Resident Perspectives on Luxury Care Homes

This assignment focuses on analyzing a questionnaire about resident perceptions of luxury care homes. It examines factors such as preferred amenities, satisfaction with existing care services, safety concerns, social needs, and willingness to pay for luxurious accommodations. The analysis aims to understand residents' expectations and experiences within this specific care home environment.

BUSINESS ANALYSIS AND PLANNING

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
DATA COLLECTION STRATEGY..............................................................................................1
Primary data collection................................................................................................................1
Secondary data collection............................................................................................................2
USE SOFTWARE FOR DECISION MAKING.............................................................................2
IDENTIFICATION.......................................................................................................................10
OBJECTIVE..................................................................................................................................12
RATIONALE................................................................................................................................12
RISK MANAGEMENT................................................................................................................12
Risk identification..................................................................................................................13
Risk analysis and evaluation..................................................................................................14
Risk matrix.............................................................................................................................14
Risk mitigation: Treatment and monitoring...........................................................................15
LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................16
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................18
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................19

INTRODUCTION
UK care home sector worth around £15.9 billion in a year with 410,000 residents.
Currently, there are around 11,300 care service providers operating care home for the older
people. Among these, 95% is owned by the private sector and charitable providers. With the
rising number of aging population, the market demand for the sector continuous to grow. Office
for National Statistics (ONS) projected 36% growing aging population from 1.5 to 2 million by
2015-2025, which substantially increase demand. The sector presents a strong opportunity to the
new entrepreneurs to Open Luxury Residential Care Home in the Cambridgeshire. Thus, the
research paper will examine the current trends of Care Home market in London and analyze that,
to what extent the project will be worthy and deliver good profitability or not. It will be done
through collecting data from both the primary and secondary sources and analyze through
suitable method. Apart from this, various risks will be identified and accordingly plan would be
design to mitigate their occurrence.
DATA COLLECTION STRATEGY
Before planning and establishing a new business unit in the competitive and uncertain
market era, investor needs to collect required information by different sources, including both
primary and secondary. For the planned investment in UK care home market, data gathering plan
is constructed below:
Primary data collection
As name itself, it is the information collected for the first time by the researcher
himself/herself. Thus, it require investigator to carry out a real market research of the target
respondents to obtain specific details. No-doubt, it is a costlier way of data gathering and takes
lot of time, still, excessively used in the real business practice to collect authentic and reliable
information (Sullivan-Bolyai, Bova and Singh, 2014). Survey, observation, focus group,
interview and others are several popular tools of primary data collection, among all;
questionnaire survey is one of the great tools that carry out market survey of the selected
participants to determine people’ preferences, desires and other factors that affect the growth of
care home.
1 | P a g e

For the purpose of the business plan, elderly people preferences can be know through
surveying them. Questionnaire is the best way and useful for surveying people, in which, they
will be asked with the certain key questions regarding all the care home facilities like
accommodation, chargeable fees, social activities and other aspects. By the help of this, gap will
be determined prevailing in the sector so as to open a new luxurious house that will satisfy
people requirement in the best manner (Matthews and Ross, 2014). As UK has vast population of
elderly people, therefore, it is not possible to survey universe. Thus, it is decided to survey 50
people who are currently living in a care home. All the people will be randomly selected at no
biasness to assure data authenticity. It will be a field survey, in which, selected target
respondents will be asked with framed questions and their responses will be generated. In order
to assure high rate of response, all the people will be asked for their voluntary participation in the
survey.
Secondary data collection
Secondary dataset collects information that is already available for use and do not
requires an original investigation. The data set may be either available in the published form or
sources which are not published like reports published by regulatory authorities, previous
research studies, online material, academicians research and others (Orkin, 2014). The key
benefit associated with the method is that it is very fast way of data gathering, however,
sometimes information may be outdated. Besides this, limited quantum of secondary resources is
a major drawback of it.
In order to establish a new Luxury Residential Care Home in Cambridgeshire, secondary
information can be acquired to know current trends in the care home market, staff wages,
property costs, average weekly rental charges and others. For the purpose of current research,
care home market reports, online material and academic literatures will be used for secondary
survey (Best and Kahn, 2016). It will help to analyse growth drivers for the care home operators,
critical business challenges and various strategies to gain strong success in the market.
USE SOFTWARE FOR DECISION MAKING
After obtaining required data set, it needs to be analyzed thoroughly applying the best
tool and technique. It may be of different types such as quantitative and qualitative. For the given
2 | P a g e

research, as 50 care home service users will be surveyed through questionnaire, thus, it will use
quantitative information that will be analyzed and examined through Statistical Package (SPSS).
Using this, necessary statistical calculations will be performed including correlation, descriptive
statistics, frequency table and regression to judge impact of different factors on Luxury Care
Home market success (Mayers, 2013). In addition, necessary charts for the graphical
presentation will be made such as pie chart and column chart.
Primary data analysis
Gender
Gender
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative Percent
Valid
Male 28 56.0 56.0 56.0
Female 22 44.0 44.0 100.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
There were 56% (28) male and 44% (22) female candidates who participated in the
survey and gave their responses.
Frequency distribution
Which is the most important requirement of yours in care home?
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
Valid Social activities 5 10.0 10.0 10.0
Quality food 13 26.0 26.0 36.0
3 | P a g e

Modern surrounding 20 40.0 40.0 76.0
Safety and security 3 6.0 6.0 82.0
Caring staff 4 8.0 8.0 90.0
Companionship 3 6.0 6.0 96.0
Others 2 4.0 4.0 100.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
The results reported that quality food and modern surrounding are the two most important
factors that affect care services users decisions. From the survey findings, out of 50, 13(26%)
responded quality food choices and 20(40%) people respond that they wish that care is designed
with modern surrounding including infrastructural facilities and others that perfectly meet their
expectations. Thus, it interpret that newly designed care home must pay focus on designing a
well infrastructure with all the services and offer qualitative and nutritional food choices to
people.
Descriptive statistics
Statistics
4 | P a g e

How well do you feel
satisfied with the care
and support services
provided to you?
Q: How would you
like to rate the quality
of life at care home?
Q: Are you currently
offered with the
nutritional food and
beverage facilities at
the care home?
N Valid 50 50 50
Missing 0 0 0
Mean 1.84 2.24 1.94
Median 2.00 2.00 2.00
Mode 1 2 2
Std. Deviation .955 .916 .620
Variance .913 .839 .384
Range 3 4 2
Survey found that majority of people is satisfied with the services they are receiving
currently and rated quality of life just as “Good”. However, as earlier analysis said that
nutritional food is the main factor affecting their decisions. It can be evident through the
findings, in which, majority to people (31 , 62%) responded that they are getting nutritional food
to a very little extent. It shows that the offering nutritional and healthier food choices as per
customer need and expectations are the main requirement needs to be satisfied properly to attract
more proportion of elderly population.
How well do you feel satisfied with the care and support services provided to you?
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
Valid
Strongly satisfied 22 44.0 44.0 44.0
Satisfied 19 38.0 38.0 82.0
Neutral 4 8.0 8.0 90.0
Dissatisfied 5 10.0 10.0 100.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
5 | P a g e

Above bar graph reflects that majority of the audience base (22, 44%) are strongly
satisfied and 19, 38% are just satisfied with the services offered to them, however, only 5(10%)
are dissatisfied.
Q: How would you like to rate the quality of life at care home?
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
Valid
very good 8 16.0 16.0 16.0
Good 28 56.0 56.0 72.0
Alright 10 20.0 20.0 92.0
bad 2 4.0 4.0 96.0
Worst 2 4.0 4.0 100.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
6 | P a g e

Majority of surveyed people (28, 56%) rated their quality of life at care home to “Good”
and very little number of people rated it as “very good”. It may be possible because, few of their
choices and preferences are perfectly satisfied while others are not well-satisfied and resultant
dissatisfaction among people.
Q: Are you currently offered with the nutritional food and beverage facilities at the care
home?
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
Valid
Yes, of-course 11 22.0 22.0 22.0
To some extent 31 62.0 62.0 84.0
No 8 16.0 16.0 100.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
7 | P a g e

In the results, it is seen that the main reason behind why people rated quality “good” is
existing care home are not serving them enough nutritional food and beverage choices what they
demanded. It is the main reason behind dissatisfaction among service-users.
Which kind of services would you expects from a luxurious residential care home
Frequency Percent Valid Percent Cumulative
Percent
Valid
5-Star accommodation 16 32.0 32.0 32.0
Private cinema 6 12.0 12.0 44.0
Luxury spa 3 6.0 6.0 50.0
Treatment rooms 13 26.0 26.0 76.0
Library 5 10.0 10.0 86.0
Restaurant & cafe 5 10.0 10.0 96.0
Others 2 4.0 4.0 100.0
Total 50 100.0 100.0
8 | P a g e

The main expectation of people from luxurious care home is they need 5-star en-suite
facilities in their bedroom that provides a superb feel to them, in the survey 16, 32% demanded
it. Besides this, treatment rooms gains strong demand among service users with 13(26%). It may
because lack of hospital facilities and improper arrangements during urgencies.
Regression
Model Summary
Model R R Square Adjusted R Square Std. Error of the
Estimate
1 .430a .185 .168 .871
a. Predictors: (Constant), Q: Are you currently offered with the nutritional food and beverage
facilities at the care home?
9 | P a g e

Nutritional food and service availability has moderate relationship with the satisfaction
level of the users at a correlation of 0.430. Thus, it can be suggest that by offering quality and
healthier food choices, residential care homes can satisfy people accordingly.
ANOVAa
Model Sum of Squares df Mean Square F Sig.
1
Regression 8.276 1 8.276 10.900 .002b
Residual 36.444 48 .759
Total 44.720 49
a. Dependent Variable: How well do you feel satisfied with the care and support services
provided to you?
b. Predictors: (Constant), Q: Are you currently offered with the nutritional food and beverage
facilities at the care home?
Coefficientsa
Model Unstandardized
Coefficients
Standardized
Coefficients
t Sig.
B Std. Error Beta
1
(Constant) 3.126 .409 7.650 .000
Q: Are you currently
offered with the
nutritional food and
beverage facilities at
the care home?
-.663 .201 -.430 -3.301 .002
a. Dependent Variable: How well do you feel satisfied with the care and support services
provided to you?
According to the “ANOVA” results, sig. value is 0.002 that is below 0.005 shows that
availability of tailored and customized food deliveries influence individual to a major extent. If
people are able to get nutritional, food and beverage, any time whenever they need, then, they
will really feel satisfy and enable entity to achieve growth.
IDENTIFICATION
The new Luxury Residential Care Home in Cambridgeshire will be a five-star residential
care home with luxurious settings which provide a feel to residential as if they are living at their
own home. The care home bedrooms will be designed with the en-suite facilities, enough spaces,
private gardens and peaceful surrounding to provide really an amazing feel to the residents.
Serving people with the superb accommodation and food facilities will enable entity to satisfy all
10 | P a g e

the services users and build a strong reputation in the sector. Moreover, considering the mental
stimulation requirement of the elderly community; the business will offer amenities including
exercising classes, library, treatment room, tailored nutritional food choices, recreational
activities and various social events to keep people happy.
11 | P a g e

OBJECTIVE
The main objective of the business is to serve elderly aged population of UK with the
luxurious care facilities. The business strongly thrives towards serving people with the best
quality care home services at affordable charges. It will be an independent profit-oriented are
home which aims to maximize profitability through delivering luxury facilities as per the
expectations of service-users. All the functions will be carry out ethically and respectful manner
to become champion in the UK Care home market.
RATIONALE
Growing aging population are increasingly demanding luxury and exceptional
accommodation facilities in the care home. Steady growth of the market and high rate of
occupancy will be definitely a wonderful investment opportunity and will deliver good return.
Residential care home targets elderly people, thus, cost of wear and tear is also very less. Serving
people with luxury care home facilities definitely attract high tenancy rates and rewarded the
enterprise. Although, there is currently number of care home providers operating in
Cambridgeshire, still, many people demand are still unmet because they are demanding luxurious
facilities and very limited number of care home are rendering such exceptional facilities that
meet their expectations strongly. Thus, the planned business unit will definitely achieve a
wonderful progress and grab the benefits of market opportunity to reach success.
RISK MANAGEMENT
Investing in new business is always subjected to a multitude of risks that needs to
planned and managed appropriately. Although care home investment is one of the best
investment opportunity, but at the same time, it has various risks. Risk management is a process
which includes identification, analysis, planning, treat and monitoring so as to eliminate such
occurrence in the business.
12 | P a g e

(Source: Risk management, 2017)
Risk identification
Financial risks: UK’s care home market is discovered with a funding gap of £1 bn which
possibly could force some care service providers to liquidate, even at increasing demand by
aging population. Competition and Market Authority said that care homes, excessively rely upon
collection of funds from the local governments are not in sustainable position. It can be evident
through the reports, that demonstrates that average charges paid by a member on care home is
£846 each week however, local authorities subsidized £621 each person. Thus, funding is a key
issue faced by the care providers and as per CMA expectations, about 25% care home are at risk
of exit or failure (Gould, 2016). It is also predicted that if localized authorities pay full care cost
to the resident, then it will brought extra burden around £900 m to £1.1 bn every year. Thus, the
industry requires significant reforms to survive successfully and grow to satisfy unmet demand
and expectations of the increasing demand. The analysis grab attention of the potential
entrepreneur that investing in a Luxury Residential Care Home can struggle to access necessary
funds to establish residential home, hire personnel and other services.
Regulatory risks: The care home market of UK is constantly changing. Turbulence and
uncertain surrounding, change in regulatory framework, national living wages make it essential
for the entities to remain up-to-date with the market and understand and adapt industry changes.
Recent, EU refendum bring uncertainty in its regulatory environment with the formation of new
rules and regulations.
Lack of management expertise: Care Home market requires expertise managerial team
who are able to manage operations successfully. Without having expertise team, care home will
be unable to serve users with the best quality care services and limit business growth. Managers
also must be able to find out great opportunities and apply their expertise and knowledge to drive
structural changes in the business.
13 | P a g e

High maintenance costs: Care operators incur high cost in building infrastructure and its
maintenance to comply with the regulatory standards. Even it may result in loss, when
occupancy rate is not very attractive. Thus, it is also a key challenge faced by the care home
operators.
Risk analysis and evaluation
Risk likelihood
Risk Consequences
Risk matrix
The matrix consists of key risks factors and challenges which may bring trouble to the
planned luxurious residential care home and presents their likelihood, consequences and rating.
Risk Cause Consequence Likelihood Consequence Rating
14 | P a g e
Probability: less than 90%Almost certain
Probability: 50% - 90%Likely
Probability: 10% - 50%Possible
Probability: 5% - 10%Unlikely
Probability: Less than 5%Rare
Business closureCatastrophic
Material impactMajor
Noticeable impactModerate
Some impactMinor
Immaterial impactInsignificant

Financial
risks
Cost, liquidity
and funding
difficulties
Increased financial
costs and minimize
profit
Almost
certain Catastrophic Unacceptable
Regulatory
risks
Failure to comply
with the
regulations
Non-compliance
with rules bring
legal controversies
and damage
reputation Likely Major Very High
Lack of
managerial
expert
Unavailability of
trained and
experienced
managers
Poor management
and operational
difficulties Possible Major Moderate
Maintenanc
e cost
High cost on
maintenance
High expenditures
and less return Possible Moderate Low
Sensitivity analysis
As per the case, it is stated that the luxury residential care home will accommodate 30
residents and generate a weekly net profit of around GBP500 to GBP600 each resident, at an
average profit of GBP550. However, there is a risk of volatile occupancy rate depending upon
the quality of services offered and the staff services. Thus, at varied occupancy level, profit
analysis is performed here as follows:
Occupancy level
Profit per week
each resident Customers Weekly profit % change
70% 550 21 11550
80% 550 24 13200 14.29%
95% 550 29 15675 18.75%
15 | P a g e

70% 80% 95%
0
2000
4000
6000
8000
10000
12000
14000
16000
18000
11550
13200
15675
Weekly profit at different occupacy level
Occupancy rate %
Weekly profit (IN GBP)
As per the findings, it is discovered that at 70% occupancy level, total weekly profit will
be GBP 11,550, however, if occupancy level remains to an average level of 80%, then, the care
home unit will generate 14.29% higher return. If business invest further GBP 5 million to
provide luxury facilities to the elderly people just like five-star facilities then, occupancy rate
will be increase to 95%. At this level, firm will be able to generate higher return of 18.75% with
a total weekly profit of GBP 15,675.
Risk mitigation: Treatment and monitoring
Risk Risk mitigation
Financial risks
Experienced Financial Manager to make financial plan, track funds
utilization and keep control over it
Regulatory risks
Regulatory compliance committee will be create to keep update with the
changing regulations and assure its compliance
Lack of
managerial expert
Specialist training to train people to build exceptional skills and
knowledge
Maintenance cost Contracts with supplier with technical specification at managed cost
LITERATURE REVIEW
According to Henry and Thomas (2017), UK care home market dominated by the
independent service providers. Rising aging population is the main reason which shows strong
growth of the care home market. There are five major care home operators who grab a strong
16 | P a g e

market share above 15% includes Four Seasons, HC-One Ltd, Barchester Healthcare and Bupa
Care Homes. Although, the sector dominated by private entities, still, a considerable size of
clients are funded partially or fully by the local authorities. Even private care service providers
own a high exposure to the local authorities. As per the views of Linde, Stanley and
Doucouliagos (2014), substantial debt is the key feature or requirement for the care home
providers in order to construct a property to accommodate all the clients. Thus, requirement
capital outlay to purchase land and begin construction work requires substantial amount of loan.
Even existing care home operators also need to make changes to meet statutory requirements that
are set by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Gordon and et.al., (2013), stated that care market has a strong expectation to grow in
future because of rising number of elderly community demanding varied services in the care
home. However, Ingham, Bamford and Jones (2015), argued that as the market is at its growth
stage, therefore, it encourages more entities to come in the sector that make competition tough.
Conversely, Shepherd, Wood and Hood (2016), argued that payroll is the major cost item for the
care home operators. After global financial crisis, although they have benefited via recessionary
dividend in the form of low level of wages inflation and helped them to stay competitive in the
market, still, National Minimum Wages (NLW) obliges the care home to pay minimum set
wages to the people. Before this, as staff were relatively paid at less rate, therefore, NLW is
introduced by the government to help staff by increased pay which increase staffing costs for the
operators.
Linde, Stanley and Doucouliagos (2014), demonstrates that many residents using services
of independent sector is partly or fully funded by the local authorities to pay their fees. Thus, the
availability of resources available to the local authorities is a key issue faced by sector. Balta-
Ozkan and et.al. (2013), said that the sector is highly regulated market who needs to follow rules
and regulations, thus, regulatory uncertainty is a major risk faced by the service providers.
Recently, Brexit also brought uncertainty in the regulatory environment with which operators
can struggle. Under the Care Act 2014, “market shaping” is the responsibility of local
authorities, which aims at promoting efficiency and effectiveness in the market operations to
meet care and support requirement of the users. Despite this, CSSG (Care and Support Statutory
Guidance) impose accountability on the local authorities to shape market, adult care and support
17 | P a g e

focusing on wellbeing, quality services, workforce development and supporting sustainable
growth.
CONCLUSION
Above research investigated that UK care home market is growing rapidly and providing
opportunity entrepreneurial opportunities to others. Although industry is struggling currently due
to rising staffing cost, uncertain regulatory market and lack of managerial experts, still, there is a
vast growth opportunities exist. The finding of research identified that quality food and care and
modern surroundings are the key requirements, thus, it is decided that Luxury residential care
home needs to consider these two elements to serve all the service-users exceptionally and
achieve sustainable growth.
18 | P a g e

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gordon, A.L. and et.al., 2013. Health status of UK care home residents: a cohort study. Age and
ageing. 43(1). pp.97-103.
Shepherd, V., Wood, F. and Hood, K., 2016. Establishing a set of research priorities in care
homes for older people in the UK: a modified Delphi consensus study with care home
staff. Age and ageing. 46(2). pp.284-290.
Ingham, H., Bamford, S.M. and Jones, G., 2015. The costs and benefits of paying all the lowest-
paid care home workers in the UK the Living Wage. York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Linde Leonard, M., Stanley, T.D. and Doucouliagos, H., 2014. Does the UK minimum wage
reduce employment? A meta‐regression analysis. British Journal of Industrial Relations.
52(3). pp.499-520.
Balta-Ozkan, N. and et.al., 2013. The development of smart homes market in the UK. Energy.
60. pp.361-372.
Henry, C. and Thomas, K., 2017. Advance care planning in the UK: update on policy and
practice. Advance Care Planning in End of Life Care. p.79.
Sullivan-Bolyai, S., Bova, C. and Singh, M.D., 2014. Data-collection methods. Nursing
Research in Canada-E-Book: Methods, Critical Appraisal, and Utilization. p.287.
Orkin, K., 2014. Data Collection Methods. In Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being
Research. Springer Netherlands. 15(4). pp.1430-1432.
Best, J.W. and Kahn, J.V., 2016. Research in education. Pearson Education India.
Matthews, B. and Ross, L., 2014. Research methods. Pearson Higher Ed.
Mayers, A., 2013. Introduction to Statistics and SPSS in Psychology. Pearson.
Online
Gould, M., 2016. A luxury care home for people. [Online]. Available through: <
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/23/luxury-care-home-dementia-but-what-
price>.
Risk management. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
https://survey.charteredaccountantsanz.com/risk_management/small-firms/analyse.aspx.
19 | P a g e

APPENDIX
QUESTIONNAIRE
Name: ________________________
Gender: ______________________
Age: __________________
Contact Number: _____________________
Q: What do you expects from a care home?
 Quality care
 Affordable charges
 Luxurious facilities
 Nutritional food
 Others
Q: Which is the most important requirement of yours in care home?
 Social activities
 Quality food
 Modern surroundings
 Safety and security
 Stay close to family
 Caring staff
 Companionship
 others
Q: How well do you feel satisfied with the care and support services provided to you?
 Strongly satisfied
 Satisfied
 Neutral
 Dissatisfied
 Strongly dissatisfied
Q: How would you like to rate the quality of life at care home?
 Very good
 Good
 Alright
 Bad
 Worst
Q: Are you currently offered with the nutritional food and beverage facilities at the care home?
 Yes, of course
 To some extent
 No
Q: Which statement best describes safety aspects of care home?
20 | P a g e

 I feel extremely safe
 I feel adequately safe but not in the way, I like
 I do not feel enough safety
 I don’t feel safe anytime
Q: Which statements perfectly describe your social life requirements at the care home?
 I have too many social contacts with all the people
 I have adequate contacts
 I am in touch with few of people
 Care home did not respect my social life necessities
Q: Which kind of services would you expects from a luxurious residential care home?
 5-Star accommodation
 Private cinema
 Luxury spa
 Treatment rooms
 Library
 Restaurant & cafe
 Tailored food choices
 Others
Q:How well existing care home maintain cleanliness?
 Extremely well
 Very well
 Neutral
 Not well
 Worst
Q: How much would you ready to pay to have luxury facilities at care home?
 High prices
 Affordable
 Cheap prices
Q: If a new luxury residential care home is going to open near to you, then what suggestion
would you like to give to done better?
21 | P a g e

22 | P a g e