Nurse Plus was founded in 2005 and has grown to become one of the UK’s largest providers of nurses and carers for establishment settings and within the home, with 35 branches across England. The business is a sizeable supplier of agency care workers and nurses to nursing homes, residential care homes and private hospitals. In addition, Nurse Plus’ Homecare division provides care of the elderly in their own homes, care of younger adults with learning disabilities and complex care packages for service users requiring full-time care.

Nurse Plus operates comprehensive induction and training programmes to ensure that its workers have the skills necessary to deliver consistently high-quality care.  All workers undergo induction training sessions and a period of shadowing before they commence work and once they are placed, they continue to receive training throughout their time with Nurse Plus.  Staff have won numerous awards for their care services, including ‘Outstanding Contribution’ and ‘Homecare Registered Manager’ at the Great British Care Awards.

Sovereign has backed Nurse Plus’ incumbent management team, led by Heath Blake, CEO, and including Pamela Bruce, MD.  Both Heath and Pamela joined Nurse Plus in 2005 and each has around 20 years’ experience in the healthcare recruitment space. Sir Gerry Robinson has joined as Chairman while the incumbent Chairman, Stewart Rogers, has become Non-Executive Director. Stuart Cook remains in the business as Finance Director.  Sir Gerry has significant experience of leading companies through periods of growth, most notably at Granada, alongside healthcare knowledge gained from working with the NHS and dementia care homes.

Sovereign will work with Nurse Plus’ experienced management team to expand the business to meet the increasing demand for its services.   The care services sector is one that Sovereign knows well following its successful investment in City & County Healthcare Group, which more than quadrupled in size during Sovereign’s ownership, alongside its current investment in supported living specialist Eden Futures.

Debt to support the transaction was provided by Crescent Capital Group.