Sam Lewis pays a visit to the newly-opened KYN Hurlingham, a luxury care home in West London, to find out what sets this most elegant of properties apart from other operators in the sector

KYN Hurlingham isn’t your typical care home. That much is apparent from just one glimpse of its grand Victorian red-brick exterior.

Even before the building is in sight, polished KYN (pronounced ‘kin’) advertising posters adorn the lampposts overlooking the quaint, quiet streets of Parsons Green in the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, drawing people’s attention to the area’s latest care home.

What’s also apparent is the home’s history, as told in a promotional YouTube video. BBC historian Ruth Goodman hits the nail on the head, saying of the Grade-II listed building: “I don’t think anyone could walk past without realising it was a historic building.”

Goodman explains that the plot was built on in 1853 by landowner Lawrence Sullivan, but surprisingly it wasn’t a stately home the wealthy Sullivan wanted to construct. Having lost his beloved and benevolent wife some years before, the widower decided that the best memorial to her would be to give to society somehow, and so built one of the first schools to offer free education in the UK – what became known as ‘ragged schools’, designed for the poorest members of society.

In the hundred-plus years since it was a ragged school, it has also been an ‘open-air’ school for children with suspected tuberculosis, and a youth club in the latter half of the 20th century, with periods during which the building was abandoned altogether.

“This is a building that has, since its very start, been at the centre of local, communal care,” explains Goodman, and since it was opened by the relatively young care company KYN as a luxury home for older adults in June this year, it has continued that honourable and important tradition.

Marking only the second home for KYN (after KYN Bickley in Bromley, Southeast London), Hurlingham is right now the jewel in the company’s small but impressive crown, and will take some beating by the upcoming KYN Kensington (with a distant opening date of 2027) or other future properties. Caring Times has visited its fair share of care homes over the years, but this one could just take the biscuit when it comes to class and design.

Upon entering, visitors might feel that KYN Hurlingham is less care home and more five-star boutique hotel, but this is an ethos that runs deeper than just the interior design. Just look at its choice of hospitality manager, Kim Whitehorn, who Caring Times meets on the day, and whose employment history includes more five-star hotels – including The Athenaeum, Grosvenor House and the Savoy – than care homes, adding a touch of class to the service on offer at KYN Hurlingham.

Guiding the tour, though, are home manager Jordan Pereira and group brand and marketing director Rosanna Fishbourne, neither of whom appears to find themselves short of passion for the company and its values.

Pereira’s background includes care and nursing degrees in Portugal and the UK, as well as more than a decade working in senior positions in care across the private and public sectors. Prior to the opening of the home, he said of KYN Hurlingham: “Every detail of what we do has been carefully considered to create a beautiful and enjoyable environment where family and friends genuinely look forward to spending precious time together.

“The KYN philosophy for care is delivered by having the highest industry ratio of team members to residents, and by working with outstanding people. We recruit the best against a defined set of KYN values, we support them with the best training, and we collaborate with the best leaders in their field.”

Expanding on the topic of its industry-leading staff-to-resident ratio, which he and Fishbourne explain is one of its focal points, Pereira tells Caring Times: “The care is totally different from any other care provider, and once again our model is that we have at least two carers to every five residents – or one carer to every 2.5 residents. That doesn’t include nurses, waiters, chauffeurs, etc – that’s just the care staff. Once you factor in all those other staff members it’s more like 2.5 staff members to one resident.”

Discussing what else KYN does differently from other providers, Fishbourne adds: “We have partnered with excellent collaborators for this home, such as interior designer Nina Campbell, art curator Adam Ellis, a registered nutritionist, as well as regular specialist medical cover via consultant geriatrician Shane Roche.

“Then, in terms of care, the level of home managers we work with is outstanding when you look at their qualifications and experience, as well as managing director Caroline Naidoo who has worked in care for over three decades.

“The tech and innovation we have is another of our brand pillars.”

This last point is an important one for KYN and Fishbourne explains that the company not only likes to lead the way when it comes to care tech, but is also happy to share its findings with other companies operating in the sector.

Pereira, showing off one of the elegant bedrooms, states: “This is one of our bespoke beds, which goes straight down to the floor for accessibility. Nina Campbell helped come up with the design so it doesn’t feel so much like a hospital bed.”

He goes on: “This sensor creates an infrared curtain above the bed, so if the resident tries to stand up it will alert the team. This basically replaces the old sensor-mat technology you’d see on the floor, and is a much more advanced technology. If a resident goes to the toilet and doesn’t come back within a set amount of time, then it will alert the team that they should come and check on the resident.

“We also have acoustic monitoring, via Ally Labs. Through AI, as well as sound and motion sensors, the system learns about the resident’s sleep behaviours and patterns. In the event of a deviation from that pattern, it will generate an alert; even in the event of a resident calling for help, the technology will know to send an alert to the team. This means the resident doesn’t have to use a nurse-call system to ask for help.”

As though that weren’t enough, he adds: “Our televisions have full hotel-style functionality, including emails and messages with the concierge and the team. They can book treatments in the spa, see what is going on today in the planner and lots more.”

Another thing the KYN team is particularly proud of is the lifestyle it allows residents to lead. Fishbourne says: “The activities-planning in KYN homes is resident-led, meaning we create a personalised programme which aligns with residents’ own interests and hobbies, as well as the opportunity to sample new experiences and learn new skills.” 

Pereira dashes off to find this month’s activities planner to illustrate the breadth of choices open to KYN Hurlingham’s residents, while enrichment and wellbeing lead Ana Baiao explains her work, which involves meeting new residents and finding out about their passions, hobbies and preferences, before the team can “build activities around” the residents, as Fishbourne put it.

Once he returns with a very full activities planner in hand, Pereira reveals: “It’s not just arts and crafts or bingo. That’s not what we’re about. We also bring in lots of external craftspeople, wellbeing and movement practitioners, music therapists and lecturers. Today we had a pianist, but we also have harpists and all sorts, because music therapy is really important.”

On top of that, residents can expect a weekly one-to-one physiotherapy session, along with two more group sessions.

If the rest of the home – with its quiet library, intimate cinema room and tranquil gardens – isn’t peaceful enough, then residents can book treatments in the spa area, including hair appointments from the hair stylist who regularly visits the home.

Managing director Naidoo has explained that KYN’s conception came from the desire to create homes the team would be happy to house their own parents in, and this they have certainly achieved. It’s a home full of class and luxury, but never gaudy or garish in its design.

Even more crucially, though, she has a team to match. Friendly, caring, knowledgeable and professional to the absolute last, they’re also not afraid to have a bit of fun: when we first meet, Pereira and Fishbourne jokingly admit that they’ve picked out “their rooms”, or the rooms they would like to move into one day, and playfully invite Caring Times to choose its own retirement pad. If only it were a serious offer…

Caroline Naidoo

Leading the wider KYN team is trained nurse and managing director Caroline Naidoo. Before the home’s opening in June, she said: “KYN has broken away from the traditional care home model, creating a genuinely uplifting and joyful place to call home. We provide a pioneering approach to care built on our values of holistic wellbeing, supported by highly experienced nurses and carers, AI innovation, modern nutrition and world-class hospitality. In everything that we do, we place a high value on the autonomy of our residents and encourage the nurturing and development of meaningful relationships, in and outside of the home.

“We’re delighted to be opening our second home under Jordan’s leadership. KYN Hurlingham brings our ethos to life in a desirable and historic setting. We aim to enhance quality of life for our residents so that families and friends can have peace of mind in what can be a uniquely difficult time with fast-changing and complex situations.

“Our ethos is informed by the team’s own personal experiences with their families’ quest for care. Our mission is to create the best care home available where we would want our own parents – our KYN – to live.”