Founded in 1992 by CEO Mike Parsons, Barchester Healthcare is now one of the biggest independent care providers in the UK and the most innovative in its approach to improving the energy performance of their care homes
In this, the company’s 20th anniversary year, Barchester Healthcare has opened 13 new care homes, including the UK’s first Passivhaus accredited care home, Juniper House. All further new buildings will be built to BREEAM Excellent standard and some existing buildings are being retrofitted with solar PV and air source heat pumps.
This groundbreaking approach to the company’s property development illustrates a commitment to reducing overall carbon emissions and energy consumption.
“Sustainable development is part of the way we operate,” says Bill Wilson, Property Services Director. “We care a lot about the local communities we work in as well as the environmental impact of our operations.”
“It’s important for us to keep moving forward with innovation,” adds Ben Collard, Energy Environment Manager, “and obviously minimising our carbon footprint and our energy costs is an integral part of our plan.”
“We started developing a sustainability programme about eight years ago with low energy lighting and increased insulation levels,” says Bill. “We were on the right track, but we’ve taken it to another level now. Three years ago we decided to push the boundaries in terms of BREEAM and Passivhaus.”
Says Ben: “We work with architects to cover all manner of sustainability issues from renewable energy, right through to levels of insulation and how we orientate buildings to minimise heat loss and maximise solar gain. So what we’re really trying to do is build in sustainability and low energy performance at every possible stage. Our key construction partner, Castleoak, very much shares and drives that vision.”
Pioneers
“Castleoak came to us with a proposal for a Passivhaus development as they knew we were quite a forward thinking company,” says Bill. “We were keen to pioneer it and pilot it – despite the increased construction costs. It’s all very well if it’s good for the environment but is it financially viable as well? That’s where we are at now, evaluating it and monitoring it to see how it performs.”
“We opened Juniper House in March this year so the real test will be how it performs through a full winter heating period,” adds Ben.
The 60-bed Passivhaus Juniper House home, located in Brackley, Northamptonshire has a floor area of 2,932m2. According to Castleoak, the home will require around only 60% annual energy costs and produce around only 50% of the CO2 emissions of a typical 60-bed, timber frame care home. Most significantly, the savings at Brackley will be achieved through just a 6% uplift in build costs on a project value of £4.2m. It is estimated that this uplift will effectively be paid back through the anticipated running cost savings within eight years, compared to an equivalent building designed to comply with 2010 Building Regulations. Energy monitoring will be carried out while the building is in use to see how closely it performs against the forecast energy usage.
“The biggest immediate challenge we’re facing with the Passivhaus system is in its operation,” says Bill. “Our staff care passionately about the people they support and will open windows if a room is too hot. Unfortunately, that can compromise the airtight design.”
Staff training
“Castleoak has invested a lot of time training our staff in the concept of Passivhaus; to explain to them how this building needs to be operated,” says Ben. “In the care sector, the comfort and warmth of the people we support is of paramount concern. We need to keep every home at a consistent 22-23oC throughout the year. A Passivhaus building is almost completely airtight that ideally will require little heating. We need to ensure our staff teams trust that the design will retain the heat. We aim to do that by maintaining their awareness through training to avoid poor operating practices.”
As well as a commitment to building all new homes to BREEAM Excellent standard, Barchester has employed a number of retrospective elements in order to reduce energy costs and increase sustainability, such as heat pumps, combined heat and power boilers and rainwater harvesting.
“The use of heat pumps is one of the most innovative aspects of our retrofit programme,” says Bill. “Westergate House care home in Fontwell, West Sussex is a very large, listed building that was burning a lot of oil. We installed an air source heat pump that has been so successful we’re planning to roll it out to many of our oil burning sites. It’s an easy decision to be honest.”
“I’m hoping to get an innovative heat recovery project off the ground for our laundry facilities,” says Ben. “Bear in mind the laundry is one of the heaviest energy consuming areas of a care home. Each home can carry out around 30 60oC-90oC washes a day. A huge amount of heat is being generated there so we’ll be looking at innovative ways to recover that heat and re-use it to heat water or air.
“There is also a potential to reuse hot air pushed through our commercial driers as an air heat source, which is quite exciting,” adds Bill.
Pushing the boundaries
Barchester Healthcare has been at the forefront of pushing the boundaries in care provision since Mike Parsons founded the company in 1992 after discovering, from his own personal experience, just how difficult it was to find a good quality care home for two of his relatives. Deciding to create a better alternative, he bought Moreton Hill, a 17th century farm with stunning views over the Cotswolds, which he converted into a unique care home setting.
Winning the Care Home Design Award in 1994 hailed the beginning of Barchester becoming one of the UK’s largest quality care providers. Today, the company delivers leading care services to thousands of people across England, Scotland and Wales – with a solid commitment to quality. Home environments are warm, friendly and comfortable, and the calibre of staff is unsurpassed.
Barchester supports more than 10,000 people in 233 care homes; with services that range from dementia care to assisted living and more. High quality homes and staff have remained integral from the start.
Head office is located in Chelsea Harbour, London with offices right across the UK, in locations including Berkhamsted, Oxfordshire, Wiltshire and Inverness.
By September 2012, Barchester opened 13 new state-of-the-art developments within 12 months. This represents an annual growth of 6%, and sees the number of Barchester care homes rise from 220 to 233 – adding 700 new top quality bedrooms – and many more jobs – to communities across East Sussex, Suffolk, Jersey, Cheshire, Warwickshire, Surrey and more.
The company has gained quite a reputation when it comes to staff development. Launching the Barchester Business School in 2009, they now offer a range of innovative management courses, leadership qualifications and nursing programmes. Focused on the daily care required of their staff, these courses bring with them nationally accredited vocational qualifications, diplomas and apprenticeships – right up to Masters degree level. It’s one reason Barchester Healthcare has a reputation for being one of the UK’s leading quality care providers.
Award winning
Barchester employs 17,000 people and featured in ‘The Sunday Times 25 Best Big Companies to Work For’ 2011 – the only care provider to make it into the top 25 ranking – and they’ve been there four times. Barchester is also certified as one of Britain’s Top Employers 2010.
In 2010 the company won three awards at the National Workforce Development Awards: Macro Apprentice Employer of the Year Award, Integrating Employment and Skills, Supporting Young Talent.
It’s clear that investment in staff and sustainable development are core factors that lie at the heart of Barchester’s company philosophy.
“Care homes are notoriously energy intensive but we have taken on the challenge to reduce that energy consumption. Educating our staff in the use of low energy practices is the final piece of the jigsaw,” says Bill.
