The journey of Nova Care Consultants
2017
Our roots date back to 2017 with the creation of Social Worker Gary, a sole trading independent practice led by our Founder and Consultant Director, Gary Spencer-Humphrey. We also won the Social Worker of the Year Award in the same year. Our director, Gary Spencer-Humphrey is a dual-registered social worker in England and Wales, an Approved Mental Health Professional Lead, a Best Interests Assessor and a DoLS Authoriser. Gary began his health and social work career over 20 years ago, starting as a healthcare assistant and rising through the social work ranks as a senior practitioner, team manager, AMHP Lead, service manager and later Head of Service. You can read more about Gary here.
2019
In 2019, Social Worker Gary incorporated into Expert Social Worker Ltd, retaining the trusted brand of Social Worker Gary. The service quickly became recognised as a leader in private care, mental health and complex capacity assessments, offering a range of private and publicly funded (legal aid) expert witness services to the legal and judiciary. We also won our second national award as the UK Social Care Expert.
2020-2023
In 2020, our referrals quadrupled, and we welcomed our first associate, who is now our assistant director. We ran our services from our headquarters in Hampshire. In 2021, we expanded our operations into Wales and opened our second office the following year. IN 2022, we were shortlisted and received the finalist gong for the Small Business Excellence Award. In 2023, we grew again and onboarded our first Personal Assistant (PA), supporting the consultant director.
2024
In 2024, we were joined by two social work consultants, Jaimie and Akhil. Jaimie is our expert in older adults, and Akhil is our lead in learning disabilities.
2025
In 2025, we took on our first non-social work professional, an independent occupational therapy consultant, Michelle, who is a specialist in moving and handling. In March 2025, we rebranded Social Worker Gary to Nova Care Consultants, marking our birth and evolution from a single-led practice to a multi national wide company that now spans five UK offices across England and Wales, but matintaing the same high standards in care, capacity and consultancy we've become known for across England and Wales.
COMING UP 2026
We have some exciting plans for 2026, including the development of two new key services, as we closely follow the changes to the Mental Health Act, and the opening of a North branch of Nova Care in the North/North East. We're also expanding our training services, developing more direct access to Technology Enabled Care, and partnering with progressive law firms to bring you something special. Keep your eyes on this page for more details.
