Chief operating officer Amanda Smith explains how newly launched luxury care home operator Connaught Care aims to achieve extraordinary care through its ‘people first’ ethos.

Smith was asked to become chief operating officer by founder and chairman Seamus Halton when he launched Connaught Care with the proceeds of the sale of Berkley Care Group to French nursing home specialist Korian in March 2021.

She had previously worked for six years as a registered care home manager and regional operations manager with Halton at Berkley, and latterly for Korian.

“I have a wonderful working relationship with Seamus so I was hugely excited when he asked me to help him launch the new business,” Smith says. “I’m really honored to have been given this opportunity. Seamus is a pleasure to work with and is an inspiration to people working within the care sector; he always puts people first and truly values people.”

In her role, Smith will be responsible for the day-to-day operations of the homes as well other areas, including recruitment, occupancy growth, marketing and quality.

It promises to be a busy time for Smith with the launch of eight luxury care homes over the next three years in the South, Southeast and Southwest of England. The roll-out begins with Portsdown View in Bedhampton, Portsmouth and The Chase in Huntingdon, Cambridge this year.

Smith says each home will offer a range of hospitality services and bespoke activities, and they aim to define the next level of care.

The chief operating officer adds that Connaught’s ethos of “putting people first” will be key to achieving its mission of supporting residents to live a life more extraordinary.

“We will have a laser focus on supporting our people, as having worked on the front line myself I know there’s nothing more important to the residents and the relatives than the people who are actually delivering the care,” Smith says.

“Every decision we make will be on the basis of how it will benefit our residents and our team.”

The care leader says Connaught will be focusing on “attracting the very best talent from the care sector” through a “highly generous and competitive” remuneration and incentives package. The luxury care home provider has committed to a £14 an hour minimum wage in order to help staff with the rising cost of living and to attract the best people.

“As far as I’m aware that’s over what most providers are paying,” Smith says.

“We are not afraid to pay people well because we know that will enable us to attract the best people, and we will be able to retain them with our culture and our appreciation of them. In turn this leads to the highest quality of care being delivered, and you reap the benefits in the long term. It is certainly not all about pay, but we are confident this, along with our other commitments to reward and recognition, discounts and benefits, and investment in career progression and development, will make us an employer of choice.”

Paraphrasing the former Care Quality Commission chief inspector of adult social care, Andrea Sutcliffe, Smith says Connaught was committed not only to passing the ‘mum test’ by offering the best standard of care that families would want for their mothers, but also passing the ‘kids test’ by providing a working culture and conditions that parents would want for their children.

“You can have the very best and most competent manager and if you can’t provide them with the support and resources to do the job then they won’t be able to fulfil their potential,” Smith explains.

The luxury care home provider has chosen Nourish Care as its digital care plan provider in order to help free-up time for managers and staff to spend with residents.

“Access to things such as the Nourish Insights’ reporting dashboard is an investment that is going to save so much time for the management of the home in terms of audits,” Smith says. “We want to provide all we can so that the management team can then spend more time with the residents.”

Acknowledging the highly competitive nature of the luxury care home market in the South, Smith says Connaught will offer a competitive all-inclusive pricing structure to provide fee transparency for residents and their families.

With weekly fee levels beginning at £1,400, the all-inclusive package will include everything from private dining with family members, to spa treatments, hairdressers, barbers, chiropody and excursions close to the home and further afield.

“We will be offering incredible hospitality, along with bespoke events and activities,” Smith notes.

The homes will be predominantly residential with dementia care, and possibly some nursing.

“We are really keen to provide a tailored, person-centred approach to dementia care and will be seeking to partner with experts to develop our dementia strategy,” Smith says.

She says Connaught is well into the recruitment process for its home Portsdown View which is due to open in June. Managers and a deputy manager have been appointed for both Portsdown and The Chase with the process of recruiting department heads also under way. Sarah Peach joins Portsdown View as general manager, having worked in the care sector for decades, and brings a wealth of commissioning experience. She is supported by Lukasz Irzabek as deputy manager, who has many years’ experience as a registered manager.

When asked by Caring Times what values she is looking for in her team, Smith notes: “There always has to be a mixture of values and experience in
the people we recruit. It’s important to recognise everyone can have something different and amazing to contribute.

“We will find people who operate with integrity and compassion, and the care they deliver will be second to none. I firmly believe when your work is something you really enjoy it’s not really work.”

While acknowledging the difficult recruitment climate, Smith says Connaught’s highly competitive salary rate, as well as its work culture offering the autonomy, trust and resources to do the job, had definitely helped attract the best people.

Word of mouth has been key to attracting new staff, she adds. “We have managers who have worked in local areas who are very highly regarded, which naturally in turn attracts staff who want to work alongside robust leadership,” Smith notes.

The chief operating officer says Connaught was keen to work with providers of recruitment software, as part of its commitment to challenge itself and be innovative.

At a senior level, Iain Gordon (chief financial officer) and Dan Bridges (commissioning director) will be joining Connaught’s leadership team of Halton, Tim Carroll (commercial director and Paul Dixon (director and manager director of Lawrence Baker).

With the key elements of the business coming together, Smith says she is relishing the opportunity of establishing a new care entrant in a ferociously competitive market.

“It’s really exciting to be able to start from the beginning and really look at our internal systems map and look at what systems integrate well, and make some smart decisions about who we partner with,” she says. “The more we can streamline and digitalise our processes, the more we can avoid duplication so that again the management team will get to invest that time back with the residents and their teams.

“When we are looking for instance at the purchasing of moving/handling equipment we are not just looking at price, we want to be sure we are partnering with a provider that cares, that works in partnership to also provide advice and training. When we select a wine supplier, we will also be looking at that personal relationship for them to come in and do a wine tasting evening for our residents, or a team building event for our colleagues. All of our partnerships should provide a really robust and thoughtful support package for the home, so that the team can do what they need to do, and do what they do best.”

Inspired by Smith’s passion and dedication, Connaught Care looks set to be one to watch in the years ahead in Southern England’s thriving luxury care home market.