Project
A few years later, in 2021, Jo and Simon decided to try the merger again, with a goal of creating an organisation that would be able to provide a range of social care services and support for vulnerable people including individuals with mental health conditions, older people and those with learning disabilities and complex needs, but this time bringing in consultants to support the process. They decided that Eastside People, with the team’s deep experience of merger implementation, was a perfect fit.
Different organisational cultures, personality clashes and legal hurdles are challenges that beset many mergers, and this merger was no different, compounded by the complexity of several organisations being involved with different legal forms. The independent role that Eastside People’s consultant, Deborah Jenkins, played was vital to the merger’s success.
Solution
While Simon and Jo remained resolute that the merger was going to be a triumph, other staff and board members were doubtful, worrying about losing their own organisations’ identities and fearing the legal and regulatory implications of merging a charity with private companies.
“They needed someone to stand back and navigate the process,” says Deborah.
Jo agrees, pointing out that Deborah’s expertise won over those who were less confident. “Deborah very quickly gained the respect of everyone because she very clearly has a wealth of knowledge and experience,” says Jo.
Deborah was able to make use of her independent role to act as a facilitator to diffuse tensions and move everyone towards an agreement. “Someone independent can be the bridge between key senior level stakeholders, build consensus and navigate through,” she explains.
Deborah acted as an adviser to the shadow board – the trustees and board members overseeing the merger – through the governance of the merger. She also offered invaluable support to Jo and Simon (who by this time had been promoted to CEO of NAViGO) during the ups and downs of the process. “It gave them confidence having someone who had already led and been involved in mergers themselves to say, it’s a bit of a rollercoaster, but it’s normal for it to feel like this and we can find a way through,” says Deborah.
Despite the complexity of the merger, Eastside People kept their input lean by ensuring that Deborah’s role was very tightly defined as Merger Project Director. A member of staff from one of the merging organisations took on the day-to-day project management, working closely alongside Deborah, who was able to focus on the tasks that only an outside consultant could do.
After just over a year of work, the merger was finalised on 1 April 2022. Jo became CEO of the new organisation, Nurtrio, under the parent company of NAViGO CIC. Today, some of the new organisation’s services are consolidating, while others are growing. The ambition is to build a solid organisation that grows organically.
The point of the whole project, says Jo, was being able to better serve the people who require Nurtrio’s support and care services. “For me, it was about being able to deliver the best possible services as well as offering more choice,” she says. “Our focus is on the people who we support and those who choose to work with us.”
Jo is convinced that working with Eastside People was a good decision. “From the very beginning, Eastside People have shown themselves to be hugely knowledgeable and supportive,” says Jo. “Without Deborah’s input, I am 100 per cent confident that we would not have achieved the merger.”
Nurtrio: What happened next? Update: May 2026
It’s always a pleasure to hear updates from clients our consultants have worked with, so we were delighted to catch up with Jo Barnes, now CEO of Nurtrio, four years on from their merger to hear her story.
“Eastside People admirably supported us through our merger journey until its fruition on 1st April 2022.” Said Jo as she discussed Nurtrio’s journey post-merger and updated us on the opportunities that the merger has created, things they have changed since that time and what they might have done differently based on lessons learned in the past four years.
Nurtrio is now an established subsidiary of Navigo, the social enterprise providing a range of mental health and wellbeing services across North East Lincolnshire, led by Chief Executive Simon Beeton.
Jo started off by saying that after trying and failing to manage the merger themselves, appointing not-for-profit merger consultancy specialists Eastside People four years ago had been absolutely the right decision.
Looking back, one of the most positive outcomes of the merger is that that while the senior management team has grown (with the introduction of new management positions for HR and finance), the original team are also still in place and have been instrumental in helping to drive through the changes needed.
The biggest shock, however, came in April 2023, when the 12-month-old organisation was inspected by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), the independent regulator of health and social care in England.. Before that inspection, each of the three organisations (NAViGO Extra, Ace Homecare and Care4All) had consistently received ‘Good’ ratings so it was a big Nurtrio was awarded a CQC rating of ‘Requires Improvement’ for their regulated services.
“Even after the merger process was completed in April 2022, it was surprising how long it took to really build and establish our new identity. We had treated Nurtrio as one organisation but underneath there were clear differences not just in our systems, but also in approaches to risk and in our cultures. If the CQC hadn’t come in at that time, we possibly wouldn’t have spotted the issues.” said Jo.
The main areas that the Nurtrio management team had to focus on were culture and finance.
Fixing the Culture
The review identified that staff who had previously worked at one of the three legacy organisations felt a sense of loss, as the merger had diluted the distinct cultures and identities they valued from the ‘good old days.’ The solution was to put together a Nurtrio Culture Development Programme to focus on the people by building and developing a Nurtrio culture which consisted of:
- All managers keeping a watch for any people-related issues across the organisation
- Creating a warm and welcoming environment for everyone and make staff feel involved (for example they have a ‘welcome bag’ for new joiners, a personal message from Jo, monthly and annual awards, group events and activities and an extra day off on their Birthday)
- Building a senior management team that works together to support each other, gives Jo all the information she needs to do her job and makes decisions together
- Appointing an HR Manager to help the management team get the right focus on the people.
As a result, they feedback from all staff is very positive, and the organisation has grown from 250 to 303 staff.
Fixing the Finances
Financial resilience was found to be another big issue. While the Navigo parent company had been ‘propping up’ NAViGO Extra, this could not continue under the new structure. They realised that it was vitally important to ‘get the money right’. As a result of the new financial focus Nurtrio:
- Won new contracts for social care services and became OFSTED registered
- Grew turnover to £8.6m without needed any loans or grants
- Has absolute awareness of and confidence in its financial position.
Top Tips from CEO Jo Barnes on what to do after a merger
- Don’t think that a merger is over when it’s legally completed, that’s just the start
- Make staff feel welcomed and part of the new team regardless of their role or the organisation they came from
- Build a management team that operates as one for the new organisation
“I don’t regret if for one minute” said Jo, “I would recommend merger absolutely to anyone but make sure you get expert, external support and don’t try to do it yourselves. If we’d brought in somebody like Eastside People in 2017, it would have been a lot easier and taken us much less time.”
