Norton Hall nursing home closes as Valuecare Ltd falls into administration

Norton Hall nursing home in Worcester has shut permanently after Valuecare Ltd, the residential care operator behind both Norton Hall and Lathbury Manor in Newport Pagnell, entered administration on 7 May 2026. The High Court of Justice, Business and Property Courts in Leeds sealed the appointment under court number CR-2026-000465.

The collapse ends more than a decade of trading for a company founded in June 2011 with a stated aim of providing smaller, home-from-home care facilities. Valuecare Ltd classified its business under residential care facilities, running homes it positioned as intimate alternatives to larger institutional settings.

The administrators

Lee Van Lockwood and James Miller, both of RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP, were appointed joint administrators. Administration is a formal insolvency process in which licensed insolvency practitioners take control of a company to try to rescue it, sell it as a going concern, or realise its assets for creditors. Lockwood holds IP number 13050 and Miller holds IP number 21290. Joint administrators are two or more insolvency practitioners appointed to act together, though either can usually act alone unless the appointment specifies otherwise.

The company's registered office is listed as Central Square, 29 Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 4DL. Its principal trading addresses are Lathbury Manor, Northampton Road, Lathbury, Newport Pagnell, and Norton Hall Nursing Home, Woodbury Park, Norton, Worcester.

The directors

Jonathan Allen and Eric Joseph Marshall were both appointed as directors when the company was incorporated on 3 June 2011 and remain in post. Sylvia Lillian Helen Allen and Emily Marshall Michalik were also directors, appointed in November 2020, but both resigned on 3 February 2026, roughly three months before the administration appointment.

Secured lenders

Clydesdale Bank PLC, trading as both Clydesdale Bank and Yorkshire Bank, holds three outstanding registered charges against Valuecare Ltd. Two of those charges, both created on 28 October 2019 and delivered to Companies House on 12 November 2019, are fixed charges over specific identified properties: the freehold land known as Inn Farmhouse, Northampton Road, Lathbury, MK16 8JX, and the freehold property known as Norton Hall Nursing Home, Woodbury Park, Norton, Worcester, WR5 2QU. A third charge in favour of Clydesdale Bank, registered on the same dates, covers further security without a specific property description on the public record.

The Trustees of the Marshall Allen Investments SASS also hold an outstanding registered charge, created and delivered in December 2020, over Inn Farmhouse, Northampton Road, Lathbury, MK16 8JX. A secured creditor is one whose debt is backed by a charge over the company's assets, ranking ahead of unsecured creditors when those assets are distributed.

Background

Valuecare Ltd was incorporated in June 2011 and built its identity around smaller residential care settings. Norton Hall, its Worcester nursing home, had already closed before the Gazette notice was published on 14 May 2026, with residents displaced as a result of the financial pressure on the business. Lathbury Manor in Newport Pagnell, the company's other site, was listed as a principal trading address on the administration notice. Its current operational status is a matter for the administrators to determine.

For residents, families, suppliers and creditors

Once administrators are appointed, they issue statutory communications and payment instructions to known creditors in due course. All formal correspondence is conducted through RSM UK Restructuring Advisory LLP at the address listed on the notice. Creditors wishing to evidence amounts owed do so by submitting a proof of debt, which is the formal claim form used in the administration process to record what a creditor says it is owed.

The appointment triggers a moratorium under Schedule B1, paragraph 43 of the Insolvency Act 1986, the part of the Act that governs administration in England and Wales. The moratorium pauses most creditor enforcement action, meaning creditors generally cannot start or continue court proceedings against the company without the court's permission.

Residents or their families who have paid fees in advance, as well as any suppliers carrying unpaid invoices, rank as unsecured creditors in the absence of a specific charge. Unsecured creditors are those whose debts are not backed by a charge over assets, and they are typically paid after secured and preferential creditors from whatever funds remain.

Employees affected by the closure of Norton Hall may have claims for unpaid wages, notice pay and statutory redundancy. In administration, certain employee claims rank as preferential debts, meaning they are paid ahead of floating charge holders and unsecured creditors up to statutory limits. The Redundancy Payments Service, which sits within the Insolvency Service, exists to meet eligible employee claims where an employer is insolvent and funds are insufficient to cover them in full.