Capital care

KYN opened its first 86-bed care home in Bickley, Bromley in Kent in February and has further sites in Central and Greater London in construction and planning.

Founded by real estate investor, Melford Capital, in 2019, following a personal experience of one of the partners, the business has spent the past four years compiling its head office team from both within and outside social care.

“We have had the luxury of time to work on the vision for KYN, how we can bring that vision to life, and to seek out the best people from care, as well from other complementary industries such as hospitality in order to provide the very best experience for our residents and their families,” Naidoo says.

“Providing the best care has to be about the team and the people. We have deliberately widened our talent pool to outside the sector. Our hospitality director worked in some of the best London hotels and our head of HR also came from hospitality where they have had to think really hard about recruitment, onboarding and benefits in order to keep staff in the current climate.”

Fees are priced competitively within the local market and take into account expensive land values and high-quality build and design costs. KYN has appointed Nina Campbell to design the interiors across all their homes.

“We are transparent with our fees and want to make what can be a very difficult time as straightforward as possible,” Naidoo notes.

“Our fees are all-inclusive with rooms rates varying according to size and facilities and our care fees are calculated pre-assessment so that we can tell people what they will be paying upfront.”

At KYN Bickley weekly room fees start from £1,850 and care packages £250. Fees include services such as hairdressing, spa treatments and physiotherapy and unlimited dining and beverages along with some dining with loved ones, as well as a concierge service.

Naidoo highlighted KYN does not charge deposits and joining fees or any after-death fees.

“It’s such a sensitive time, it doesn’t seem right to us to charge after-death fees,” Naidoo explains. “The last day the resident is with us is the last day the family pays for.”

A nurse by trade, Naidoo has worked in care for 29 years, including senior roles at Priory, Four Seasons Health Care and Barchester Healthcare.

Naidoo says getting it right from the start had been a new challenge. “With the experience that I have had, I have always thought about what I would do if I set up my own business, so this has been a great opportunity to do that,” Naidoo says.

Naidoo has led on implementing KYN’s six core values during the recruitment and onboarding process, which are: make it personal, see the whole, inspire joy, find the positive, think harder, and be courageous.

“We work and live by our values,” Naidoo explains. “It’s essential for us to build a strong and clear culture throughout the business, led by our executive team.

“We have established a strong lessonslearned culture. We are a new start-up so we know that we will make some mistakes along the way, but with a very open culture right through the business we can learn and improve and make our residents’ and team members’ lives better.

“For example, we recently consulted with team members from our new home and asked them how we could make the recruitment and onboarding process better. They came up with some brilliant ideas. The process really empowered the team and helped make us a better business.

“We have always been about very personalised experiences right from the outset,” Naidoo says. “We wanted to think differently about every element of the care home experience, taking inspiration from within the industry but also further afield.

"The focus for KYN is to provide the best-quality care and services in all areas, including food and nutrition and our specialist nutritionist ensures that menus support residents’ immunity and wellbeing. Our nutritionist and the kitchen team are overseen by director of hospitality who drives our high-quality service delivery.

“For us, it's not just about great service and great food, but the emphasis is on choice,” Naidoo explains. “We offer three choices per course at lunch and dinner from a daily changing menu, across a variety of settings. Residents can enjoy a meal socially in our Great Room, or in any of our lounges and dining areas. Alternatively, if they prefer to eat in their room or enjoy a cup of tea on their personal patio, they can.”

KYN’s teams are paid the London Living Wage and above, with salaries benchmarked against competitors.

“Pay and benefits are important, but people are attracted by our culture and the other ways in which we value and recognise our staff,” Naidoo says.

“What’s important to people these days is healthcare, wellbeing and flexibility.”

Training and development and providing career pathways is also a key focus. KYN partners with Worcester University on dementia training and has recently graduated a team of mental health first aiders from all parts of the business. Career pathways and job development grades are also offered to all employees.

“Every role has a professional and personal development pathway,” Naidoo says.

Given the plethora of luxury care home providers appearing on the market, Caring Times wanted to know what made KYN different?

“It’s about residents living their lives as they wish to,” Naidoo says. “We want to provide as much independence and choice as they prefer. We are very much resident-led. They feed into the lifeenrichment and wellbeing programme, the books on our bookshelves, and the menus the kitchen creates. We don’t have set mealtimes. You don’t come into our care home and live by our rules; we want people to live the lifestyle they are used to and want to.

“We have a dedicated hospitality team so that the care team can focus on meeting the residents’ needs in terms of wellbeing and life enrichment.”

The care provider also boasts a fully integrated IT software system.

“From the point that someone contacts us and makes an enquiry, that profile can be carried through to the pre-assessment stage, then onto the care planning system and interdependency tool which is, in turn, reflected on the staff rota and the medication administration, as well as our PainChek facial recognition system,” Naidoo explains.

“We have really great data analytics, so at the touch of a button I can see what’s going on in the business. I can see if someone has had a fall and how their care plan has been updated for that and I can review trends and analysis to support clinical governance.

“Our integrated system also prevents duplication and gives staff more time to spend with residents.”

Further innovative technology includes an acoustic monitoring system which maps a resident’s normal algorithms at night so that staff can be alerted to any changes in activity to provide support and prevent falls.

“It really helps the team to get to know the routine of their residents at night and prevents having to do night checks so that residents are less disturbed and have the opportunity for a better night’s sleep,” Naidoo says.

In addition, a cutting-edge infrared monitoring system tells if someone has moved off their bed. The system can be used for people who don’t want to be listened to through acoustic monitoring or can be used in conjunction with acoustic monitoring to provide additional falls and care support.

While KYN pioneers use of state-ofthe-art technology, Naidoo stresses the need to maintain the ‘human touch’ in care: “We use tech to enhance the quality of the time we can spend with our residents’,” she says. “We also use that time to get to really know the real them. For example, we use our ‘My LifeStory’ to document residents’ life histories and interests on pre-admission, but also we build upon that as our relationships deepen and we learn more.

“From this our team can build a package of care as well as a bespoke life enriching and wellbeing programme. For example, we had a gentleman in the other day who was really interested in his family tree, so we got a genealogist in to get him started on that.

“We have also had a historian in recently to talk to a resident and have developed strong links with the local Rotary Club and Bowls Club as well as the local nursery for multi-generational

work we want to get involved in.”

Looking ahead, KYN plans to open a 32-bed care home in Hurlingham, Southwest London in March next year with a further 50-bed home set to open in Kensington in early 2025.

“We have further sites in Hampstead currently going through planning,” Naidoo says. “Availability of sites with the space that we want is one of the main challenges of operating in London.

“Gaining planning permission is also a challenge. You have got to be very considerate to neighbours. We like to develop relationships and build trust within the local community during the build process, but that can take time.”

Naidoo adds KYN’s primary target area would remain Central and Greater London.

“There’s just not the facilities for older people who want to stay in London and we have the backing to do it,” the managing director highlights, while noting that “sparce” local competition is growing.

“We intend to grow at a rate of hopefully one or two homes a year over the next few years,” Naidoo concludes.

“The whole team is really excited and proud of what we are doing and so happy with how our Bickley home has been welcomed into the sector and the community and we are really excited for London as well.”

Being a prime mover means KYN is already one step ahead of its rivals in the race to capitalise on London’s potentially lucrative luxury care home market.