2024/25 Mid-Year Update
At HC-One, our purpose is to support those in our care to lead their best life.
We are proud that we continue to make meaningful progress on delivering our strategy, despite the growing challenges facing the social care sector such as the increases to Employer National Insurance Contributions, and the perpetual gap between the cost of care and the funding allocated to care provision.
We remain committed to investing in our colleagues, homes and digital capabilities as we strive to be the first choice for families, our colleagues and our commissioners, serving at the heart of each of our communities.
As of 31st March 2025, we are pleased that:
We invested over £20m in colleague pay for 2025 bringing our total investment to over £110m since 2021. In the same 4-year period, our lowest paid colleagues have received a 40% pay rise, significantly above inflation. This investment has also brought nearly 90% of all colleagues to earning Real Living Wage or above with all colleagues able to earn the Real Living Wage or above after two years of service.
We are continuing to see a sector leading colleague turnover rate at 24%. This has been supported by our investments in pay, as well as wider enhancements to our reward and benefit offering, learning and development programmes, and workforce models.
We have achieved our strongest external quality performance ratings to date with 89% ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ (or equivalent) and no ‘Inadequates’, putting us ahead of major providers. We are proud of this progress as we continue to support residents who live with some of the most complex conditions managed and supported within the sector.
Occupancy within HC-One continuing homes remained steady over winter at c.91% and is building up in the second half of the financial year. Ideal homes’ occupancy continued to grow to 76% with 15 of the 37 homes still in their commissioning phase.
The implementation of our £18m investment into digital transformation continues with 116 homes using our digital care planning system and a further 86 in the mobilisation phase, with all homes set to be onboarded by the end of 2025. Expanding both our insight and oversight, the data gained through our digital systems enables us to identify trends, provide interventions as appropriate, and apply learning and best practice across our homes. By overlaying our data and digital capabilities with our leadership and culture of kindness, we are delivering quality care at scale.
Our ambitious £93m refurbishment programme has continued to progress, with 15 upgrades planned for 2025. With refurbishments already completed at 135 homes, this remains the largest ever care home upgrade programme in the NHS and Local Authority funded care home sector.
We proudly opened two purpose-built care homes: Crofton Springs in Cheltenham and The Applewood in Milton Keynes.
We have launched our room capacity expansion programme. By reopening units and converting our day care centres that are no longer in use, we are aiming to bring hundreds more bedrooms into our portfolio. We have opened over 105 new rooms to date, with a view to doubling that in the coming months.
We are progressing our journey to net zero carbon and continuing with our decarbonisation project which includes the installation of solar PV, thermal imaging surveys to identify heat loss and the removal of gas from laundry and kitchens. Seven homes took part in this project in FY24 and we are undertaking scoping work to upgrade further homes in the same way.
HC-One is committed to providing the highest standards of care in every community we serve, which is demonstrated by the 9.6/10 average rating based on reviews submitted by our families on carehome.co.uk, making us one of the most highly rated care providers in the UK.
As we navigate the challenges that FY25 is bringing, we remain intent on being the kindest care home provider, delivering high quality care across our communities, as we continue to invest in our colleagues and environments, and ultimately support those in our care to lead their best lives.