Harbourfield is a specialist consultancy and off-market brokerage for Ofsted-registered residential children’s homes in England. We’ve registered homes, sat in the manager’s chair, and closed acquisitions from the buyer’s side of the table. Whichever side you’re on, you’ll be talking to someone who has done it.
For providers and managers
Registration support, independent Regulation 44 visits, mock inspections and steady leadership support for Registered Managers and Responsible Individuals.
For owners, buyers and investors
Confidential valuations, off-market sales to vetted buyers, and buy-side support with due diligence and deal structure for people acquiring their first or next home.
Practical, regulation-literate support at each stage of a home’s life. We work alongside your Registered Manager rather than around them, and everything we produce is written so Ofsted could read it.
Start-up
A clear route from concept to registration: property assessment and C2 use, location risk assessment, Statement of Purpose, policies, SC1 and SC2 applications, and preparing your RM and RI for their fit-person interviews.
Discuss a new homeOngoing oversight
Monthly visits by experienced former managers who know the Quality Standards. Reports are themed, evidence-led and track your progress against last month’s recommendations, not just this month’s findings.
Arrange Reg 44 coverInspection readiness
A full inspection-style visit: records, case files, staff interviews, the environment and children’s views. You get a graded report, a prioritised action plan and a debrief with your leadership team.
Book a mock inspectionLeadership
Structured supervision and mentoring for new or stretched managers, covering Reg 45 quality reviews, safeguarding oversight, staffing and rota design, and building the confidence to lead an inspection.
Talk about manager supportCompliance
If you’ve received a compliance notice, an inadequate judgement, or a refusal at registration, we help you understand what Ofsted is actually asking for and build the response and evidence trail to answer it.
Get urgent helpPeople
Recruitment campaigns built for the sector, safer recruitment audits of your personnel files, induction frameworks, and retention planning so your home isn’t rebuilt every twelve months.
Review your recruitmentThe sector keeps consolidating, and single homes and small groups are in demand from both first-time buyers and larger operators. We act for one side of each deal, and we run everything privately.
Most owners sell once. We make sure the first sale is the right one — the right buyer, the right price, and a process that doesn’t unsettle staff or children before completion.
Buying a registered home can shortcut a year of set-up — or inherit someone else’s problems. We help buyers see which they’re looking at before they commit.
Ofsted rating and history, occupancy and fee levels, whether the property is owned or leased, the strength of the RM and staff team, and how transferable the local authority relationships are. Our free valuation guide explains how buyers weigh each one.
A typical sale takes four to nine months from first conversation to completion. Ofsted’s approval of the new provider or registered person is usually the longest single step, so we start preparing for it early.
We review accounts, occupancy, inspection history and property, and tell you what the home is likely to achieve and what would lift it.
We build a shortlist of buyers with the appetite and funding for your kind of home, and approach each one privately under NDA.
Buyers receive the information memorandum and financial pack. We run a controlled offer round and agree heads of terms with the preferred party.
Legal, financial and regulatory diligence, with us handling the sector-specific questions and keeping the timeline moving.
Change-of-provider or registered-person applications run alongside legals so completion isn’t left waiting on the regulator.
Most advisers in this sector know either the regulation or the deal. Very few know both, and fewer still have run homes while doing it.Founder, Harbourfield Care Advisory
Our advice is tested against our own Ofsted inspections, our own recruitment problems and our own local authority relationships. It isn’t theoretical.
We’ve assessed homes as acquirers, so we know exactly where a corporate buyer will push on price and how to prepare the evidence that stops them.
We take on a limited number of consultancy clients and sale mandates at a time so each one gets senior attention rather than a junior and a template.
No public listings, no email blasts. Staff, children and commissioners only hear about a sale when you decide they should.
Short, practical pieces on running, buying and selling children’s homes. Written for owners, RIs and managers, not for search engines.
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A month-by-month comparison of cash flow, timing and risk for both routes, and where the crossover point usually sits.
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Independent visitor reports are one of the first things a corporate acquirer requests. What they look for, and what a weak report costs you.
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Why earn-outs and deferred payments are common in the sector, how they’re usually structured, and where sellers get caught.
Most homes are valued on maintainable earnings — what the home reliably generates once the accounts are adjusted for one-off costs and any owner’s remuneration. That figure is then multiplied, and the multiple moves with Ofsted rating and inspection history, occupancy and fee levels, and the strength of the staff team.
Freehold property is usually valued separately from the operating business. A leased home can still sell well, but the lease terms matter to a buyer’s funder.
Not through us. There is no public listing and no advert. Buyers are approached individually and sign an NDA before they see anything identifying the home.
You decide when staff, children and commissioners are told. In most sales that is at or after heads of terms, once the buyer is committed, and we help you plan how it is communicated.
Yes, and it is a large part of the buy-side work. First-time buyers are the most exposed in this sector, because the risks that matter — a fading rating, a manager about to leave, fee levels that will not hold — are not visible in the accounts.
We source homes that fit your brief, run the due diligence, and take you through the change-of-provider application with Ofsted after completion.
Usually yes, subject to having an independent visitor free in your area. We can normally start from the following month, and we will read your last six months of reports first so the first visit picks up where the previous visitor left off rather than starting again.
Tell us what you’re trying to do — open, improve, buy or sell — and we’ll come back within one working day with an honest view on whether and how we can help.
Phone
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Based in
Working with providers and buyers across England