Burgess Hill care home operator wins national award for third time

Boutique Care Homes has been named Care Home Group of the Year (Small) at the National Care Awards 2026, the group's third win in this category in four years. The award was presented on Friday 6 November at Park Plaza Westminster Bridge, London.

With wins in 2023, 2025 and 2026, it is the pattern that Ameet Kotecha, Founder and Managing Director, points to. "Winning three times in four years tells a much bigger story," he said. "It's about consistency, the standards we believe in and the pride our people take in what they do, every single day."

The judges said the group "has an impressive list of awards and superb resident satisfaction scores." They were particularly impressed by its Life Enrichment Programme, which, in their words, "helps residents keep contributing through initiatives such as The Chartwellion." That is the shop at Chartwell House in Broadstairs, Kent, which the residents run themselves, serving customers, stocking the shelves and managing operations.

Contribution of that kind runs through the other homes too. At Brampton Manor in Newmarket, Suffolk, the Lifestyle Team's work with local schoolchildren won the 2026 NAPA Intergenerational Award. At The Burlington in Shepperton, Surrey, August brought a Farm Experience that paired local schoolchildren with residents, organised with Browells Wood Pet Therapy. Both are about generations spending time together, and about homes that belong to the community around them.

In Burgess Hill, West Sussex, Keymer Hall has launched Sporting Legends Cafe, a dementia cafe. And in Hythe, Kent, Martello Manor is working with the Royal British Legion's Hythe and Saltwood Branch to develop a dedicated Veterans' Drop-In and activity space at the home.

Residents have their say too. In the group's 2026 surveys, 100% said they were treated with kindness, dignity and respect, and 100% said the team knows them as an individual, while 99% said they would recommend their home. For a family choosing where someone they love will live, that is the reassurance behind the award: not only a judged result, but the people who live there, saying so themselves.

And none of it rests on a few people. "That takes everyone," Ameet said. "Our day teams, night teams, those working behind the scenes, our home leaders and head office colleagues. Every person who does the big things, the little things and, perhaps most importantly, the things nobody ever sees. When we win, we win together."