New opening


part of Chartwell House as a whole. Throughout the home, Chartwell House’s location in a popular seaside town is referenced in subtle ways – a seascape picture here, an evocative object there – that remain in keeping with the sophisticated feel of the home.


Why Broadstairs? I asked Andrew, Rebecca, and Carl why Boutique has chosen to build a home in Broadstairs, and what attracted the provider to this site in particular. “There hadn’t been a new care home


development [in Broadstairs] for many, many years,” Andrew explains. “If you look around, even if you go as far as Canterbury, you won’t see anything for the discerning clients that we have, that want en suite, with infection control in place and all that sort of thing, so that’s primarily where we identified a gap in the market.” “As for this specific site, it just lent itself


naturally to a care home,” Rebecca tells me. “It’s a great-size site, and it’s a nice-shape site as well, and its location to Westwood Cross just makes it perfect. For transport links, it’s so easy not only for our team, but being close to the shopping centre means that, as a family member, you can pop in here to see mum and also combine that with a trip to the shops, which a lot of people do, given our busy lives these days.” When it comes to the potential catchment area for residents, Boutique clearly sees Broadstairs and the surrounding areas as having a great deal of potential. “Children are looking for a place for mum and dad because they want them closer to them,” Andrew says. “There’s a lot of investment in the area – in Margate, Broadstairs, and Dover, even – so there’s a lot of incoming people from other parts


Much thought has gone into the choice of colours, fabrics, pictures, and other items of interest


of Kent. There’s the housing around us, as well, and within twenty minutes you can reach so many other towns and villages. We are also finding now that families that have a loved one in another care home but have to travel more than the 20 minutes [to that care home] are thinking of moving – which is a big step once you’re in a care home – but they are thinking about bringing their parents here, because it’s a better environment, and they can visit mum twice a day rather than twice a week.” As Carl points out: “With the pandemic,


a lot of people moved out of London down to Kent and Thanet, and now that they’ve


moved, they’re looking to bring mum and dad along as well.” Another plus is that, with so many people


moving into the area, there is a growing pool of potential staff, and Boutique does not foresee any issues when it comes to finding sufficient numbers of suitably qualified workers.


The build seems to have gone well – certainly, the timely opening and high-spec finish seem indicative of a construction process that went without a significant hitch. Were there any unexpected issues with the build? “We did have the tail-end of COVID, so supply and labour [issues] seemed to have more of an impact on this building than we’ve had in our previous builds,” Rebecca says. “Some of the costs were more expensive, and lead times were an awful lot longer. At one point, timber was difficult, bricks were difficult. We had a very good company – Lawrence Baker – who did our build for us. I had to make decisions on internals much earlier than I would normally do, to allow for supplies. But we weren’t impacted horrendously. “Considering the climate that was out


there, we actually did very, very well,” she rightly points out.


Sustainability Naturally, sustainability and other green considerations played an important part in the design and build. “We’ll be having solar panels on the roof, and that’s something we’ve retrofitted to our other two homes, as well,” Rebecca tells me. Adds Andrew: “The builders had certain targets to meet – BREEAM and so on – and


April 2023 www.thecarehomeenvironment.com 17


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