Care Homes

If you have recently bought or sold a care home, you will likely need legal and financial advice to maximise your investment. We can provide legal advice on the following:

• Asset and share-based transactions to protect your investment
• Sale-and-leaseback agreements for financial security
• Building a scalable care home group

Whether you’ve acquired land to build a care home or need help managing funding, our team can provide legal advice throughout your care home development project by supporting you in:

• Land purchases and site acquisitions, and contracts for new care homes and care villages
• Loans, refinancing agreements, and investor negotiations
• Guidance on business structuring for tax efficiency while ensuring legal compliance

We can help you meet the high standards set by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) by:

• Guiding you through inspections, challenges, and appeals
• Protecting your care home’s interests in the case of a regulatory dispute

Our employment law services can ensure that your care home employees are managed fairly and legally, reducing the risk of unfair dismissal claims, employee tribunals, and grievances. Our team can help you with:

• TUPE transfers when buying or selling a care home to ensure a smooth transition for employees
• HR strategies and policies, including contracts and disciplinary procedures
• Legal advice for handling employee disputes, redundancies, and restructures with mediation

Our construction and property law services ensure that your care home developments and property transactions comply with all legal requirements, minimising risks related to contracts, property disputes, and construction issues. We can help you with:

• Drafting and negotiating contracts for construction work
• Assisting with property disputes, and lease negotiations
• Dealing with non-contentious (planning, drafting, and negotiation) and contentious (disputes, breaches, and legal conflicts) construction issues

In the UK, care homes must abide by:

• Care Homes Regulations 2001
• Care Act 2014
• Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
• The Equality Act 2010
• The Children and Families Act 2014
• The Human Rights Act 1998
• The Mental Health Act 1983
• The Health and Social Care Act 2008

To evaluate and investigate the operations of your care home, CQC will review your facility based on the following key lines of enquiry (KLOE):

1. Safety (to prove that your services protect residents from abuse and harm)

2. Effective (to prove that your services make a difference in a resident’s quality of life)

3. Caring (to prove that your employees treat residents with dignity and respect)

4. Responsive (to prove that your services are organised and directly meet the needs of residents)

5. Well-led (to prove that your services are managed well and offer high-quality care based on individual resident needs)

In any health and social care setting, facilities must follow a set of rules and regulations related to the following:

• Safeguarding and protection
• Equal opportunities
• Record keeping
• Confidentiality
• First aid
• Dispute management
• Administering medication
• Health and safety