Barchester Healthcare Ltd is an independent care provider in the
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...
, running over 250
care home
A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of elderly or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as skilled nursing facility (SNF) or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms have slightly different meanings to in ...
s and seven registered hospitals across the country. The organisation employs over 17,000 staff in care homes which offer residential and nursing care. The organisation's head office is located in Finsbury Square, London. It also has offices in Berkhamsted, Oxfordshire, Milton Keynes, Wiltshire and Inverness.
The chief executive, Dr Pete Calveley received a salary of £2.28 million in 2020. In response to criticism the company said 84.9% of Barchester’s services had been rated as ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by the
Care Quality Commission
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is an executive non-departmental public body of the Department of Health and Social Care of the United Kingdom. It was established in 2009 to regulate and inspect health and social care services in England.
I ...
- more than doubled during his time in the job.
Barchester Healthcare is considered one of the 'Big 5' UK later life care providers. With over 13,000 beds available it is 3rd in terms of bed capacity behind only HC-One and Four Seasons.
History
Barchester Healthcare was founded in 1992 by
Mike Parsons. After finding it difficult to find a good quality care home for two of his relatives, he bought Moreton Hill, a 17th-century farm in the Cotswolds, and converted it into a care home which he felt was of a sufficiently high standard. In 1994, Moreton Hill won the Care Home Design award at the Great South Western Care Awards and featured on BBC's ''
Countryfile
''Countryfile'' is a British television programme which airs weekly on BBC One and reports on rural, agricultural, and environmental issues in the United Kingdom.
The programme is currently presented by John Craven, Adam Henson, Matt Baker, T ...
'' as an example of design sympathetically managed for a rural environment.
The next care homes to be opened by Parsons were Badgeworth Court Care Home and Hunters Care Centre in 1995. Barchester has continued to expand its portfolio through new builds and acquisitions and as of October 2021, it runs over 250 homes across the country, making it the third largest care-home group in the UK.
In 2018 it was reported that Barchester Healthcare Ltd. was being put up for sale by Grove Investments, an investment company owned by three Irish businessmen; Dermot Desmond, JP McManus and John Magnier. It was reported that the asking price for the group, that turns over c.£600 million a year, was in the region of £2.5 billion.
It took over 14 care homes from
Four Seasons Health Care
Four Seasons Health Care is a British provider of health and social care services. It also owns The Huntercombe Group, a provider of inpatient mental healthcare and brain injury rehabilitation as well as care home operator, brighterkind. Four Sea ...
in December 2019.
It has five homes in Dorset, the newest, Parley Place, in
West Parley
West Parley is a village and civil parish in south-east Dorset, England, situated on the River Stour between Bournemouth and Ferndown and off of the B3073 road. The parish of West Parley covers an area of . It is also about to the closest majo ...
opened in November 2022 has 68 ensuite rooms and charges from £1,350 a week.
References
External links
Barchester Healthcare*
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Nursing homes in the United Kingdom
Private providers of NHS services
Social care in the United Kingdom