North East Social Housing provides practical consultancy and development support to organisations operating within the supported housing, social care and children’s residential sectors.

Our experience combines three areas that are often critical to successfully establishing or growing a service: property, funding and operational delivery.

We work with both established operators looking to expand and individuals or organisations seeking to develop their first service.

Property Acquisition, Development & Planning

Finding the right property is often one of the biggest challenges when developing a new care, supported living or specialist housing service.

Our team has extensive experience in identifying, acquiring and developing properties for specialist use, from initial feasibility through to planning, refurbishment and operational handover.

We can support clients with:

• Property sourcing and acquisition
• Site and property feasibility
• Purchase negotiation
• Planning strategy and change of use
• Development appraisal
• Refurbishment and conversion
• Professional team coordination
• Valuation and funding requirements
• Leasehold property structures
• Development budgets and project oversight

Where required, North East Social Housing can also acquire and develop properties on behalf of operators, creating longer-term property and operating partnerships.

Our wider professional team includes experienced planning consultants, architects, solicitors, valuers, finance professionals and construction specialists.

Our own projects have involved the acquisition and development of properties across supported housing, children’s services and specialist accommodation, giving us practical experience of the issues that arise behind identifying a property and successfully opening a service.

Funding & Investment

Access to capital can be one of the biggest barriers to establishing or expanding a care or supported housing business.

Through our own businesses and developments, we have extensive experience of raising private capital and structuring investment for property acquisition, development and operational growth.

We can help businesses assess their funding requirement, prepare the investment proposition and introduce suitable opportunities to our established network of private investors and funding contacts.

Depending on the business and circumstances, funding structures may include:

• Private loan note investment
• Secured property lending
• Equity investment
• Joint ventures
• Investor partnerships
• Acquisition and development funding
• Working capital
• Strategic investment or merger opportunities

We can also assist with the preparation of business plans, financial forecasts, investor presentations and supporting due diligence.

Every funding requirement is different. Our role is to help establish a structure that is commercially realistic for both the operator and prospective investor.

Care, Ofsted & Operational Consultancy

Alongside property and funding expertise, our team has significant operational experience across children’s residential care, supported living and regulated services.

Our consultancy is led by professionals who have themselves worked as Registered Managers, Responsible Individuals, Nominated Individuals and directors of care and supported living organisations.

This means our advice comes from direct operational and regulatory experience rather than consultancy theory.

Support can include:

• Ofsted registration preparation and guidance
• Children’s home mobilisation
• Statement of Purpose development
• Policies and procedures
• Safer recruitment and staffing structures
• Compliance audits and service readiness
• Quality assurance frameworks
• Safeguarding systems
• Staff training and development
• Operational policies and processes
• Financial and staffing modelling
• Preparation for regulatory inspection
• Ongoing management and strategic support

We can support businesses from the earliest planning stages through registration, mobilisation and into operational delivery.

From Concept to Operation

What makes our approach different is the ability to bring property, capital and operational experience together.

For some clients that may mean help with one specific issue.

For others, we can provide a complete development pathway:

Concept → Business Plan → Property → Planning → Funding → Development → Registration → Mobilisation → Operation

Whether you are opening your first service, acquiring additional properties or looking for capital to grow an established organisation, our team can provide practical support based on first-hand experience.

Talk to Us

If you are considering establishing or expanding a supported housing, children’s residential or specialist care service, speak to our team for an initial confidential discussion.

We can review where you are now, identify the areas where support is required and agree a consultancy package appropriate to the project.