We support care home clients on core issues from regulatory matters to corporate services to employment law. The nature of your sector means you may also need advice on anything from human rights legislation to raising finance for a share purchase – and our full-service legal team can support you across the full range.

We combine legal expertise with an astute understanding of the care home sector, its varied ownership structures and the different stakeholders you deal with, including the Care Inspectorate, local authorities, families and finance providers. Through this understanding, we can guide you towards practical solutions that underpin strong reputational and financial management, as well as help you prevent legal issues arising in the first place.

We can also support care home providers from other legal jurisdictions, such as England and Wales, to navigate the different legal and regulatory terrain in Scotland.

Our services for care homes

Due to the diversity of issues and evolving regulatory / legal requirements facing care homes in Scotland, we advise care homes on an ever-developing range of issues. Typical and common examples include:

Regulatory issues: compliance relating to key legislation such as the Adult Support and Protection (Scotland) Act 2007, the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003, and any investigations relating to them, and engagement with regulatory bodies such as the Care Inspectorate. We can also guide you on non-sector-specific regulatory matters such as health & safety, environmental health, and data protection & GDPR.

Property and real estate: including acquisition, disposal and leasing of premises, development of new buildings.
Corporate and commercial: including corporate structures, share sales and purchases and the stakeholder issues that can arise from them, such as Care Inspectorate Registration of new owners, and continuation of local authority care contracts.
Finance: including review and negotiation of finance agreements for share purchases or expansion.
Litigation: including regulatory issues, tribunal cases, debt recovery, contractual issues, and negligence. In all cases, we look at alternatives to litigation, and the legal, financial and reputational benefits they can provide.

Employment and HR services for care homes

A major component in our support for care home providers relates to employment law and HR. We offer support on all the key issues that may face you, including employment contracts, disciplinary and attendance management processes, National Minimum Wage compliance, support with Employment Tribunal cases, and much more.

A popular way to access is this support is through our fixed-fee prism service, which helps you to keep on top of employment law changes and implement best practice in your employment and people management processes – especially important if you operate across dispersed sites. The service offers packages of support to suit different budgets and levels of in-house resource.