People Partner (ER, HR and L&D) in Wheathampstead

Location: Wheathampstead (Head Office), with travel to Care Homes in specific Regions.

We are looking for an experienced People Partner (ER, HR and L&D) to support our care homes by delivering a proactive and effective people strategy. You will work closely with home managers to strengthen people management capability, improve recruitment and retention, and reduce reliance on agency staff, while ensuring compliance and high standards of care. You will lead HR initiatives, employee relations, recruitment, talent management, and employee development, ensuring alignment with business objectives and compliance with all relevant employment laws. This role requires an individual who can navigate a challenging and dynamic sector while driving continuous improvement in people management practices.

Key Responsibilities

• Partner with home managers to deliver HR strategies aligned to business objectives and high standards of care.
• Provide proactive, hands-on HR advice across performance management, employee relations, absence management, capability, and wellbeing.
• Lead all employee relations activity, including disciplinary, grievance, and absence processes, ensuring consistency and legal compliance.
• Manage and support end-to-end recruitment and onboarding, ensuring timely, cost-effective hiring of high-quality care and support staff.
• Drive workforce planning and internal talent development to reduce agency reliance and improve staffing stability.
• Design and implement retention and engagement initiatives, including recognition, wellbeing support, flexible working, and career progression pathways.
• Identify trends and root causes of turnover, absence, and agency usage, implementing practical improvement plans.
• Ensure compliance with UK employment law, CQC requirements, and internal HR policies and procedures.
• Review, update, and embed HR policies and best-practice people processes across the homes.
• Monitor and analyse HR metrics (turnover, absence, recruitment, agency spend) and provide clear insights and recommendations to senior leadership.
• Support training, induction, and development initiatives to build capability, improve performance, and support long-term retention.
• Act as a coach and mentor to managers, improving confidence and capability in people management.

About You

• Proven HR Business Partner or HR Manager experience, ideally within care or healthcare.
• Strong knowledge of UK employment law and people management best practice.
• Experience in improving retention and reducing agency reliance.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills.
• Highly organised, resilient, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.
• Willingness to travel and stay away from home as required.
• Experience with HR software and recruitment systems.
• Knowledge of Care Quality Commission (CQC) standards and regulations.
• Experience with workforce planning and staff development initiatives.

About Us

Welford Healthcare was founded in 2017 with the goal of building a boutique collection of quality care homes across the UK. Our strategy is to grow our business by acquiring mature care homes with quality foundations and strong potential for improvement and by investing in our people and our properties to ensure our homes are always inviting and homely. Whilst we are a growing business, we never lose sight of our primary and enduring purpose which is to provide good quality care for vulnerable adults. As we acquire new homes, we leverage our resources and expertise to ensure that the homes we run always have our residents’ wellbeing at their hearts. Our senior leadership team has extensive experience of operating, opening and acquiring quality care homes with proven track records in regulatory compliance and running commercially successful businesses where meeting the needs and ensuring the happiness of our residents and our teams are the cornerstones of our approach.