Children and young adult care provider merges with counterpart

Living Life, which trades as The Banyan Tree, a high-acuity children’s care and young adults therapeutic residential care provider, has merged with with Silver Birch Care Holdings (SBCHL).

Living Life was founded in 2001 by Lorraine Andrews Miller and Paul Miller. It has its headquarters in Northampton.

Silver Birch Care Holdings is a family-run provider of education, care and support to children and young people. The group comprises of Silver Birch Care, The Beeches, and Silver Birch Care (Residential Services). Collectively, they have 55 homes across the UK, as well as a specialist school in Peterborough.

Karim Lalani, CEO of Silver Birch, said: “Having had the privilege of getting to know Lorraine and Paul, it quickly became clear that our core values were well aligned; particularly commitment to ‘kaizen’ (continuous improvement), and dedication to improving the lives of young people. We are honoured to be chosen as the new custodians of the business Lorraine and Paul have built over the last 23 years and look forward to working together to ensure The Banyan Tree continues to flourish as part of the SBCHL family.”

Lorraine Miller, CEO of Living Life, expressed enthusiasm about the merger: “Having developed the business over the last 23 years, we were committed to merging with a business which had the same high standards. In Silver Birch we have found an organisation that shares our determination to provide the highest quality of service where children and young people thrive.”

The Birmingham office of Clairfield advised Living Life.

Miller added: “Clairfield truly understood our business and the kind of partner we wanted to merge with. The Clairfield team were extremely supportive throughout the process and provided commercial and practical advice. Their understanding of the healthcare sector was fantastic and helped achieve the result we wanted.”

The Clairfield team was led by Partner, Shah Zaki and Manager, Liam Hadfield.

Zaki added: “I am delighted we were able to meet the personal objectives of Lorraine and Paul and the overall result achieved. This transaction further enhances our extensive credentials in the specialist healthcare sector.”

Legal advice to the shareholders of Living Life was provided by Thursfields, led by partner Tim Edwards and senior associate Reece De-Vaney.

Legal advice to Silver Birch was provided by Anthony Collins, led by partner Laura Jordan.