Eleanor took over Heavers Court, Addington Heights and Langley Oaks on 1 April, five months before the council said so. The 10-year deal is worth £79.8m.
Croydon Council announced on Thursday that a new provider will run three of its older people’s care homes. The provider has been running them since 1 April. The contract behind the announcement is worth £79,764,875.84 excluding VAT, runs for ten years, and was awarded in February.
The three homes are Heavers Court in Selhurst, Addington Heights in New Addington and Langley Oaks in South Croydon. Together the council counts 150 residential and nursing beds across them. Care UK had run them for the past ten years. (Croydon Council, 3 September 2026)
The council’s announcement gives no value, no contract length and no start date. All three are on the public record.
What the contract is worth
The contract award notice was published on Find a Tender on 5 February 2026, under council reference LBC/TN/609. It sets out:
- Award value: £79,764,875.84 excluding VAT, or £95,717,851.01 including VAT. The council’s earlier tender notice explains the second figure: “These services are currently exempt from VAT, however we are required to include the VAT inclusive figure within this notice.”
- Awarded on 4 February 2026 to Eleanor Nursing and Social Care, with a standstill period ending 17 February.
- Contract period 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2036, with an option to extend to 31 March 2039. That is ten years, plus up to three.
- Eight tenders were received. One was assessed at the final stage.
The procurement ran as a competitive flexible procedure under the Procurement Act 2023, in the light touch regime that applies to social care. (Find a Tender, contract award notice 010654-2026)
Averaged across the ten years, the award works out at just under £8m a year. When the council went to market in June 2025 it described the opportunity differently: “There are currently 150 beds with a financial envelope of approximately £7M annually.” (Find a Tender, market engagement notice, 16 June 2025)
The tender notice that followed in September 2025 put an estimate on it of £85,500,000 excluding VAT. The award came in about £5.7m below that. (Find a Tender, tender notice 061028-2025)
The handover happened five months ago
The Care Quality Commission register dates the change precisely. Eleanor Nursing and Social Care Limited was registered by the CQC as the provider at all three homes on 1 April 2026. Care UK’s registrations for the same three homes were archived on 7 April 2026.
That is the same day the contract period starts in the award notice. Families were told at the time: the council says it ran engagement sessions for residents, carers, staff and partners, and worked with Care UK on the transition. The public announcement is what arrived five months later.
The three homes, on the register
| Home | Address | CQC registered maximum | Nursing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heavers Court | 122-124 Selhurst Road, SE25 6LL | 60 | Yes |
| Addington Heights | 1 Milne Park West, New Addington, CR0 0DN | 50 | Yes |
| Langley Oaks | 2 Langley Oaks Avenue, South Croydon, CR2 8DH | 60 | No |
A registered maximum is a ceiling on how many people a home may accommodate, not a count of beds in use, which is why the three registrations add up to more than the 150 beds the council describes.
Langley Oaks carries an explicit condition on its registration: “The registered provider must not provide nursing care under accommodation for persons who require nursing or personal care at Langley Oaks.” It is registered for residential care, dementia, mental health conditions and physical disabilities. Heavers Court and Addington Heights are both also registered for treatment of disease, disorder or injury, which is the nursing activity.
What the ratings actually say
None of the three has been inspected under the new provider. Each CQC page carries the line “We have not inspected this service yet”, alongside ratings inherited from the last inspection under Care UK.
Those inherited ratings are all Good overall, but they are not all recent:
- Heavers Court: Good, from a report published 9 December 2023.
- Addington Heights: Good, from a report published 19 April 2018.
- Langley Oaks: Good, from a report published 4 January 2018.
There is a wrinkle worth knowing if you are checking Langley Oaks. Its archived Care UK profile carries a later assessment, published 10 December 2025, in which Safe was rated Requires improvement and the other four areas Good. The new provider profile displays the January 2018 ratings instead. Both pages are live on the CQC site.
What changes for residents
The council’s stated service changes are about the mix of care rather than the number of beds:
- Intermediate bedded care rises from eight beds to 20. These are short stay beds for rehabilitation and reablement before someone returns home.
- The number of beds for people living with dementia is to be adjusted to match need.
Croydon frames the intermediate care expansion as easing pressure on hospital discharge and on social services. The homes are the borough’s three PFI care homes, and the earlier notices describe the council working with South West London Integrated Care Board on the redesign.
Who Eleanor is
Eleanor Nursing and Social Care Limited was incorporated on 12 March 2002 and has its registered office at Third Floor, 17 London Road, Bromley, BR1 1DE. Its filed business activity is residential care for the elderly and disabled. (Companies House, company 04393038)
Katie Wordley, quoted in the council’s announcement as chief operating officer, is the nominated individual named on all three CQC registrations. The registered managers are Cara Ann Randall at Heavers Court, Ashura Abubakar Mwilima at Addington Heights and Phoebelyn Esther Curtina at Langley Oaks.
“Our priority is to ensure a smooth transition for residents, families and staff, while building on the strengths already in place within each home,” Wordley said in the announcement.
Executive Mayor Jason Perry said the contract “is about preparing Croydon for the future and ensuring we have the right care and support in place for our residents as their needs change over time”, and thanked Care UK for a decade of service.
What it means for you
If a relative lives in one of the three homes, the provider changed on 1 April, so the current registration, manager and complaints route are Eleanor’s, not Care UK’s. Each CQC page links to a feedback form, and CQC uses that information to decide where and when to inspect.
If you are checking the ratings before a placement, read the date on the report, not just the word. Two of the three inherited ratings are from 2018, and none reflects an inspection of the service as it is run now. The first inspection under the new provider will be the first independent read on the change.
If you are waiting on a hospital discharge, the intermediate care beds are the part of this contract most likely to affect you. Twenty short stay beds instead of eight is the council’s own headline change, and it is the number to hold it to.
If the question is who pays, that is decided separately from who runs the home. Our report on the Ombudsman’s finding against Croydon over section 117 aftercare fees sets out one case where the council charged for care it should have funded, and our guide to Croydon council tax bands covers the local bills the council does set.
Have your say
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