bag. For the lenders who are active and keen to lend then we generally see the following parameters;

• Experience is essential, at least some sector experience and management experience is a must
• Mortgage finance of up to 100% is possible. There are variables here, but we have seen 100% mortgage finance being granted
• Cost of finance varies, typically this is driven by location, experience, whether it is a single unit or multiple site operation

The bottom line with any care sector finance is that the lenders and their credit criteria is constantly moving, speak to us and we can help point you toward the active lenders in your area that suit your;

• Required funding amount
• Structure
• Size of business, turnover and profitability

Give us a call on 01293 541333 or contact us and we will always do what we can to help.

Sector Specific Information

There is loads of information out there. Much of the information is region specific, mainly due to the differences in how care is delivered and funded. We have tried to obtain research which is more generic and more suitable to a wider audience.

The reason we provide this information is to enable you to support the claims and facts within your business plan or funding proposal. Lenders will always want to check you know your onions, by providing different resources and research this should enable you to independently support your claims and reinforce your business plan.

Bear in mind that much of our research has been taken from 3rd party published articles, if you find any of this data useful then please drop as a line to say thanks, we can then pass it on respectively.

CQC Inspections – Typically the CQC will review care/nursing homes based on a selection of 5 of the following 16 areas, it would be beneficial to base your business plan around how you meet these criteria then provide your latest CQC reports, the 16 criteria are;

1. Respecting and involving people who use services
2. Consent to care and treatment
3. Care and welfare of people who use services
4. Meeting nutritional needs
5. Co-operating with other providers
6. Safeguarding people who use services from abuse
7. Cleanliness and infection control
8. Management of medicines
9. Safety and suitability of premises
10. Safety, availability and suitability of equipment
11. Requirements relating to workers
12. Staffing
13. Supporting workers
14. Assessing and monitoring the quality of service provision
15. Complaints
16. Records

Care Home Income Averages – This graph below is really useful, we would recommend you copying and inserting into your business plan when it comes to future income forecasts. The graph is taken from research provided by the experienced sector valuers, Knight Frank. (Knight Frank provide some fantastic resources which are well worth looking at) You will find that most lenders will have Knight Frank on their valuation panels, hence providing data generated by them will carry gravitas;

The other financial measure to consider is profitability. Bear in mind that lenders will look to measure your quoted figures against the broad average.

This means that where your financial forecasts or figures vary from the broad average then questions will be asked. Check your figures against the averages then support why your figures are different. It does not matter whether your financials are above or below the average, there will be reasons for both, the best actions to take are;

• See where you are different
• Identify why
• If it is a positive difference then explain why and why it will remain that way
• If it is a negative difference then set out why, then either fully explain it or demonstrate how it will be addressed

The graph is here;

If the graph shows too small on your browser then follow the link on the image and it should expand.

UK Demographics – Remember that commercial lenders like statistics, especially those that are relevant and can be supported by research. The following information is taken from an Age UK report in January 2015, it looks at the UK population, changes and changing needs of the population.

The following are highlight data points;

• For the first time in history, there are 11 million people aged 65 or over in the UK
• There are over 22.7 million people aged 50 years and over, over a third of the total UK
  population
• There are now nearly 14.7 million people in the UK aged 60 and above
• 3 million people are aged 80 or over
• In 2010, approximately 640,000 people in the UK turned 65; in 2012, it the figure was about
  800,000. The number turning 65 is projected to decrease gradually over the next 5 years to
  around 650,000 in 2017
• There are now more people in the UK aged 60 and above than there are under 18
• There are more pensioners than there are children under 16
• The number of centenarians living in the UK has risen by 73% over the last decade to 13,350
  in 2012
• The combined care market value for care for older people, including local authority funded,voluntary and private expenditure, is estimated to be worth £22.2 billion, of which £13.4 billion is attributable to residential care and £8.8 billion to non-residential care
• There are an estimated 5,153 nursing homes and 12,525 residential homes in the UK
• According to the latest Laing and Buisson survey, there are 426,000 elderly and disabled
  people in residential care (including nursing), approximately 405,000 of whom are aged 65+
• 93% of nursing home residents and 99 per cent of people in residential homes are aged
  65+

Other Useful Resources

These links may also prove useful when undertaking research or supporting a finance application;

Government Statistics / Population Trends

Alzheimers Society Trends & Research

LSE Cost of Carer & Industry Research

CQC Publications

NESTA blogs (these articles changes so please search)

Research Articles in Full

You can download the various articles we have summarised in full, they are all available on-line free of charge and are available for download, please use them as suitable;

Knight-Frank_care-homes-perf-report-2013

October2013_BIS_Adult-Care-Sector_Report

AgeUK_Later_Life_UK_factsheet

Remember that we can help access finance and funding for your care home. The information above is there to help, if you want to know your funding options in detail then please get in touch.