Bridgehead Communications
Portrait of Ben Ashton
Photo: LinkedIn profile

LARGE AND MID-SIZE HOME CARE GROUP/31 BRANCHES

Ben Ashton

Co-Founder, GoodOaks Homecare

Ben Ashton co-founded GoodOaks Homecare in Poole in 2011 and leads its franchise network. Career, awards, writing and interviews.

BIOGRAPHY

Ben Ashton is co-founder of GoodOaks Homecare, a home care provider based in Poole, Dorset, and of its franchising arm, GoodOaks Care Franchising. He started the business in 2011 with Darius Mitkus. GoodOaks now sells franchises to local owners across England and Scotland, supports them from a national office, and runs its own branch for Bournemouth and Poole. The franchisor's website says Ben is responsible for innovation and for developing the GoodOaks brand.

Ben began his career as a frontline care worker. Home Care Insight reported in 2021 that he founded GoodOaks after working as a carer for a provider that did not value or support its care staff, and that this experience shaped the company's employment ethos of valuing, developing and rewarding the people who deliver care. He studied psychology at the University of Exeter (BSc, 2007 to 2010). Companies House shows him as a director of GoodOaks Homecare Ltd from its incorporation on 20 October 2011 and of GoodOaks Franchising Ltd from August 2016, the year the British Franchise Association profile says GoodOaks opened to franchise partners.

Growth has been steady. Home Care Insight counted four GoodOaks offices at the start of 2020 and 11 trading offices by June 2021, then 14 franchise offices in March 2022 and more than 20 locations by July 2024. In October 2026 the Bournemouth Echo reported that franchise owners gave GoodOaks a five-star satisfaction rating for the second year running in a survey by WorkBuzz, and that the national office has a team of 12.

Ben has put carbon reduction and unpaid carers at the centre of the GoodOaks story. The company won the Innovation in Home Care award at the 2019 Leaders in Care Awards for becoming one of the first home care providers to be carbon neutral, and Home Care Insight's 2024 Power List describes GoodOaks as the only franchise network that offsets the carbon produced by its care professionals. In May 2024 he wrote for Comment Central about polling commissioned for GoodOaks' You Are Not Alone campaign for unpaid carers.

Home Care Insight named Ben on its Power List in 2021 and again in 2024, when he appeared among the business executives, and GoodOaks entered him as a finalist for Executive of the Year at the 2025 Leaders in Care Awards. From February to May 2026 he took part in the Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses programme at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, according to his LinkedIn profile.

About GoodOaks Homecare. GoodOaks Homecare was founded in Poole in 2011 by Ben Ashton and Darius Mitkus and has franchised since 2016. Its franchise partners run branches across England and Scotland, supported by a national office, and the company operates its own Bournemouth and Poole branch. See its rank and history

CAREER

  1. AUG 2016 – NOW

    Co-Founder · GoodOaks Care Franchising (GoodOaks Franchising Ltd) NOW

  2. OCT 2011 – NOW

    Co-Founder · GoodOaks Homecare NOW

  3. SEP 2011 – NOV 2014

  4. JAN 2008 – MAY 2009

    Research Intern · University of Exeter

ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS AND APPEARANCES

COUNTED FOR THE RANKING

3 articles in the twelve months to 7 October 2026 (1 national, 2 local).