The properties, including those not yet acquired, are in Nottingham, Chester, Formby and Bramhall. The Nottingham and Chester properties will be leased to New Care. Octopus Healthcare will acquire the Formby property in spring 2019 and the Bramhall at the end of 2019.

 

The 60m deal breaks the previous record for the Octopus Healthcare Fund and signals the move towards long-term partnerships as the model of choice for future investment in care homes.

 

Freddie Richards, investment director at Octopus Healthcare, said: "This latest deal is particularly exciting as it demonstrates our partnership investment strategy in full swing.

 

"New Care’s experience in both care home development and care delivery is enviable and they are very straightforward to work with; they’re our kind of people. We want to invest in exceptional healthcare facilities, like these, that we would choose for our loved ones. For us it’s a very personal commitment."

 

Dominic Kay, chairman of New Care, added: "What makes New Care so unique is our excellent relationship with McGoff Construction, as this allows us to design and build bespoke care facilities that feature the very best specification and interior design and offer exceptional care services.

 

"In a similar way, we have established strong working relationships with both Knight Frank and Octopus Healthcare, both of which are commercial, pragmatic and a pleasure to deal with."

 

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Designing and building a care home from the ground up is a huge endeavour. One element which is often overlooked is a high-quality time and attendance system such as our WinTA.NET software and clocking terminal. 

 

Between care workers clocking in and out for their shift to contract workers coming in for maintenance or assigned medical check-ups, it can be difficult for care home managers to have a clear idea of who is in the building. This is vital information not only for the security and reputation of the care home, but also for visitors’ safety in situations such as fire alarms. 

 

Our time and attendance system records everyone’s entrance and exit from controlled doors, using either smartcards or the more expensive but more secure biometric measurements of hands or fingerprints. 

 

When our time and attendance clocking terminals are linked into your company’s fire alarm system, any fire alarm activation will result in the printing of a fast, automated list of who is currently clocked into the building. This is more accurate than a paper sign-in sheet.

 

All the data from our system on when people went through controlled doors is exportable onto all major payroll programmes. We also have the Self Service Module, which can be accessed from a browser or from your mobile via the app (available on Android and iOS). This enables employees to sign in and out and request holiday. 

 

If the clocking in/out is done from a mobile, the information is transferred to the central Tensor.NET application, including GPS position data so that you can make sure your employees, such as community carers, are where they should be at that time.