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Jonathan PalmerMBE
Chief Executive Officer, Somerset Care
Jonathan Palmer MBE is chief executive of Somerset Care, a not-for-profit provider with 22 care homes in Somerset and Devon, and an NCF board director.
BIOGRAPHY
Jonathan Palmer MBE has been chief executive officer of Somerset Care since September 2024. Somerset Care is a not-for-profit provider with 22 residential care homes across Somerset and Devon, community home care services and more than 2,000 colleagues. Its website says his brief is to deliver the group's strategy of quality, efficiency and growth. In November 2025 he joined the board of the National Care Forum, the association for not-for-profit social care providers.
He joined social care from a career in the British Army and the private sector. He served in the Army from 1999 and trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. From March 2017 to October 2019 he commanded the 1st Battalion Irish Guards. Between 2015 and 2017 he was a strategic adviser to the UK government's Stabilisation Unit. He holds an MBE and a Queen's Commendation, both awarded for work overseas during his military career.
In March 2020 he became chief of staff at the national military Covid-19 response headquarters. From July 2020 to January 2022 he worked as a strategist in the Department of Health and Social Care, on cross-government support for mass testing and the national vaccination programme. He then spent January 2022 to July 2024 as chief operating officer of Revantage UK, a Blackstone portfolio company, where Somerset Care says he helped a private equity house scale up a professional services business. He completed an LSE Online certificate in managerial finance in 2024, shortly before taking the Somerset Care role.
About Somerset Care. Somerset Care is a not-for-profit provider with 22 residential care homes across Somerset and Devon, home care services in Somerset, Wiltshire, Bath and North East Somerset and Devon, and more than 2,000 colleagues. See its rank and history
CAREER
Newest first, each role linked to its source
NOV 2025 – NOW
Non-Executive Director · National Care Forum NOW
SEP 2024 – NOW
Chief Executive Officer · Somerset Care NOW
JAN 2022 – JUL 2024
Chief Operating Officer · Revantage UK, a Blackstone portfolio company
JUL 2020 – JAN 2022
Strategist · Department of Health and Social Care
MAR 2020 – JUL 2020
Chief of staff, national military Covid-19 response headquarters · British Army
MAR 2017 – OCT 2019
Commanding officer · 1st Battalion Irish Guards
SEP 2015 – MAR 2017
Strategic adviser · UK Government Stabilisation Unit
APR 1999 – 2014
Army officer · British Army
ARTICLES, INTERVIEWS AND APPEARANCES
2 items, opened and checked
Nov 2025
National Care Forum announces election of new board membersPROFILECare Home Professional
Reports his election, with Alison Beachim of New Outlook Housing Association, to the NCF board at its AGM.
Sep 2024
I am thrilled and honoured to announce that I've stepped into the role of CEO at Somerset CareSTATEMENTLinkedIn
His own post announcing that he had started as Somerset Care chief executive.
