Regulation 15: Decommissioned Buildings Brought Back to Standard

Before founding Oxara Consulting, Roxana Rosca was separately asked by two providers to assess a decommissioned residential building on their premises — one previously used for residential care before the sector shifted toward community and assisted-living models, the other repurposed as staff accommodation. One building had been kept in a preserved, mothballed state — not in active use, but with utilities connected and minimal heating maintained. In both cases, the intention was to bring the building back into regulated care use.

At one home, in Kent, the former residential building was linked to the main home by a covered bridge. The site's natural slope meant the main building's first floor met the second building's ground floor, allowing residents and staff to move between the two regardless of weather. The building had historically had its own kitchen; this was reassigned as a satellite kitchen, with the main building's kitchen serving both units, and the ground floor corridors were widened to allow easy access for stretchers. At the second home, the building's original dedicated kitchen was reopened and brought back into use in its own right.

Each building and its drawings were reviewed against Regulation 15, working through every element of premises and equipment compliance — from the clean/dirty circuit in the laundry to medication room layout — to set out what needed to change before each space could safely and lawfully return to care use. One instruction came directly from the provider; the other came via the project architect, working alongside their technical advice on the building works.

Both sets of recommendations were fully implemented. The completed projects increased registered capacity by 15 and 29 places respectively. This premises-focused regulatory experience now underpins Oxara's Care Property Due Diligence work.