Two Residential Social Care Childrens Homes In Sussex For Sale

Business description

Two residential children’s homes – social care and welfare for adolescent children

Established over twelve years ago, this business has built an excellent reputation for quality residential care for young people aged 13 to 17 years. Working with some of the most vulnerabe and challenging children – children placed under Full Care Orders or Section 20 Notices, this business strives to provide every young person in its care with every opportunity to realise their full potential and put the negative experiences from their earlier childhood behind them.

Working very closely with the Social Services departments of a number of Local Authorities, this company provides supervised residential accommodation for children and young people by way of two independent houses situated in towns within close proximity of each other in Sussex. Both houses are situated in regular residential areas, close to local shopping, amenities, leisure facilities and mainstream schools and colleges; with easy access by car and public transport. One house consists of a three bed unit whilst the other is a five bed unit.

Children placed in the care of this business have a history of challenging, disruptive or aggressive behaviour and require intensive supervision, support, and therapeutic help in the community. In response, the business provides safe, supportive, thoughtfully-created living environments that meet individual developmental, educational and therapeutic needs promoting personal responsibility, autonomy and independence, whilst safeguarding both the young persons placed in its care and the local community. Placements typically average six months but can extend to several years, in some instances.

The cornerstone to the success of this business is its commitment to providing high-quality care in home-like environments maintained to the highest standards, with maximum opportunity for normalizing experiences and re-integration into the wider community. Crisis management and conflict resolution strategies underpin the company’s work, with a view to anticipating, avoiding, de-escalating, and resolving incidents as quickly as possible, provided by the company’s highly skilled, trained and experienced management team.

This is a very well established business with an excellent reputation for providing good quality, responsible care. With turnover over the past few years consistently in the region of £1 million to £1.2 million generating average profits available to the owners of the business of £170,000 per annum, this represents an excellent opportunity for an existing operator to extend their presence in the marketplace or a new entrant to secure an excellent foothold in the sector.

Key strengths:

Operating in this sector for over twelve years, this business and its facilities are very well known and highly regarded by the Local Authorities this business serves. It has consistently achieved excellent Ofsted reports – considered ‘Good’ in 2008 and ‘Outstanding’ in 2009. It is a preferred provider with a number of Local Authorities – Hounslow, Lambeth, Bromley, Poole in Dorset and is also on the London Panel. The business offers an excellent combination of price and quality of service and accommodation and as a result has an excellent track record in Tenders.

This business has built an excellent reputation for providing a high level of care and security but perhaps above all else, for looking after children other places don’t want or can’t care for. It has a highly skilled and experienced team in place - a large team capable of overseeing daily business operations effectively, reducing the need for constant input from the vendors. The facilities it offers match this high level of service – both of its houses are well equipped with the facilities normally associated with a property used for this purpose including Tough furniture. As a result the business consistently enjoys high levels of occupancy.

Key opportunities:

There is an outstanding opportunity to build on the existing services and customer base of this business. With a strong demand for its services, combined with a capacity to increase turnover, a new owner contributing fresh ideas, motivation, enthusiasm and a little investment in resources will have every advantage of building on an excellent platform.
The business could certainly leverage its excellent reputation by advertising and marketing its services to other Local Authorities. Additional facilities could easily be made available – the beauty of the business is that there are no significant alterations required to the average residential property before it can be occupied. With rental properties readily available at competitive rates, growth and expansion of the present operation could easily be facilitated without complication or unnecessary delay. The business has also in the past considered moving more into the over 16’s marketplace and even into the provision of Outward Bound style services – offering two week holidays as Respite care, for example.

Financial information:

The business is offered for sale as a going concern. All financial discussions will take place directly between the vendor and all interested parties under the auspices of Turner Butler.

Turnover for the past three financial years has consistently reached between £1 million and £1.2 million, generating gross margins in the region of 35% and profits available to the Owners of the business of around £170,000. The Asking price of £880,000 is for a sale of the shares in the business based on a Balance Sheet value of £30,000.

The freehold properties are available in addition to this price at between £400,000 to £450,000 and approximately £265,000 respectively, both subject to independent valuation.

Property information

Property:

Freehold

Location:

As well as a Head Office located in serviced offices which can be vacated with just a month’s notice and a storage facility for confidential information, the business operates two facilities:

Facility 1: Located in a very popular Sussex seaside resort, this end of terrace five bedroom house is located in a very well suited area of the town. Situated one block from the sea front, the house is approximately a quarter of a mile from the town centre with all amenities close by.

The house includes staff accommodation comprising an office, small bedroom and shower.

Facility 2: Also located in a popular Sussex coastal town, within easy reach of Facility 1, this is a three bedroom end of terrace property in a pleasant, quiet, residential area. Acquired by the current Owners of the business approximately three years ago and having taken 18 months to register, this facility has been in operation for just over 14 months.

The house includes a small bathroom/shower room, a communal lounge, diner and kitchen.

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Business Operation

Competition / Market:

Well established, with Preferred supplier relationships ensuring this business has higher than average occupancy rates, this business has little need of heavy investment in marketing and advertising. The business has advertised in the past in the relevant trade press and has recently outsourced its marketing efforts to increase awareness of its facilities to a wider audience of Local Authorities. Acknowledging the budgetary pressures Local Authorities are currently experiencing, the business has been offering short term promotional pricing to maximize occupancy rates. The business also has a very well designed, informative and easy to navigate website that performs very well in all the major search engines for all appropriate search topics. But by far the most effective form of marketing for the business is the strong word of mouth recommendation the business enjoys, testimony to the high regard in which it is held amongst Local Authorities.

Reasons for selling:

Having been involved in the children’s care sector for a number of years, the Owners feel it is time for a change of direction.

Employees:

The two Owners are responsible for the overall financial performance of the business but operate in a overall managerial capacity only. The business has a highly skilled, experienced and loyal team providing the day-to-day care, comprising two Residential Managers – one in each facility, supported by approximately twenty other care staff. The Head Office has one administrator. There is also a Maintenance Manager who combines his responsibilities as a Care Officer.

Other information

Support & training:

The current Owners will provide full training and handover to ensure a smooth transfer of the business to new Owners, however, largely independent of the day-today running of the business, they do not consider this will need to be extensive.