Firm behind £5m care village casting its eye on further sites

Springfield Healthcare Group, which built the new Seacroft Grange complex in Leeds, said it is currently looking at land to develop in Otley and Sheffield.

Chief executive Graeme Lee said: “There are a couple of sites in the pipeline which we hope to do. They are both in the heart of their communities, like Seacroft Grange.”

He added: “I only want to build these care villages when we find the right location in the right community. I have been overwhelmed by the support of the local community in Seacroft.”

The opening of Seacroft Grange earlier this month followed a five-and-a-half year project to transform a dilapidated historic building overlooking an ancient village green into a new care complex.

The project attracted £1.9m investment from the Business Growth Fund (BGF), which helps the UK’s fast growing small-and-medium-sized businesses.

It was part of an overall £4.4m investment to Springfield Healthcare Group.

Mr Lee said Springfield would like to build all its future care villages through the BGF. It is also open to joint ventures.

The care village, which currently has seven residents, offers services including day care, residential and nursing care, as well as private independent living apartments for a wide range of age groups. It includes 79 care beds, 11 apartments and five suites.

Facilities include a therapy spa and gym, coffee shop, hair salon, cinema and social spaces.

Mr Lee said: “When families go and visit a loved-one in a care home it can be frustrating because there is nowhere to take them for some quality time. The whole ethos of the care village is that they can come and take a loved one to the coffee shop or go to the spa and watch a film in the cinema. For a family, that is massive.”

Mr Lee said: “When I first saw the site over six years ago, I thought it was the most ideal site to link a care facility with the community.”

He added: “Springfield wants to keep people as independent as possible in their own homes but if that’s not possible, we want to offer them a range of modern care homes.”

Mr Lee said the price structure 
of the care village was “competitive”.

“Quality services aren’t free and we have a commercial requirement to make sure that it is successful,” he said. “But we have set our pricing structure so that it is very competitive and it is comparable with many public sector care homes.”

He added: “The care village model is what I want to be involved with and its where the future lies.”

Based in Garforth, Leeds, and employing 1,300 people, Springfield was established in 1967 by Mr Lee’s parents as a single care home, which still operates as a specialist dementia facility known as Springfield Care.

“I grew up in a care home making breakfast for the residents,” said Mr Lee. “It is because of what my parents did that has led me to this point.”

The company has since grown steadily, expanding into homecare, training and launching the care village model. Springfield currently provides care to 2,500 clients each day, of which around 900 are based in Leeds including 400 living in the East Leeds area.

It has a £15m turnover – up 15 per cent on last year and has taken on 300 staff in the last 12 months. Mr Lee said he expects the number of staff employed by Springfield to reach 2,000 in the next two years. “I strongly feel that employees are the lifeblood of Springfield,” he said.

Springfield is also growing its home care business.

“We are improving our skill-base and offering a much wider range of care services,” said Mr Lee.

“We are acquisitive. We have bought four businesses in the last year and we are now looking forward to consolidating and integrating these around the group.”

Richard Taylor, senior investment manager at the BGF, said: “BGF’s whole ethos is to work with entrepreneurs who are passionate about their business and support their growth needs.

“We were particularly attracted by the concept of supporting a private business that works hand in hand with the local authorities to provide much-needed and exceptional community healthcare services and are keen to support Graeme and the team in replicating the care village model in new locations.”

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