Care Homes

Our experienced care homes team can provide you with advice and support throughout the legal process of buying a care or nursing home business in Scotland. We have years of experience in advising on individual and network acquisitions and can support both first-time buyers and group operators. 

We understand the key areas of risk in the sector and the funding pressures, and have good relationships with Healthcare managers in all major high street and other specialist lenders and other brokers, enabling us also to be able to help you with funding queries and applications, as well as refinancing and security work.

We are on hand to advise care home businesses on all the legal aspects of selling a care home business. This can often be a complex and difficult time for care home owners, and our team have the sector understanding, market knowledge and experience to make the legal process as smooth as possible, working closely with clients and their professional advisers, and ensuring legal obligations to residents are fully met. 

Care homes in Scotland work in a strictly regulated sector, under the Care Inspectorate, with owners and managers needing to ensure ongoing compliance and to deal with often complex regulatory demands. 

Our team can help you comply with regulatory requirements, respond quickly if you have concerns over regulation breaches and, with our knowledge of the regulatory body processes, advise you on your obligations and inspection issues.

From contracts and employment policies through to handling employment claims, disciplinary cases and dismissals, we can help care homes deal with key employment law issues. With staff recruitment and retention a significant issue for this sector, our employment law specialists are on hand for care home owners and managers with advice and guidance on a wide range of employment law matters.

Historically, care homes have often looked to recruit staff from overseas, and post-Brexit many are struggling to navigate different regulations, as well as deal with the complex immigration processes and staff shortages. 

Our care homes team includes immigration law specialists, with significant and recent sector experience, who can help you through the often challenging UK Visa and Immigration application process, and advise you on the changing care worker sponsorship visa route.

Any care or nursing home business will be processing personal confidential data, and so will need to make sure that they are compliant with data protection legislation, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). If, as a business owner, you fail to do this, you may be fined and your business is at risk of reputational damage.

The data protection legal and compliance experts on our team can provide you with practical advice and support on your data protection obligations, and tailored training as needed.

Our team include specialists in Private Client matters, so we can help residents and their families with issues such as Power of Attorney, Wills and Guardianship. We can come to the home to discuss matters and offer flexible appointment times and video meetings to make legal consultation as accessible as possible for them. 

Care homes are faced with a range of cost pressures, including utility costs, agency staff and staffing costs, property costs, and top-up fee issues, which can push business into financial difficulties. If your business is facing cashflow or funding problems, early discussion with professional advisers can help deliver practical solutions and the best outcome for all parties involved. 

At Thorntons, we can provide practical advice on dealing with potential administration, including legal obligations to home residents, and we can introduce you to an insolvency practitioner and guide you through the process if you need to go ahead. The earlier you contact us when your care home business is facing difficulties, the more options for rescuing the business there are likely to be.