Nitesh Somani, Chief Executive of care provider Kara Healthcare, reflects on a transformative year for the organisation—how Kara stepped into crisis, stabilised struggling homes, and built a people-first culture that’s redefining care in 2025.
Kara Healthcare stepped into a year marked by uncertainty, economic strain, recruitment pressures, and sector-wide change. When others stepped back, we stepped forward. We acquired eight struggling homes, six in administration, all at risk of closure. Overnight, we became responsible for more than 400 jobs and 320 residents whose homes and lives hung in the balance.
Within nine months, every home was secure and stabilised. Agency spend dropped, staff retention rose to 97%, and most importantly, residents flourished again. The turnaround did not begin with balance sheets or buildings, it began with belief. When you put people first in everything you do, progress follows naturally.
In moments of pressure, negativity can spread quickly, especially in healthcare, where the stakes are high. But we chose a different path. Positivity is not optimism for optimism’s sake, it is strategic strength. It builds momentum, strengthens resilience, and turns setbacks into comebacks. That truth shaped our strategy and our future.
Innovation at Kara comes from culture before capital, from environments built on joy, learning, and genuine connection. Where people come first, progress follows.
Our Kara Training Academy reimagines workforce development. It is not compliance-heavy, transactional training. It is life-changing learning that builds confidence, capability, and character. We teach leadership, confidence, emotional intelligence, and real-world skills that support both work and life. When you invest in skills, you build confidence. When you invest in knowledge, you create leaders. When you invest in people, you build success. Growth begins with people, not property. You do not build a home, you build the people who make it one.
Every week, I meet every colleague, from housekeeper to home manager, in our “Care & Share with the CEO” forum. No hierarchy. No filters. No hiding places, only shared accountability. Teams bring challenges, ideas, and questions directly to me, and I answer them. Within 24 hours, solutions are in motion. One home’s challenge becomes another’s breakthrough. Inspiration achieves more than instruction. People do not perform best when pushed, they rise when lifted. Uplifted people are unstoppable. That is why ordinary teams deliver extraordinary results. At Kara, culture is caught, not taught, and when leadership shows up every week, living those values in real time, belief turns into achievement.
Our greatest lesson in 2024 was clear: grow our people first, and the organisation follows. Too many providers expand first and build people later. We do the reverse, and that is why we scale fast without compromising quality.
Rapid growth can dilute culture, unless culture is the engine of growth. At Kara, scale never comes at the cost of soul. Every home retains its identity, voice, and community spirit. We are small enough to care and strong enough to lead. Without layers of bureaucracy, compassion and innovation flow freely. We lead with purpose, not policy. We do not build institutions, we build homes filled with dignity, warmth, and connection. We do not lose our heart as we grow, we strengthen it.
The sector often focuses on buildings and capital investment, but care is delivered by people, not plaster. The most beautiful home only becomes a true home when culture lives within it. At Kara, culture is our capital. We live it, breathe it, and grow from it. That is why we can compete with much larger providers, we have real people, real values, and real consistency.
In 2026, we will continue to expand, responsibly, sustainably, and with humanity at the centre. We will strengthen our academy, deepen community partnerships, prioritise environmental responsibility, and continue to ensure later life is lived fully, joyfully, and with dignity. We believe the future of social care belongs to providers who lead with humanity, because compassion, not chaos, must shape the next chapter of care. At Kara Healthcare, we will continue to prove that when you put people first, success is not only possible, it becomes inevitable.
