The founders’ story

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NL Group
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The Founders’ Story

Why NL Group started

NL Group began not with a plan to build a large business, but with a belief that people working in care deserved to be treated with respect — and that the quality of care should never be compromised. Founders Rae McGlone and Mark Hathway came from very different backgrounds: Rae trained as an operating department practitioner with a passion for teaching, and Mark’s career spanned catering, management and training. What they shared was an outlook on how people should be treated — and in October 2001 they incorporated NL Group.

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The Founders

The people who built NL Group

NL Group was founded by Rae McGlone and Mark Hathway in 2001, and their standards still shape how the group works today.

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The Idea

A better way to do complex care

The idea came from Rae’s own experience as a locum. Over one Christmas her relief failed to arrive, so she stayed on to make sure the hospital was supported. When she later queried a missing travel payment, the agency’s response was dismissive. It was a small thing, but it raised a bigger question: why were the healthcare professionals everyone relied on not always treated with the same consideration expected of them?

Rather than simply move to another agency, Rae and Mark decided to build something better — taking on the financial risk, starting with a small group of highly skilled healthcare professionals, and setting out to do complex care differently.

Our approach and outcomes
A woman gestures while speaking at a table; below, a man in a navy polo shirt smiles at the camera in a different indoor setting.
Two adults assist two children, one brushing a horse and the other in a wheelchair, in outdoor settings with trees and a barn in the background.

What Hasn’t Changed

The same principle, at greater scale

Growth was never the point in itself. With roots firmly in the North of England, NL Group built its reputation on being dependable, responsive and straightforward — turnover grew from around £330,000 in the first year to £1.8 million by 2003 — but Rae and Mark were always prepared to turn work away if the price or conditions meant they couldn’t provide the standard they believed was right. One question became the test for every decision: would this be good enough for our own family?

Our story

The Next Chapter

Where it goes next

As NL Group developed, its work moved increasingly into specialist complex care — supporting adults and children with highly individual needs to live as fully and independently as possible in their own homes and communities. That same founding principle still guides the group today, at far greater scale and complexity than Rae and Mark could have imagined in 2001.

Team and leadership