Home Manager

Home Manager  

Management - Oakdene Care Home

Contract:

Full Time

Salary: £85,000 per annum + up to 40% Annual Bonus + Private Medical Insurance

Shift Type:
Days

Contracted hours: 40

Home Manager | Oakdene Care Home | Wimborne Minster, Dorset (BH21 6RB
)
Salary up to £85,000 per annum + up to 40% Annual Bonus + Private Medical Insurance

Oakdene Care Home is a 71-bed residential service set across two buildings in the heart of Wimborne Minster. Currently operating at approximately 38% occupancy, with two units temporarily closed, Oakdene represents a significant and exciting turnaround opportunity for an experienced, resilient, and values-led Home Manager.

The home’s business model is under review, with aspirations to evolve from a residential service into a nursing-led model, creating a unique opportunity for a clinically aware leader with strong commercial acumen to help define and deliver Oakdene’s next chapter.

This is not a short-term fix. We are seeking a long-term, visible leader who will restore trust, rebuild confidence, develop people, and drive sustainable improvement in both quality and commercial performance.

Contract

Salary up to £85,000 per annum

Annual performance bonus of up to 40% of salary (KPI-linked)

Private Medical Insurance

Pension scheme

5.6 weeks annual leave

The Opportunity

As Home Manager, you will have full accountability for Oakdene’s performance, culture, and future direction. Over the next 12–24 months, your focus will be on stabilising the home, strengthening quality and compliance, reopening and embedding new units, and improving financial performance through increased occupancy and fee optimisation.

You will lead from the front - working alongside your teams, coaching and developing capability, setting clear expectations, and holding people to account with fairness and consistency. You will balance high standards of care and risk management with commercial awareness, ensuring the home becomes both a great place to live and a sustainable, well-performing business.

This role offers genuine autonomy, strong organisational support, and the chance to create long-term impact in a home with real potential.

A Snapshot of Where Oakdene Is Today

Oakdene is currently rated Requires Improvement by the CQC, with two regulatory breaches identified in March 2025. A follow-up inspection is anticipated to review progress. A local authority visit in November 2025 acknowledged positive steps forward, though there remains significant work to do.

The internal quality audit score was below 40% in October 2025, highlighting the scale of improvement required. Workforce pressure remains high, with a HPRW of 55 (above the desired 41), and approximately 150 hours of recruitment still required across care and ancillary roles
-though the home is not currently using agency staff.

Fee structures vary widely due to a mix of self-funded and local authority placements, with older parts of the building presenting challenges for higher fees. However, the newer unit, Acorn Lodge, offers strong potential with target fees of £1,300–£1,400 in line with the local market.

This context demands a leader who is calm, credible, systematic, and solutions focused. Someone who understands how to build improvement steadily and sustainably.

About You

You are an experienced Home Manager with a proven track record of turning around underperforming services, ideally across residential or nursing environments. You are clinically aware and confident in managing risk, governance, and regulatory compliance, with experience leading teams through inspection and recovery.

You bring strong commercial understanding - able to improve occupancy, optimise workforce deployment, and build financial resilience without compromising care quality. You are hands-on, highly visible, and comfortable working alongside teams to understand the detail and drive change.

Most importantly, you are a consistent and trustworthy leader. You do what you say you will do. You value coaching, development, and accountability, and you have the resilience to rebuild morale in a home that has experienced instability and lost confidence in leadership.

Oakdene needs someone who…