Keymer Hall on Kings Way won Care Home Design of the Year at the Leaders in Care Awards on 6 October, ten months after its first residents moved in.
Keymer Hall, the care home on Kings Way in Burgess Hill, has been named Care Home Design of the Year at the Leaders in Care Awards 2026. The home took its first residents on 8 December 2025, so the national award comes ten months after it opened.
The result was announced on Tuesday 6 October at the Forest of Arden Hotel and Country Club in Warwickshire. The awards are run with the trade titles Care Home Professional and Home Care Insight. The details come from the operator’s own announcement, published on 8 October.
Keymer Hall is run by Boutique Care Homes, an independent, family-run group with five homes open in Surrey, Suffolk, Kent and West Sussex. Keymer Hall is its only home in Sussex.
What the judges picked out
The operator says the award is “for a home designed around good days”. The features it lists are:
- a piano in the entrance, with the structural columns around it turned into shelving and display space
- lounges placed opposite the dining rooms, so residents are never far from company
- six balconies, a few steps from each part of the home
- a quiet room for families called Hillians Snug
- lounges named after local places and people, including Guild Lounge and Sawyer Lounge, which honour the Ditchling Artists’ Guild
Staff were asked what would make caring easier before the building was finished, and the group says those ideas went into the final design.
“We’re an independent, family-run group, and from day one we wanted this home to belong to Burgess Hill, not just stand within it,” said Ameet Kotecha, the group’s founder and managing director.
Christine Bunce, the home manager, said: “It’s a lovely home to live in and a good one to work in, and the team make it that way.”
A second shortlisting
It is not the home’s only nomination this autumn. In September the group said Keymer Hall had been named a finalist in the Dementia Care and Engagement category of the 2027 National Activity Awards. Those are run by the National Activity Providers Association.
That entry rests partly on a monthly Sporting Legends Café held with Burgess Hill Town FC. Residents living with dementia use old programmes, photographs and team colours to talk about matches they remember. The group also says the home has been leading a dementia awareness partnership of local organisations and businesses in the town.
What it means for you
A design award is a judgement on the building, not on the care inside it. That is measured by the Care Quality Commission. The CQC registered the home on 5 December 2025 and its profile says it has not inspected the service yet. The home is registered for adults over 65, people living with dementia, and people with physical disabilities or sensory impairments.
The group’s own 2026 survey of families reports 100% would recommend the home. That is the operator’s figure, not an independent one.
If you want to see the building for yourself, the home is holding a free pumpkin patch for families in half term. It runs on Wednesday 28 October from 2pm to 5pm at 11 Kings Way, RH15 0TH, with pumpkin picking, a craft table, drinks and snacks, and no tickets needed, according to the home’s event notice. Other ideas for that week are in our Mid Sussex October half term listings.
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