Five north-east care homes to get energy-efficient refurbishments

Renaissance Care, which runs five residential homes in the north-east, has announced plans to spend around £14 million on energy efficiency focused refurbishments.

As well as this, additional beds will be provided across its existing care home portfolio as part of a post-pandemic investment drive over the next three years.

Four of its 16 homes across Scotland are located in Aberdeen with Cowdray Club, Jesmond, Persley Castle and Torry with Wyndwell in Peterhead.

The refurbishments will include the firm kitting out its existing care homes with new windows, full LED lighting, improved insulation, new boilers and better heating controls.

Subject to gaining planning permission, the group also revealed plans to add a further 56 new bedrooms, as well as other related improvements, at six of its existing care homes across the country.

Planning to double firm’s size

Renaissance Care also plans to double the firm’s size, as it looks to run 30 homes across Scotland after securing new multi-million-pound bank facilities and also gaining access to an initial £30m of additional acquisition funding.

As it looks to further growth, the operator is also developing its people strategy to ensure a good pipeline of staff across its homes, while retaining the best talent across the sector.

As part of the plans, the group recently announced a full cultural review across its homes in response to exhaustion across the care sector following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Staff across the homes will now be offered a range of new benefits including flexible working, a pay review across all roles and a health and wellbeing package.

Executive chairman of Renaissance Care, Robert Kilgour said: “This new investment is substantial but, in our view, vital in maintaining and improving the high standards at our homes.

“The last two years have been an incredibly tough time for residents, families and hard-working team members in care homes across the country and it is important to us that we provide the best possible care and facilities for our people.

“Despite all that we have been through since the start of the pandemic, we remain very positive about the direction of the business and our future plans.”