Successfully scaling a Dental Group
An ageing population coupled with an increasing demand for healthcare services has opened the door for ambitious dental groups. There is now more opportunity than ever for scaling a dental group; acquiring practices, building multi-site operations and entering new markets.
However, every transaction comes with an extra layer of legal complexity that moves just as quickly. Wake Smith’s specialist Healthcare and Wellbeing team understand these complexities.
We provide entrepreneurs looking to scale a dental group with practical, commercially minded legal advice from an experienced, multi-disciplinary team that combines corporate and commercial, banking, commercial property and employment expertise; everything you’ll need to continue your growth without losing any focus on the one thing that ultimately makes a dental practice successful, providing your patients with the highest possible level of service.
Are you scaling your dental group on the strongest foundations?
Scaling a dental group effectively takes more than getting each acquisition over the line.
Our corporate and commercial team will work alongside you to make every stage as straightforward as possible, from structuring acquisitions and carrying out focused due diligence, to negotiating key agreements and putting the right contractual framework in place to support your growing group.
We’ll use our extensive healthcare industry experience to help identify and resolve issues early, streamline the acquisition process and ensure each new practice can be integrated into the wider group without unnecessary legal or commercial obstacles.
As your group grows, banking and finance are likely to become increasingly important. Our banking specialists can support you with acquisition funding and refinancing, negotiating facility agreements and the security required by lenders. They can also deal with guarantees, debentures, conditions precedent and consents. This collaboration ensures your funding arrangements align with the acquisition structure and, more critically, that finance is in place when you need it, without restricting your ability to continue investing, acquiring practices and growing.
From associate contracts to confidentiality and referral agreements, GDC and CQC registrations for NHS and/or private care practices, we make sure all the commercial foundations are in place to support your next acquisition - and the one after that, and the one after that – giving you a smoother, more efficient route to growth, with fewer surprises, less friction and a legal framework you can continue to scale with your ambitions.
Commercial property: every dental practice starts with the right premises
Your dental practice or dental group starts with your premises so getting the physical foundation right is critical.
Our commercial property team negotiates lease renewals and assignments as you bring new practices into the group. And, when purchasing suits your plans better than leasing, we can handle the purchase of freehold surgeries. Alternatively, if a sale-and-leaseback arrangement makes more commercial sense, we can take care of that too.
Once your practice is up and running, we’ll continue to work alongside you. Whether you’re fitting new equipment or reconfiguring your space for additional clinicians, we’ll make sure you have the correct licences in place to legally carry out your upgrades.
Employment: protecting the people behind your care
Another fundamental part of building success as a dental group is your team which makes the employment aspects of any deal critical.
When a practice changes hands, you need to know exactly what this means for existing staff, including if TUPE or the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations applies. This is a UK law designed to protect employees' rights when the business or service they work for changes hands. In a dental group transaction this is highly important. TUPE if very often the key to ensuring continuity of care for your patients during and after the transaction as well as the way for you to retain your top talent.
We can also put in place associate agreements that reflect how your group operates, alongside service agreements for practice managers and other key staff, and advise on locum and agency arrangements where you need flexibility in clinical cover.
Then as your practice continues to grow, we’re always on hand to make sure you stay on the right side of a highly regulated employment environment. From day-to-day HR issues to disciplinary, grievance and dismissal procedures, we make sure you have all the documents you need to help manage staffing issues.
Successfully scaling a dental group requires all these areas working together
With all this in mind, it’s clear that scaling a dental practice requires overlapping legal specialisms not advice in isolation.
From the moment a deal is agreed in principle, corporate and commercial, banking, commercial property and employment issues start moving at the same time. Therefore, it makes total sense that they are handled under one roof.
Take a typical group expansion. Your corporate/commercial team is negotiating the purchase, running due diligence and drafting agreements while your banking team are working through any funding and security requirements and your commercial property team needs to review the surgery’s lease and confirm it meets regulatory standards. At the same time, your employment team is working through contracts, service agreements and any relevant TUPE advice. This keeps your purchase streamlined, your timeline on track and your legal costs to a minimum.
With decades of combined experience, our team understands the challenges of successfully scaling a dental group, so our focus is always on doing everything we can to make the process as efficient, straightforward and commercially productive as possible.
Ready to scale your dental group?
If you're planning your next practice acquisition, a group restructure or simply want your growing dental business built on solid legal foundations, come and talk to a team that understands your sector as well as the law.
Call Wake Smith today on 0114 266 6660, or you find out more about our specialist Healthcare & Wellbeing team here.
