Contents

Our Purpose 2

Our Unique Approach 4

Building Independence 5

The CareTech Difference — Championing Individuality 6

The CareTech Difference — Personalised Therapies 8

The CareTech Difference — Creating Families and Homes 10

Interview with our CEO 11

Our Response to the COVID 19 Pandemic 13

Fulfilling our Purpose 14

CARE4 — Our Responsible Business Strategy 17

CARE4 Innovation 19

CARE4 Planet 23

CARE4 People 28

CARE4 Community 33

Ensuring Good Governance 37

WEF Core ESG Metrics — Disclosures and Index 42

Our purpose

We Build Independence

Our vision - is a world where there is equal opportunity for a life fully lived.

To play our part in this vision, we enable children, young people and adults with complex needs to make their own life choices, and to develop confidence and independence to live, learn, thrive and engage, building better futures.

We refer to this as providing Extraordinary Days, Every Day.

We help those in our care to master the essentials of daily life; like being able to cook, shop, ‘keep house’, build relationships, and to stay well and safe. We provide access to learning, both academic and playful. We build the confidence and skills needed for employment for those who would like to work in any capacity. And, for everyone, we nurture the ability and self-awareness to engage socially and build lasting relationships.

We achieve these extraordinary outcomes thanks to the loving, supportive, fun and therapeutic environments that our specialist professional teams create and with the courage and determination of those in our care.

Our Purple business uses a range of approaches — from direct support for those managing their Direct Payment and Personal Health Budgets to the internationally-recognised Purple Tuesday campaign to create a step change improvement in the awareness of the value and needs of disabled customers — to enable greater independence for individuals with disabilities.

Our Smartbox business is a world leader in Augmentative and Alternative Communication, (‘AAC’), delivering game-changing transformation for those with communication challenges.

Our vision has driven our success. Our purpose is shared by our staff and, of course, those for whom we care. We want everyone in the CareTech family to have a bright future and we work tirelessly towards that aim.

The positive impact that we create for the people in our care, as well as for their families and friends, forms the heart of our business model. Beyond those in our care and their personal networks, our work brings significant value to society more generally in terms of the social and economic benefits that social care is recognised to create. The Skills for Care 2020 report, for example, estimated that adult social care alone contributes £41.2 billion annually to the economy in England.

The demand for social care services is forecast to increase in coming years and we believe our unique approach will enable us to support many more people in the future, both in the UK and internationally. Through our ambitious innovation strategy and deploying leading-edge technological solutions, our ambition is to support independence for a million more young people and adults by 2030. All of these market drivers will increase our ability to positively impact lives and, in doing so, create sustainable business growth.

World Economic Forum ESG Disclosure

G1 Governing purpose
G1.1 Setting Purpose:

CareTech’s purpose is inherent in all that we do. We enable children, young people and adults with complex needs to make their own life choices, and to develop confidence and independence to live, learn, thrive and engage, building better futures. We refer to this as providing Extraordinary Days, Every Day.

For full listing of WEF 21 Core ESG disclosures and disclosure index see Appendix

Our Unique Approach

Extraordinary days, every day

More than 27 years ago, we founded CareTech with the ambition to create homes for people with specialist learning needs and complex physical and behavioural challenges. Homes where they could be supported with the professional care that they needed to develop life skills for independence and a future of their choosing.

Our goal has always been to create a happy family environment that enables those for whom we care to grow in confidence and capability, so that they can make their own choices for a better future. It is this shared goal that enables us to deliver ‘Extraordinary Days, Every Day’.

Our commitment to creating better futures applies throughout our business model and to all our stakeholders. We have always recognised that we have a commitment not just to those in our care and their families, but to our staff, to the communities in which we operate, to our shareholders, and to our planet. Only by caring for all these aspects can we deliver a business that is truly successful for the long term.

Our talented professional teams work tirelessly to provide Extraordinary Days, Every Day. It is their leadership, expertise and hard work that delivers the positive outcomes we see daily. As an organisation, we support our people by ensuring that they have opportunity to improve their own lives with good employment, access to professional development and the option to own their own stake in the Company through our employee share scheme.

The employment that we create supports our local communities to flourish. We offer apprenticeships to those who want to build a career in care. We endeavour to engage local businesses wherever possible. In all the communities that we serve, our homes offer support to local families who need access to professional specialist care and education. We also support the CareTech Foundation to deliver meaningful impact to communities in the UK and overseas by supporting and championing the social care sector, care workers and those living in care through its four grant streams.

We are equally aware of our responsibility to protect the future of the planet. Without a healthy planet, none of us can thrive. We are working towards reduction in our carbon and waste footprints combining cross-Group capital investment with a grassroots campaign in all of our services that engages everyone to live and work in ways that minimise energy use and waste, protect scarce resources and maximise positive outcomes for nature.

Building Independence

Better futures

We are privileged to share and support the individual journeys to independence of all the courageous people in our schools, colleges and community-based home settings.

At CareTech, we define independence as having the personal confidence and skills to beable to live, learn, thrive, stay healthy and safe, and to engage in our community. This can be vastly different from one person to the next; sometimes it means an individual is able to live in a more independent setting or at home with their family, and in other cases it might mean an individual can be independent on a day-today basis in a fully supported care setting. Whatever the setting, our goal is to enable people to make their own choices for life and be equipped to fulfil them.

We want those in our care to have the ability to participate in the practicalities of daily  life, to learn something new or to work if they wish, and to participate in community or family events making friends and having fun to gain a sense of independence. So, wherever possible, we create opportunities for them to enjoy and engage in ‘everyday’ activities.

Case Study
The impact of Smartbox’s assistive technology

Fraser is 14, has cerebral palsy and attends a mainstream school in Glasgow. “Eye gaze technology has opened up so many horizons for Fraser”, said his dad, John. “People can see parts of his personality that might not be obvious to them at first.”

Case Study
“If I can walk again, I can do everything else again!”

When Regan left hospital and moved into Clock Tower Mews in August 2016, he hadn’t walked since February of that year. By June 2020, with our expert support, Regan had started to stand and walk with staff holding him gently and, by the end of the year, he was walking unaided. By 2021, Regan was happily and freely walking around his home on his own. Regan is very independent now; if he fancies a snack he will walk into the kitchen and get one for himself. He’s much more able to make his own decisions, which has been life-changing for him. There are particular toys and music he likes and if he wants to watch TV he will just pick up the remote control to change the channel and choose what he wants to watch. He has not only gained independence in a physical way but has also grown in confidence and is trying new things. He never enjoyed drawing but he is picking up a pencil and drawing pictures now. So, it’s not just his walking; this has boosted his self-confidence completely. Now his attitude is “If I can walk again, I can do everything else”

Regan’s support worker, Helen

The CareTech Difference

Championing Individuality

Everyone in our care has their own unique story to tell and personality to express. We love to see characters growing stronger and more confident as the support plans that we carefully create together with each person help them to grow towards greater independence.

We design each support plan to meet specific needs and personal ambitions. We help individuals to express themselves and, in particular, to direct and choose the care and support they receive. Our ambition is always to help each person to meet their personal goals. We’ve nurtured many and varied talents — from pianists to painters — and always take delight in learning new things about each other. There are many extraordinary stories to tell as our inspirational residents overcome significant hurdles to make their own life choices and grow in independence. We are constantly humbled by their courage and determination to beat the odds by learning new things.

We are constantly humbled by their courage and determination to beat the odds by learning new things.

Case Study
The transformative power of music

Tom arrived at Hill House School with very challenging behaviours, and he was unable to interact appropriately with the people around him. He had been very isolated in his previous placement due to his difficult behaviour; in his frustration he could become quite violent and destructive to his surroundings. We took a very slow and steady approach with Tom and, gradually, he was able to tolerate others for a short time. We decided to introduce him to one of our ‘Music for Autism’ sessions with pianist Derek Paravicini. To our great surprise, Tom sat at the spare piano next to Derek’s piano and started to play chords, copying Derek. This happy discovery enabled our music therapist to work with Tom and help him to do so much more. As he became confident on the piano, he gained confidence in himself and his own capability. By the time Tom left us, he was attending music sessions at an external centre and going out to live gigs in Southampton. He is now in his adult placement locally and continues to enjoy making and listening to music. “ This was a transformational journey for Tom (and us too!) and his discovery of himself as a pianist was a significant factor in building his confidence to live more independently.”

Kate Landells, Principal, Hill House School

We are fortunate to have a very diverse workforce. The nature of care work means that we have a predominance of women in our front line teams as they represent by far the larger talent pool. However, we work hard to maintain a gender balance that is reflective of the people in our care  and offer training opportunities to all our staff to develop a career at CareTech. We employ a  broad mix of ethnicities and find that diversity of approaches helps our staff teams to find better  solutions for individuals in our care.

World Economic Forum ESG Disclosure

PP1 Dignity and equality
PP1.1 Diversity and inclusion

We currently capture age and ethnicity diversity data for new joiners in FY2021 as follows:

Our female:male ratio is 2.3:1

Data is currently unavailable for other staff. During 2022, we will implement a data capture platform that will enable diversity data capture across the group for all staff.

For full listing of WEF 21 Core ESG disclosures capture across the Group for all staff. and disclosure index see Appendix

The CareTech Difference

Personalised Therapies

People in our care can have very complex needs, ranging from a diagnosis of Autism to physical disabilities to severe mental health challenges that might be a consequence of extreme life events  such as trauma and abuse.

Often, there are multiple issues to untangle. In our rehabilitation services, for example, we support men who have suffered severe brain injuries and who are learning to live with complex physical and mental disabilities. In our schools, we support school age children with challenging behaviours, severe learning difficulties and often with challenging backgrounds.

Our team of specialists achieves incredible results with patience, professionalism, and personalisation. We have an outstanding resource pool with multiple therapies to offer to people in our care and our national specialist network means that we can almost always access the expertise needed within our team. Our network enables us to share learning and continuously improve our standards too.

Our teams are creative in their pursuit of effective evidence-based therapies and break-through thinking to help those in our care to overcome their challenges. We employ an extensive range of approaches and tailor-make a personal therapy programme for every individual shaped to meet their unique needs and that is flexible enough to change and grow with them. Our teams’ inspirational and innovative work has achieved compelling results many times over — so much so that sometimes the extraordinary becomes ordinary! And, where progress is hard won, they never give up.

We are immensely proud of all our people and so grateful for their dedication.

Karen Varney
Consultant Clinical Psychologist, Hill House School and Purbeck View School

Some children come to live with us from very adverse and challenging situations and it can be very difficult to understand their stories. But with patience and communication I can support the team and young person to build a supportive and trusting relationship. This enables them to explore and learn, and enhances their emotional wellbeing. It’s very fulfilling to see this progress. I’m lucky to work with hugely experienced colleagues who are deeply committed to helping our children and I find this immensely inspiring.

Kim is a great example of how our approach succeeds. Kim arrived at Hill House School aged15. In his last placement he had been very restricted in solitary confinement due to his challenging behaviours. As a team, we worked very hard with Kim, helping him to overcome his trauma, mistrust, emotional dysregulation and intolerance of others. He now lives in a small community home and spends lots of time with his family.

Kirsty Marsden
Speech and Language Therapist, Head of Care, Hill House School

I’ve been working with children and young people with autism and learning difficulties at CareTech for over 10 years. I support them to communicate with their peers and carers, enabling them to better express their thoughts and needs, helping them to gain confidence and independence. We use a wide variety of communication methods including gestures, Makaton, body language and of course speech. Every person has very different needs, and I enjoy the challenge of adapting tools and approaches to best support them.

We’ve recently been testing Smartbox’s Talk Pad technology to assist communication and have found it to be life-changing for many of our students. Joanna is 17, she has been with us for around 6 years and during that time has been unable to speak - using Smartbox she can to talk to us about how she’s feeling; when she’s happy or lonely, hungry or bored. She’s really found her voice and delights in having conversations — it’s a beautiful thing to be part of, and seeing this profound progress for young people gives me enormous job satisfaction. In the last 12 months I’ve been promoted to Head of Care so I look forward to supporting our young people towards independence with an even broader range of therapies and interventions.

Kirsty was awarded CareTech’s prestigious ‘Therapist of the Year’ award in 2020.

Charlotte Beline
Mental Health Practitioner, North West Complex Care Service

I work with young people in residential care who have complex social, emotional and mental health difficulties, many of whom have experienced significant adverse childhood experiences. Every day is different! I love the diversity of the role from providingconsultations one day, to attending meetings, staff training or supporting service developments the next.

This role comes with its challenges, from juggling my diary around to supporting some of the UK’s most complex young people. It is highly rewarding seeing young people develop, achieve and progress to independence. One young person who I have supported recently stated “my clinical stuff is massive;  with Charlotte’s help, I am 100% more aware of my mental health and I understand things about myself  more, things like triggers or what can help me to calm down”. One of the many rewarding things about my job!

The CareTech Difference

Creating Families and Homes

CareTech is built on family values, and we are dedicated to creating an environment that is caring, supportive and fun.

We operate a diverse range of education and care settings, from solo homes to larger highly specialist care facilities and residential schools with full educational facilities. Irrespective of the setting and the number of people living there, our goal is always to create a family environment.

From the teams maintaining cleanliness to the teams who provide 24/7 care for our residents, we have an ethos of ‘no place like home’. It is this warm and inclusive environment that makes everyone feel secure and supported, giving them their best chance to learn and grow. Like every family, we have disruptions from time to time and our skilled teams are adept at supporting those in our care through difficulties.

Everyone has their own room, decorated to their own design. There are shared spaces for watching TV together or doing activities such as crafts and music. We eat together and those who are willing and able are encouraged to share in the cooking of meals and clearing up afterwards.

Most of our homes have gardens for outdoor fun and, where there’s enthusiasm, we grow vegetables as well as flowers. Our annual ‘Blooming Marvellous’ competition is always hotly-contested. Whenever we can, we’ll have days out together and we always love to welcome guests (when there’s not a pandemic). And, of course, we all love a party!

Our schools offer so much more than classrooms, with imaginative outdoor facilities such as forest spaces and vegetable gardens. We even have ponies at one of our schools. Our aim is always to engage our students by having fun because we know that happiness is the bedrock for good learning.

“ Our gardens at Oakleaf Rehabilitation Centre play a huge part in the cognitive, physical and emotional rehabilitation of people in our care. The opportunity to trigger a variety of senses through the beauty of the surroundings brings another valuable element to the recovery process. Many residents have worked with the Horticulture Team as part of their therapeutic timetable and have been responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the grounds. This has allowed for the recovery of many practical skills and also provides opportunities to practice other skills being focussed on by therapists. Having pride in one’s surroundings is important and for residents who are away from their ‘home’ and are already experiencing a traumatic shift in their life circumstances, the gardens, grounds and physical appearance of the place can be a major contributing factor to mental wellbeing and contentment.”

Dan Gordon, Deputy Director, The Oakleaf Group

Interview with our CEO

Responsibility and sustainability in our DNA

Q Why is ‘purpose’ important to you?

From the start when we founded CareTech, Farouq and I were determined to provide care services that we would be happy to entrust with our own families. Over the years, as CareTech has grown, it’s pleasing to see that this simple approach has become embedded into our organisational purpose: to enable those in our care to develop confidence and independence to build better futures.

Today, as a large UK business with a growing presence internationally, having a clear purpose is more important than ever to help us navigate the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in the coming years.

Q How does sustainability tie into your broader corporate strategy?

For CareTech, we see sustainability and business success as going hand in hand. Only by being true to our wider social purpose can we deliver sustainable business success. We have never been interested in short term quick fixes or success. So, sustainability in its wider sense is woven throughout our corporate strategy, integral to all we do.

From an environmental perspective, we cannot create bright futures for the CareTech family without taking care of our shared home — Earth. The planet’s climate crisis threatens all of our futures and will have a profound impact on global health; an unhealthy planet leads to unhealthy humans.

As stewards of a large property portfolio, we are determined to play our part to reduce our carbon impact and are committed to striving towards this in coming years.

Q How have you considered your different stakeholders when deciding how to approach sustainability?

CareTech’s biggest asset is our people — the 11,000+ staff delivering incredible care day in, day out — and the many thousands of individuals we have the privilege to support every year through our education, care and technology services. These are our most important stakeholders so our approach to sustainability is rooted in understanding their needs and listening to their views.

Q What do you see as the biggest sustainability challenge facing CareTech today?

Like many businesses of our scale, engaging hearts and minds will be key to everyone in the organisation, understanding our sustainability ambitions and working together on a shared journey. the CareTech family will work together and will guide the Group for decades to come.

Q As CEO, what do you consider your greatest legacy when it comes to responsible business?

Amongst those that come to mind, and which have stood the test of time, include:  the unique Pathway of Care Services that is a real differentiator at CareTech and which puts our service users at the centre of their care plan; being one of the only social care providers to encourage employee share ownership; and, establishing the first corporate charitable foundation in the social care sector.

I think that the greatest legacy is that, despite growing to a size I never quite imagined when we first established CareTech, the most common description our people use to describe the Group is that of ‘a family’. These bonds of family will ensure that, whatever the future brings, we will pull together to deliver the purpose that unites us all. Our responsible business strategy is hugely important as it establishes the long-term approach of how all of us in the CareTech family will work together and will guide the Group for decades to come.

Our Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has tested us in so many ways, just as it did so many others, but the strong values underpinning our approach are serving us well.

Our priority is, of course, the safety and wellbeing of those in our care and of our staff. The professionalism and commitment of our people to keeping everyone safe and healthy throughout this crisis, whilst remaining focussed on achieving results for the people they care for, has been inspirational. It has also been a very real confirmation of the importance of our shared purpose.

A truly sustainable business model supports people and community, especially when they most need it. We set up a £1 million emergency fund at the start of the pandemic to help staff through the crisis and this has been a lifeline for many. In addition to this fund, we doubled our restricted donation to the CareTech Foundation to provide additional support through its Staff Hardship Fund.

Our focus on maintaining good health, infection control and ensuring high hygiene standards has always been strong. Protection for everyone was, of course, our primary concern from the beginning and so we ensured we had adequate stocks of PPE to all services throughout the pandemic.

We also created a new risk reporting and management system in response to the crisis which is now embedded into our processes and better equips us for everyday risk management across the Group. The pandemic has seen us raise our standards even higher, which will help to promote good health for all into the future.

As soon as vaccines were available, we did everything we could to ensure that staff and those in our care were able to benefit from the protection the vaccines afford. We delivered an extensive vaccination communication programme encouraging staff take-up and addressing the concerns of some. We are proud of the high voluntary take-up of the vaccines right across the Group.

For us, COVID-19 has thrown a very bright light on the importance of communities, of our brilliant people, and on the critical issue of good ‘everyday’ health for everyone. These are key aspects of our sustainability approach and topics on which we will continue to place real emphasis in the future through our CARE4 strategy.

Our £1m emergency fund to support staff through the pandemic and the CareTech Foundation’s Staff Hardship Fund have been a lifeline for many of our people.

Fulfilling Our Purpose

Measuring our impact

Our purpose drives our business, and it helps us to demonstrate how we impact society positively throughout our business model.

As a first step, we have defined our purpose and a set of ‘Impact Goals’ that help us to define the impact that we want to have; enabling those in our care to gain independence.

In 2022, we will refine our ‘Impact Indicators’ (selected to indicate progress against the Goals) and develop a reporting methodology that will enable us to report our social impact, to celebrate success and inspire us to improve.

Our social impact headline commitment:

We will establish a robust set of Social Impact Indicators and reporting methodology so that we can quantify and report on the social impact of delivering our core purpose.

Our Purpose

We enable children, young people and adults with complex needs to make their own life choices, and to develop confidence and independence to live, learn, thrive and engage, building better futures.

Our Impact Goals and Indicators

IMPACT GOAL 1: LIVE

Ability to manage daily living with reduced need for practical support.

Impact Indicators:

Cooking skills, shopping skills, personal care routines, housekeeping skills

IMPACT GOAL 2: LEARN

Attending school or engaging in education or hobby/interest of any kind.

Impact Indicators:

Educational courses attended, qualifications gained, hobbies and interests pursued

IMPACT GOAL 3: THRIVE

Living a happy, healthy and fulfilling life with a good level of physical and mental wellbeing.

Impact Indicators: Maintaining healthy weight, reduced medical intervention, reduced medication, general happiness, participating in work (paid or voluntary)

IMPACT GOAL 4: ENGAGE

Participating regularly in clubs (e.g. sports), social groups, faith centres or other community-based activities, including work.

Impact Indicators: Participation, time and frequency participating, friendships/relationships held, hours worked

We see these Impact Goals being delivered every day and look forward to being able to report them more robustly. In the meantime, we’d like to share a few examples of how our dedicated teams achieve extraordinary outcomes in partnership with the individuals for whom they care.

Case Study
Independence for Kelly as she moves into her very own flat

When Kelly joined us, she was a very high risk to herself, with self-harm and extreme challenging behaviours a constant problem. Her mental health issues had meant she had been living in hospital for eight months and was unable to manage daily life by herself.

Kelly now lives in a Supported Living setting with us (meaning she has her own private space with professional support on hand as needed). This gives her much-needed privacy, independence, and security.

When Kelly first moved into her flat, she was very nervous about using the oven and microwave; with our support she confidently uses her kitchen appliances and cooks for herself independently. She is free to spend time in communal areas with others when she wants to and can return to her flat when she feels the need for privacy.

This specialist environment enables us to provide Kelly with the professional support she needs whilst encouraging her to become independent. It has given her a sense of belonging and boundaries; she understands that support is available at specific times and at other times she is responsible for herself. She has learned to recognise and build healthy relationships, a huge change from when she first arrived.

Having her own personal space has greatly contributed to Kelly’s positive outcome; she has inspired staff with her amazing progress and becomes more and more independent with every day.

Case Study
Creating employment opportunities for students at Cambian Wing College

“As part of our ongoing drive to ensure that our students leave Cambian Wing College and are able to thrive in their community, we have created two employment opportunities at the college for our students when they leave us. We have found historically that many businesses are averse to employing young people with additional needs and tend to cite their lack of experience as reasoning. Therefore we decided three years ago, to create 1 year, fixed term employment opportunities for ex-students to enable them to gain the valuable experience necessary to be successful at interview.

We employ the support of an independent job coach from DWP to work alongside our students for the year to support them in creating CVs, practising for interviews and building their confidence. We offer a role as a gardener and kitchen assistant. So far, we are on to our second gardener; our first gained employment immediately after completing his fixed term with us and we couldn’t be more proud of the initiative.”

Cassandra Pollitt, Headteacher, Cambian Wing College

Case Study
Independence for Jake as he embarks on a career in horticulture

At 19, despite the many challenges of Autism, Jake has embarked on a career  in horticulture — a subject he loves. Expertly supported by staff, he proved his ability to work independently on a work placement at a local community garden where his diligent work earned him an invitation to a permanent job. He now works three days a week helping to keep the community parks and gardens maintained.

Working independently helped Jake to learn new life skills as well as practical skills, enabling him to develop and grow in confidence. This carefully managed support has allowed him to move on and be independent in his new career.

“Jake loves that practical outdoor experience and enjoys the one-on-one interaction with the park ranger. They get on very well so it’s a perfect choice for his career path and the best outcome for him. We are delighted to see him thrive in his new-found independence.”

Sarah Chatterton, Interim Head of Education, Brook View School

CARE4 – People, Planet, Community, Innovation

Our Responsible Business Strategy

In 2020, we formalised the approach that has underpinned CareTech from its earliest days by developing our Responsible Business strategy. Our CARE4 Responsible Business strategy is rooted in our corporate purpose to enable independence for those in our care and it extends to all aspects of our business.

CARE4 encompasses our commitment to fair, equitable and independent futures for our people and partners. And it includes our commitment to play our part in protecting the planet from human-caused damage. Our Responsible Business strategy will guide us to create value for all stakeholders as well as helping us to ensure that we manage our business effectively, ethically, and profitably.

CARE4 is a framework for transparency and ethical business as well as for our ESG reporting. It enables us to demonstrate our commitment to success built on these vital foundations.

CARE4 is informed by our materiality analysis and 27 years’ experience in the care sector. People are at the heart of our business and so people topics are our priority. We also recognise the urgency for action on environmental issues, especially on climate change, and are committed to reducing our impact in the most material areas — specifically our carbon emissions and waste footprint. The chart on page 43 summarises our materiality analysis of key ESG issues, with more detailed commentary in the annex.

CARE4 sets out our commitments, goals and measures for responsible business. We will report progress using the World Economic Forum’s ESG reporting framework alongside our own purpose metrics and external ratings from our regulatory stakeholders (e.g., Ofsted and the Care Quality Commission).

CARE4 Planet

We know that healthy lives go hand in hand with a healthy planet. We are committed to caring for the wellbeing of our planet to safeguard all our futures.

CARE4 Innovation

We believe that good business creates value for society as well as for those whom we care. Our innovative approaches will expand our business for a successful future, helping us to enable independence for more people, positively impacting more lives.

CARE4 Community

Thriving communities are central to our success and we aim to be an active contributor in all the locations in which we operate. We also support the vital role of the wider social care sector through the CareTech Foundation.

CARE4 People

Our business exists to facilitate better lives — for the people in our care and the people who work for us. We aim to be the sector’s best workforce and so we offer market leading employment opportunity, creating better futures for our employees.

Social Impact

The purpose of our business is to enable children, young people and adults with complex needs to make their own life choices, and to develop confidence and independence to live, learn, thrive and engage, building better futures.

Governance

Our belief in creating value for all our stakeholders drives our commitment to good governance, transparency, and effective engagement with all involved in our business, safeguarding its long-term success.

CARE4 is aligned to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

GOAL 3. Good Health and Wellbeing

GOAL 4. Quality Education

GOAL 5. Gender Equality

GOAL 8. Decent Work & Economic Growth

GOAL 13. Climate Action

CARE4 Innovation

A better future for our business

Our CARE4 Innovation headline commitment:

We will have established our new CareTech Technology division to spearhead our technology and innovation agenda.

We believe that good business creates value for society as well as for those for whom we care. Our innovative approaches will expand our business for a successful future, helping us to enable independence for more people and positively impacting more lives.

Everyone should have the opportunity to live their life to the full and our business has always been focussed on helping people in our care to gain independence to do just that.

We are proud of our track record of creating person-centred’ care programmes that are bespoke to every individual’s needs and it’s this focus on tailoring therapy that helps us to achieve so much success. We encourage our professional care teams to innovate in the context of our care quality governance and this enables them to deliver the best possible outcomes for those in their care.

Our people are at the heart of our success.  Offering great career opportunities is essential to attract and retain the talented people that we need. We believe that our innovative approach to training and development sets us at the forefront of the sector; it’s a key pillar in our business strategy and an essential factor in attracting and developing the best teams in the business.

CareTech has embarked on becoming a digital leader in the disability and specialist social care sectors by developing an end-to end pathway of innovative services that blend care and technology.

Building on our maiden investment in Smartbox, we will accelerate the pace at which we invest in and develop innovative digital solutions to reach more people around the world who can benefit from these technologies. We will also continue to modernise and innovate our business approach across all areas of the Group, embracing new ways of providing high-quality care.

Progress and Projects

Smartbox — technology for independence

Smartbox is an exciting assistive technology company that creates software and devices for disabled children and adults, enabling them to have a voice and live more independently. Their flagship Augmentative and Alternative Communication, (‘AAC’), platform supports a wide range of conditions and literacy levels with features for symbol and text communication, accessible apps, environment control, internet browsing and much more.

Smartbox removes barriers and enables disabled people to fully participate in society, supporting more than 10,000 people to communicate in the past year alone.

The company works closely with people at school, home and work so they can access learning opportunities, stay connected and be independent. Their global network of partners ensures the technology is accessible around the world in more than 30 languages and in over 100 countries.

“We were always wondering ‘what does Tom think?’ and ‘what does Tom want?’…Smartbox is allowing him to tell us and it has made an incredible difference to our family… he has a voice now.”

Elsa — mother to Tom, aged 8

Purple — changing  the  disability conversation

Purple, another CareTech company, is a thought leader at the forefront of changing the disability conversation for disabled people in business, communities and government. The aim is to move the conversation from one anchored in welfare charity and vulnerability to one of value contribution and opportunity.

Purple supports over 4,500 disabled people to live independently in the community using a local authority direct payment (or personal health budget from clinical commissioning groups) which enables them to manage their own care and employ carers of their choice. It also supports people into employment with a range of training programmes to build confidence and skills.

Purple supports businesses to become increasingly more accessible to enable even greater independence for disabled people. The acclaimed Purple Tuesday involves over 5,000 organisations making commitments to improve the disabled customer experience.

EnableAll

EnableAll is the world’s first fully accessible online marketplace, created for equality and inclusivity and will launch in early 2022. EnableAll will optimise user experience to deliver an authentic platform where everyone can find what they want, when they want, easily and enjoyably. Disability doesn’t exist in a bubble — disabled people deserve the same digital opportunities as their non-disabled peers. Through EnableAll, they can shop confidently, conveniently, and independently.

“EnableAll provides a fully accessible route to the £274 billion Purple Pound for merchants who are committed to disability inclusion and widening their market reach.”

Mike Adams OBE - CEO Purple

“We kick-started our commitment to disability inclusion with a thought-provoking webinar led by Purple. Our staff were captivated by Mike’s knowledge, vision and lived experience and in turn, Mike was impressed with how curious and committed we all are to this agenda. We want disability to be part of the everyday conversation and become embedded in Eastlight’s DNA.”

Emma Palmer — CEO Eastlight Community Homes

World Economic Forum ESG Disclosure

PR1 Employment and wealth generation
PR1.2 Economic Contribution

A:

Revenues – £489m

Operating costs – £88.9m

Employee wages and benefits – £285m

Payments to providers of capital – (working capital, equity capital and debt capital)

Payments to providers of debt consist of £12.4m interest, £5.8m capital and £0.4m arrangement fees.

Payments to government – £28.7m

Community investment – Charitable donations to the CareTech Foundation amounted to £1.2m. The Group has committed to donate 2.5% of our pre-tax profit to the Foundation.

B:

Financial assistance received from the government:  COVID-19 social care grants received of £2.7m.

The Group has incurred additional costs as a result of COVID-19 in relation to higher sickness absence rates, personal protective equipment (PPE) costs, infection control and higher administration costs. The Group has received additional funding by way of Government grants through local authorities to assist in dealing with this. The Group has worked closely with all local authorities in establishing a dedicated funding arrangement to support our services which has been collected to offset the additional costs, as noted above, that the Group has incurred in relation to COVID-19.

PR1.3 Financial investment contribution

A. Capital expenditure was £31.5m which includes £11.8m to purchase and develop new sites, £16.8m maintenance capex and software development of £2.9m. Depreciation and amortisation for the year amounted to £19.5m and £10.3m respectively.

B. Dividends paid in the year of £14.4m. We continue to maintain a progressive dividend policy. The Board has proposed a final dividend of 9.5p (2020: 8.75p) per share bringing the total dividend for the year to 14.1p (2020: 12.75p) per share. This represents a full year increase of 10.6%  year on year.  No share buybacks occurred during the year.

PR2 Innovation — better products and services
PR2.1 Total R&D expenses

Research costs expensed £0.95m

Development costs capitalised £1.6m

PR3 Community and social vitality

PR3.1 Total Tax Paid

£28.7m consisting of: social security taxes £20.8m, Corporation Tax £6m, Council taxes £0.8m, VAT £0.6m and Stamp Duty £0.4m.

For full listing of WEF 21 Core ESG disclosures and disclosure index see Appendix

CARE4 Planet

A better future for our planet

Our CARE4 Planet headline commitment:

We will be a Net Zero business by 2050.

CARE4

We know that healthy lives go hand in hand with a healthy planet. We are committed to caring for the wellbeing of our planet to safeguard all our futures.

As a service business, our environmental impact is dominated by the footprint of our estate. Comprising over 800 properties, it is the major contributor to our carbon footprint, closely followed by the impact of our vehicle fleet. Improving the energy efficiency of our services and fleet will be key areas of focus as we work to reduce our carbon emissions in the coming years, and we are committed to transitioning our fleet to low emissions vehicles.

We have commissioned an independent review of our climate impact to establish a clear baseline across our business. Using this baseline assessment, in 2022 we will develop a clear roadmap by which to decarbonise our business.

Our other significant impact is ‘household’ waste and increasing recycling rates whilst also reducing landfill waste will be a focus as we work to play our part in addressing pollution and resource scarcity.

Many of our services have gardens and grounds that provide an important resource or residents’ wellbeing. We are working towards a future where we create opportunity for nature to thrive in all our outdoor spaces, in turn supporting those in our care to thrive.

We will ensure that our procurement policies consider resource sustainability issues, specifically ensuring that paper is from sustainable sources and using local suppliers where possible.

Progress and Projects

Our carbon footprint

Meeting our reporting obligations under The Companies and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018, we publish our carbon footprint annually in our Annual Report. Our new CARE4 responsible business framework increases our focus on carbon emissions by setting a clear reduction target and a commitment to developing a carbon reduction plan compliant with TCFD requirements in 2022.

Our carbon emissions in 2020/21 were 12,971 tCO2e, an increase on 2019/20 of 10%.

This increase is a consequence of access to better data rather than any material increase in emissions, and we are confident that this figure provides a robust baseline on which to build our carbon reduction plan in 2022.

Scope 1 accounts for 74% of our emissions and this is dominated by our fleet and energy consumption at our properties. We are in the process of transitioning our fleet to hybrid, electric and low emission vehicles having already removed diesel

vehicles as an option for company cars. During 2022, we will create a decarbonisation plan for our properties that will enable us to reach our Net Zero 2050 target. We offer a

‘Cycle to Work’ scheme for all staff.

Our Smartbox business is well-advanced on this transition and is well on the way to a fully electric fleet, not only delivering significant emissions reductions but cost savings as well. We have embarked on a significant programme to improve energy efficiency at all our properties. Further detail of these initiatives will be included in our carbon reduction plan during 2022.

Case Study
Jessica MacRae, Assistive Technology Specialist at Smartbox, describes her switch to an electric car for her role:

“Working in the office as part of our support team with a 100-mile a day commute, I was racking up miles and fuel bills. Our financial director at Smartbox had been spending lots of time researching EVs and, with his  knowledge as well as the company support  having electric car charging at the office, as  well as my drive to make an environmental difference, I made the switch — and I have never looked back! Currently covering from Grimsby across to the Northern tip of Wales and down to the most Southern points of Devon and Cornwall in my role as AT specialist, 300 miles in a day isn’t unusual — but this isn’t really a problem. The charging infrastructure in the UK has improved significantly since I first became an EV driver and stopping to charge on these days of long commutes forces me to stop and have a break, drink a coffee before getting back on the road — with both the car and my mind recharged. Over time, as an EV driver you learn to drive more efficiently — making sure to get the most out of your full charge, whilst enjoying the easy, relaxed drive that is driving electric, whilst knowing you are significantly minimising your carbon footprint.”

We are currently implementing a rolling programme of energy efficiency measures and these will be increased and improved as we focus on the route to our 2050 Zero Carbon commitment. The programme includes:

• Replacement of end-of-life boilers with new more energy efficient condensing boilers
• Clocks and thermostats fitted to boilers in larger services
• Newly-installed radiators are fitted with thermostatic valves
• When refurbishing or replacing light fittings, we upgrade to LED
• Replacement appliances are AA rated
• Ensuring building roofs are insulated, windows double glazed or secondary glazed and thermostatic mixer valves are used to control hot water

Our waste footprint

Our waste mainly comprises standard household waste and, at some sites, we also generate clinical waste. During 2022, we will explore opportunities to minimise our waste to landfill by setting clear targets for all waste streams and increasing recycling rates across all sites, playing our part to reduce plastic pollution and protect resources.

Our 2021 Waste Footprint
General Waste:

Landfill: 76 tonnes; 5%

Recycling: 298 tonnes; 19%

Energy Recovery: 1,188 tonnes; 76%

Clinical Waste:

3,082,882 litres

One Planet Living

We are currently piloting a One Planet Living approach in some of our key services, working with the management team, staff and residents to support service and residents to develop plans with each service, helping them to improve sustainability at their location.

One Planet Living is a framework for sustainability developed by Bioregional. Using  the One Planet Living ten principles, the teams will develop their plans in alignment with CARE4 commitments, helping us to meet our corporate targets with a grassroots campaign.

Longer term, this will help us to activate improvements across all our services and our ambition is to implement the campaign nationally once the pilots are validated.

During 2022, we will build on the pilot project at Hill House School, rolling out to all schools in the Group. We will extend the pilot to our Adults’ and Children’s services, with an ambition to roll out the programme nationally.

Case Study
One Planet Living at Hill House School

Hill House is a registered education provision  for students aged 11–19, offering 52-week residential care for children with a diagnosis of Autism, severe learning difficulties and associated behaviours.

The Hill House team has been inspired by One Planet Living and they have worked collaboratively to develop a plan to improve  the school’s sustainability. The students have been inspired too and are enjoying thinking about ways that they can make their lives and their school a greener place.

Hill House School’s One Planet Living goals include:

• maintaining its Outstanding Ofsted rating
• creating a sense of place and belonging (Hill House Neighbourhood) while nurturing a culture of sustainability
• supporting CareTech’s CARE4 commitments
• promoting health and wellbeing for all staff and young people
• ensuring a positive contribution to local  biodiversity and recognising the value of nature to human health
• engaging with and promoting sustainable living among our stakeholders and local community and businesses
• investigating renewable energy sources (long-term goal)

Using the One Planet Living 10 Principles framework, the school has developed a set of outcomes, actions and indicators for each  principle enabling them to set out a plan and monitor progress. The outcomes are outlined here, full details of the plan can be found at OnePlanet.com.

World Economic Forum ESG Disclosure

PL1 Climate change
PL1.1 Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions

This year we have calculated our environmental impact across the required scope 1, 2 and 3 (selected categories) emission sources. Our emissions are presented on both a location and market basis. On a location basis our emissions are 12,971 tCO2e, which is an average impact of 1.6 tCO2e per FTE and an increase of 10% from 2019–2020. Our market basis emissions are 10,265 tCO2e, which is an increase of 10% from 2019–2020.

We have calculated emission intensity metrics on a per FTE basis, which we will monitor to track performance in our subsequent environmental disclosures.

We aim to report Scope 3 emissions more broadly in 2022.

Natural gas emissions have increased by 50% due to an increase in data quality.  Other fuels have also increased by 16%. This is driven by an increase in data coverage, increasing the number of sites with other fuels consumption.

PL1.2 TCFD implementation

CareTech has a commitment to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, and to develop TCFD aligned targets and roadmap in 2022.

PL2 Nature loss
PL2.1 Land use and ecological sensitivity

Nature loss is not a material issue for CareTech. We do, however, make best

use of the natural green spaces within our community settings such as gardens and encourage services to manage their gardens to support biodiversity.

PL3 Freshwater availability
PL3.1 Water consumption and withdrawal in water-stressed areas

Water consumption is not a material issue for CareTech. We do, however, encourage all our services to implement water conservation measures and engage with local water authorities for support.

For full listing of WEF 21 Core ESG disclosures and disclosure index see Appendix

CARE4 People

A Better Future for our People

Our CARE4 People headline commitment:

We will be an employer of choice, investing in our people and valuing their diversity.

Our business exists to facilitate better lives — for the people in our care and the people who work for us. We aim to be the sector’s best workforce, offering market-leading employment opportunity and creating better futures for our employees.

Our diverse and dedicated teams are the bedrock of our success, their commitment, professionalism and kindness makes every CareTech service unique allowing us to deliver our purpose consistently and helping those we care for to achieve their own personal version of independence. We strive to care for our people with the same degree of respect and professionalism that they give to the people in their care.

We are committed to being an employer of choice — we will develop strong leadership through our CareTech Management Development Programme. In 2022 we will launch our new Diversity Equity & Inclusion Strategy, driving fairness and equity across all that we do.

Progress and Projects

Training and professional development

We are committed to investing in our workforce to develop them to provide high-quality services to those we support.

The CareTech Leadership and Management Academy offers personal development of front-line staff through to senior operational leaders. Academy programmes develop leadership knowledge, understanding, skills and competences of our leaders, focused around achieving Good and Outstanding in a social care setting. The CareTech Management Development Programme embeds our values and behaviours across the Group. The CareTech Senior Coaching and Mentoring Programme ensures a consistent leadership approach.

Training and development.

We provide training and development across specific career pathways, related to the service-type,  and needs of those we support. Throughout the first six months of employment (probation), new staff complete a formal induction and statutory training.

Post-probation, the CareTech e-appraisal system — ‘Job Chat’ — enables staff to identify their career aspirations enabling us to provide a range of personal development opportunities, including apprenticeships.

Share Save Scheme

Our Share Save scheme allows staff to share in our success. Since 2016, 769 staff members have joined the Share Save scheme.

Reward and recognition

Our Thank You programme makes recognition part of CareTech’s everyday and recognises the values and behaviours we champion to deliver good quality care across the Group. In 2021, we distributed over 2,500 thank you cards and reward vouchers.

Wellbeing

Our ‘healthyapp’ service provides online wellbeing support, in addition to face-to face support for our staff whenever this is necessary.

Community

We encourage staff to contribute to their local communities and charitable initiatives to develop their skills.

Case Study
Supporting young people’s career development

Our Smartbox business worked with the CareTech Foundation and their partnership with EY Foundation to host a Smart Futures virtual work experience programme. The cohort of young people on the EY Foundation worked with Smartbox’s Marketing team to design and evaluate the launch of a new software. This was a great success with fantastic involvement and feedback from all involved. This led on to Smartbox giving a young person further exposure with the business, including a work shadowing experience with the content team.

World Economic Forum ESG Disclosure

PP1 Dignity and equality
PP1.2 Pay equality

We capture salary and bonus data that shows our women:men ratio for these measures across our operational/legal entities:

LEGAL ENTITY	Hourly Pay Rate % difference (median)	Bonus Pay % difference (median)
CAMBIAN ASPERGER SYNDROME SERVICES LTD	9.9	37.5
CAMBIAN AUTISM SERVICES LIMITED	7.2	-42.8
CAMBIAN CHILDCARE LIMITED	2.9	90
CAMBIAN WHINFELL SCHOOL LIMITED	-5.8	33.3
CARETECH COMMUNITY SERVICES (NO.2) LTD	1.7	-29
CARETECH COMMUNITY SERVICES LTD	6.2	30.8
LONSDALE MIDLANDS LIMITED	0	2.7
OAKLEAF CARE (HARTWELL) LIMITED	-2	70
SPARK OF GENIUS LIMITED	9.3	39.7
VALEO LIMITED	2.3	0
ROC NORTHWEST LIMITED	NOT REPORTED YET	NOT REPORTED YET

 

PP1.3 A/B Wage level %

A: Our minimum entry level wage is £9 per hour. UK local minimum wage (Nov 2021): for age 21–22 is £8.36; for age 18–20 is £6.56.

B: The ratio of the annual total compensation of the CEO to the median of the annual total compensation of all its employees, except the CEO, is 57:1.

PP1.4 Risks for incidents of child, forced or compulsory labour

CareTech’s business is primarily one based on our people in our employment and in our care; we, therefore, have relatively limited reliance on other suppliers. Our value chains are mainly local: we recruit locally, our services buy locally, we partner locally, and we are commissioned locally.

We are working with our suppliers, in line with our procurement policies, to safeguard against the risk of incidents of child labour, forced or compulsory labour within our value chains and are not aware of significant risks for incidents of this nature. We will continue to assess and report on the full supply chain across the Group to ensure compliance with our policies and procedures.

PP2 Health and wellbeing
PP2.1 Health & Safety

A: Zero work-related fatalities. All work-related injuries are recorded and reported to insurers. High-value claims (in excess of £100,000) are monitored through the Board. Work related injuries account for less than 1% of workforce annually.

B: The company provides an employee support line that includes access to a range of mental health and counselling services. Through the CareTech Foundation, all employees and their families can apply for support if they face significant financial hardship, including for example, support with funeral costs.

PP3 Skills for the future
PP3.1 Training provided

DISCLOSURE A:

On average each employee receives 5 days of training PA. We are not able to break this down by gender or other employee category at this time.

DISCLOSURE B:

Total training costs, including our Apprenticeship Levy contributions, of approximately £5.2m have been incurred across the total Group headcount of 11,000+ to provide an average training and development expenditure per employee of £452.

PR1 Employment and wealth generation
PR1.1 Absolute number and rate of employment

ESG DISCLOSURE A:

We currently record age, gender and ethnicity data for new joiners, during 2022 we will extend data capture to all staff.

New Joiners – Age Group

AGE CATEGORY
18-24	796	21%
25-34	1227	32%
35-44	764	20%
45-54	671	17%
55-64	362	9%
Above 64	42	1%
Not disclosed	8	0%
TOTAL	3870

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Joiners – Hourly Pay by Gender

PAY GROUP	FEMALE	MALE
£90+	1	2
£60.01 - £75	2	3
£45.01 - £60	2	5
£30.01 - £45	19	21
£15.01 - £30	196	65
£9.01 - £15	1321	507
£9/hr	667	278
No rate recorded	464	316
TOTAL	2672	1197

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*1 employee undisclosed

New Joiners – Ethnicity

ETHNICITY
White	1400
Mixed or Multiple Ethnic Groups	42
Asian or British Asian	74
Black, African, Caribbean, or Black British	283
Other Ethnic Group	21
Not disclosed	2050
TOTAL	3870

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

New Joiners – Gender

Women: 2672   

Men: 1197

Ratio W:M 2.2:1.

ESG DISCLOSURE B:

Our staff retention rate in 2021 was 71%.

For full listing of WEF 21 Core ESG disclosures and disclosure index see Appendix

CARE4 COMMUNITY

A better future for our communities

Our CARE4 Community headline commitment:

We will donate 2.5% of our pre-tax profits to the CareTech Foundation annually.

Thriving communities are central to our success and we aim to be an active contributor in all the locations in which we operate. We also support the vital role of the wider social care sector through the CareTech Foundation.

All our services are firmly part of their local communities and engage in many and varied ways.

We are committed to developing our people through apprenticeships and to playing our role as an important local employer of choice. We offer great employment opportunities to local people and most of our staff live locally to our homes. Our apprenticeship scheme provides opportunities for over 1,000 people nationally to develop a career path in social care.

We support local economies by encouraging all of our services to source locally using neighbourhood shops and services for everyday needs. For us, this is an important aspect of building local networks and more sustainable communities, and we aim to increase our contribution to local businesses over the coming years.

Supporting our people to volunteer in their local communities is also key to our approach. Through the CareTech Foundation, in particular, we are able to provide important opportunities to our people to volunteer their time and expertise to community and charitable initiatives.

Our purpose is building independence and we consider engagement in local community activities to be a key indication of this. We encourage individuals in our care to participate locally and they enjoy activities ranging from coffee mornings to football clubs. Many of our services enjoy running fundraising events and these are always well supported.

We support Care Home Open Week, organised by Championing Social Care, and enjoy welcoming our neighbours into our homes.

In addition to its important national work, the CareTech Foundation provides grants locally. All CareTech members of staff can nominate a community project for a grant of up to £5,000 once a year. Examples of grants made include renovation projects for local churches, buying new kits for local youth sports teams, and contributing to a new community playground.

In addition to the financial support to the CareTech Foundation, we will increase opportunities for staff to engage with and support the Foundation’s work, including through skills-based volunteering.

We were honoured to win the Philanthropy Award at the Better Society Awards 2021 in recognition of our support of the CareTech Foundation and charitable causes more generally. Care sector staff are unlike any other in their generosity and commitment to making lives better and this award is evidence of that. We are proud to support the CareTech Foundation and this award strengthened our commitment to the good work being delivered through the charity.

Projects and Progress

Participating in our local communities

Our services operate in the heart of their local communities, and we place great emphasis on being active participants in those communities. Our staff are largely drawn from the communities in which our services are based, our staff shop locally, and we regularly take part in local community activities and events.

Case Study
Macmillan coffee morning and fete

Five of our supported-living sites in East Anglia — Lindisfarne, Falklands, Hampden Road, Gayton Road and Wootton Road — worked together to host a coffee morning and fete to raise money for charity. We had wonderful cakes made by our support staff and a large raffle, tombola and other games. Resident Louisa Wallace played guitar and sang for us all, accompanied by Sarah Medhurst and Michelle Bradshaw who danced along.

“The event raised over £50, it was amazing to be together again with family and friends of our services.”

Emma Henley-Smith, Manager CareTech Community Services, East Anglia

Case Study
Cambian Wing College cook for Christchurch Soup Kitchen and support Bournemouth Food Bank

From September to December 2020, the students at Cambian Wing College collected products for the local Soup Kitchen by having a collection bin and poster. The Student Council actively advertised the initiative and encouraged participation. By Christmas, the students had collected three large boxes of useful items and three students joined their headteacher to hand these goods to the Soup Kitchen team. Additionally, the students cooked 16–20 portions of dinner every fortnight to be taken down to the Soup Kitchen and handed out as part of the charity’s work. The students continued to do this throughout the COVID-19 period too, of which we were very proud.

This year, the students have Charity and Community as part of their timetable. This option is designed to expand and build upon the work achieved last year and engage as many students as possible in the College’s charity work. Students cook on a weekly basis for the Soup Kitchen, which is always very warmly received and the recipients at the Soup Kitchen speak very highly of the students’ culinary abilities.

During the last academic year, staff and students were also exceptionally generous with their donations for the local food bank. At Christmas, the team donated three boxes of goodies that included food, cleaning equipment and gifts for a family of four to carry them through Christmas Day and Boxing Day. The hampers included gifts for children, Christmas cake, crackers and a wealth of other luxury goods which may be unaffordable for some in these difficult times. The students then took these hampers down to present to the food bank and received a lovely thank you card. Similarly, at Easter, the students were concerned that there would be local children who may not receive an Easter egg, so organised a collection and we managed to donate 80 Easter eggs.

The CareTech Foundation

The CareTech Foundation was established in 2017 and champions and supports the social care sector, care workers and those living in care through its four grant streams. Funded and founded by CareTech Holdings PLC, the Foundation has an independent Board of trustees responsible for delivering its Charitable Objects.

Its work focuses on the following three key objectives:

• Physical and learning disabilities and mental health. Supporting disabled people and those with long-term health difficulties, including those with mental health conditions and complex physical and learning disabilities.
• Skills development for the care sector. Skills development for those from deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds for careers in the care sector.
• Supporting our communities. Supporting the family and friends of CareTech Group’s employees facing significant financial challenges as well as issues facing local communities.

In its first three years, the CareTech Foundation has already supported over 1,550,000 beneficiaries as well as delivering a social media campaign on mental health reaching 16.8 million people in Pakistan.

Developed by independent impact researchers, the Foundation’s Impact Report 2020 shows that the Foundation is delivering a powerful positive difference to individuals’ lives. Key achievements include:

• 359 young people now have employability skills and qualifications thanks to the partners supported
• 173 people now employed in the health and social care sector
• 41,771 people in Pakistan now have access mental health support
• A special hand cycle provided for a foster child who has cerebral palsy enabling this little girl to ride a bicycle for the first time.

Case Study
Birkbeck University of London ToddlerLab

The world-first ToddlerLab at Birkbeck University’s Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development, supported by the CareTech Foundation, has now finished construction, enabling researchers to study toddlers in natural environments. The CareTech  Foundation Home Lab will transform our understanding of neurodevelopmental conditions.

Case Study
DePaul mental health programme for homeless young people.

Through CareTech Foundation’s support, DePaul UK’s mental health and wellbeing intensive workshops were delivered to 48 homeless young people in North East England. 91% of participating young people, who identified health and wellbeing as an area for concern, experienced positive change by the end of the programme.

Ensuring Good Governance

Quality first

Our belief in creating value for all our stakeholders drives our commitment to good governance, transparency, and effective engagement with all involved in our business, safeguarding its long-term success.

We have a shared goal to deliver the highest quality in each and every action and interaction across our whole business.

For us, quality is not just about systems and processes, it’s about a set of values that enable us to achieve the best possible outcomes for everyone in our care and making our organisation a great place to work.

Our quality and governance processes help us to work in an open and transparent way, listening and learning from the things that we do well and understanding when things need to improve. We know that things will not always go as well as we would want but we know that it is only by being open about challenges and learning from mistakes that we can improve and deliver the highest levels of care possible.

Our focus on outcomes and taking decisions based on sound principles of good governance helps us to innovate and constantly strive to improve. Quality is embedded across all our functions and our leadership and management structure supports the delivery of high-quality sustainable care and support for all.

Quality governance empowers our staff to focus on the things that matter, such as ensuring that those in our care have a voice, building positive relationships and ensuring that we go ‘beyond compliance’. Our Board champions quality and the quality and governance framework supports our management of risk, quality assurance and driving improvement.

Our organisational golden thread of quality means that from Board to front line, responsibilities and accountabilities are clear. Monitoring and measuring outcomes is an open and transparent process, actively encouraging a culture of learning through local, regional, executive and Board corporate governance. Local teams are encouraged to review issues and share learning, escalation routes are clear where local resolution is not practical and both divisional and Board governance committees support policy development, learning and the sharing of expertise across the organisation.

Our Governance and Transparency headline commitment:

We will create a Staff Consultative Committee to ensure that the voices of our staff are at the heart of our business.

This new Committee will ensure that our people play an integral role in defining the organisation’s journey. The Committee will have Board sponsorship and a direct reporting line to the Board.

World Economic Forum ESG Disclosures

G2 Quality of governing body
G2.1 Governance body composition

Comprising seven Directors (of which three are Non-Executive) the Board is committed to the highest level of corporate governance and believes that effective corporate governance framework is essential to underpin the success of the business; supporting management while ensuring an appropriate level of challenge and exercising proper oversight while facilitating decision making.

The Board is focussed on taking steps to enhance standards of governance and disclosure and is committed to achieving the highest standards of integrity, ethics, professionalism and business practice throughout the Group operations. Last year we welcomed the changes to corporate governance in the new UK Corporate Governance Code. We undertake an annual ‘Well Led’ review an annual ‘Well Led’ review following the CQC methodology and lines of enquiry.

The Board is assisted by three committees: the Care Quality & Governance Committee; the Audit Committee; and the Remuneration Committee.

The Directors combine their extensive experience in the social care sector to inform strategic direction. A full profile of the Board’s experience, tenure and other accountabilities/responsibilities can be found in the CareTech Annual Report 2021. An annual review of Executive leadership responsibilities and capabilities is conducted, with training provided as required — specifically with reference to mandatory training requirements (e.g. IG, Bribery & Fraud Act).

An annual declaration of interest and a gift and hospitality register is completed.

CareTech is a regulated business in the social care sector with care quality and ethics governance at its core. As an emerging agenda, expertise in environmental topics are less well represented at Board level and the Board is taking steps to ensure that they are equipped to meet forthcoming regulatory and business requirements to address the strategic challenges of climate change and social responsibility with the launch of a new Responsible Business programme and ESG reporting framework in 2021. CareTech employs a highly diverse workforce and the Board recognises that similarly diverse representation at the highest level is important. The Board has good diversity in respect of members from minority ethnic communities and Executive Director Mike Adams OBE, as a leader indisability rights, also brings an important perspective to the Board. The Board recognises that women are under-represented on the Board and is focussed on addressing this issue, building on recent appointments to the Board including Dr Moira Livingston’s role as Chair of the Quality Committee.

There is no direct stakeholder representation at Board level, but the business formally consults with shareholders on a twice-yearly basis and its Staff Consultative Committee provides a formal channel for staff to provide feedback.

G3 Stakeholder engagement
G3.1 Material issues impacting stakeholders

CARE4 is constructed to address the sustainability issues that we have identified as material to our business; these are drawn from the WEF ESG framework. We consult with shareholders on a formal basis twice a year and on an ad hoc basis throughout the year to identify priorities. In response to requests from staff in 2020, we launched a new Staff Consultative Committee in 2021 and repeated our annual staff survey to facilitate engagement and feedback. We regularly receive feedback from our commissioning and regulatory bodies. We are currently exploring digital tools that will enable us to engage better with the diverse people in our care across multiple locations.

G4 Ethical behaviour
G4.1 Anti-corruption

There have been no previous allegations or investigations of corruption in the reporting period 2020/21 and none in previous years. The organisation considers its long track record of zero allegations of corruption as indicative of the effectiveness of its culture and processes in preventing corruption and thus does not prioritise specific training. The preferred approach is to embed a culture of trust and transparency. In respect of this the organisation has a new Executive ‘corporate appointee’ for resident finances and policies and procedures reviewed and updated.

Where appropriate to role, employees have received training on the organisation’s anti-corruption policies and procedures.

G4.2 Protected ethics advice and reporting mechanisms

As the Group extends into new service areas and develops wraparound offerings, such as Smartbox’s assistive technology, ethics and advisory committees provide oversight and assurance of the efficacy and best interests of individuals who participate in our innovative programmes.

There is a commitment to seeking independent expert advice to inform our development of, and commitment to, new service offerings that goes ‘beyond commercial’ and promotes the rights, preferences and quality of life for all individuals in our care. Where there are legislative requirements, such as the rights of individuals detained under the Mental Health Act in our services, we actively promote all staff’s understanding of equality and human rights.

G5 Risk and opportunity oversight

G5.1 Integrating risk and opportunity into business process

CareTech is long-term contractor with the public sector over 27 years, and social care is not an inherently high-risk business proposition.

We have identified five key corporate risks categories:

• Finance (including market oversight activity with the CQC)
• Compliance (including quality assurance and improvement)
• Safety (including Health & Safety responsibilities)
• Service delivery/operations
• Reputation and engaging with stakeholders

These categories are closely managed through the Corporate Risk Register with regular review to assess degree of risk and response to any issues arising conducted by the Executive team. Accountability for the Risk Register lies with the Group Board. The Risk Register is assessed using a RAG rating and the Board addresses issues rated as ‘red’. An updated Group Board Accountability Framework to include risk appetite is in place for the 2021/22 operating year.

The business undertakes an annual review of business continuity plans for each service and consolidates any actions to mitigate risk from adverse weather incidents, flu outbreaks etc. A full winter pressures/emergency planning procedure is submitted to the CQC and to commissioning local authorities on request.

Business continuity plans cover property heating, insulation, flooding and other local risks to individuals living in properties and to staff working in services. An annual schedule of maintenance and improvement is in place with ambitions to actively contribute to reducing the corporate carbon footprint.

WEF Core ESG Metrics — Disclosures and Index

CareTech’s 2021 ESG Report covers its UK business; more recent acquisitions (e.g. Smartbox and Purple) and international operations are not fully included in this report but will be integrated into future reporting.

Materiality Evaluation  — World Economic Forum Core 21 Topics