CEO’s Statement

For the year ended 30 September 2022

Uncertain,
turbulent,
challenging?
Yes!

Hard work,
draining,
testing?
Yes!

Rewarding,
impactful,
inspiring?
Yes!

The last year has been all of the above for the Foundation, its trustees and the team. Social Care has felt at many points to be, in many ways, in the eye of the storm. The Care Quality Commission has written of a “tsunami of unmet need” in the social care sector. Skills for Care’s annual report on the social care workforce painted a grim picture of the deeply-worrying recruitment and retention challenge, with over 150,000 staff vacancies unfilled. And funding of social care was in the political limelight, with a new Health and Social Care Levy designed to “fix social care” introduced only to be withdrawn a matter of months later.

Thankfully, we have remained clearly focused on the Foundation’s core mission to support and champion the social care sector, those who work in the sector and those who live in it.

This year has seen some of our earliest partnerships coming to fruition:

  • The Barnardo’s new digital resource for care leavers is now in use and attracting significant interest from commissioners;
  • The British Asian Trust’s mental health programme is transforming the mental health landscape in Pakistan and I am thrilled that we have extended our support for a further three years; and,
  • The employability programmes for young people we developed with the EY Foundation have delivered great impact and we were thrilled to be short-listed for the Charity Times Charity Collaboration of the Year Award 2022.

I am also really excited about our new partnerships this year, such as:

  • Our support of the Alzheimer’s Society for their Longitude Prize for Dementia, to find innovators who can create ground-breaking technologies to help people with early-stage dementia to live independent and fulfilled lives;
  • That with National Theatre’s to enable its Public Acts programme to involve those working and living in social care, showcasing how the creative and social care sectors can work together on a national scale to make lasting impact in communities; and,
  • Whizz Kidz’s – ‘Kidz Max Days’ which will not just provide incredible activity days for over 220 young wheelchair users but which will push the boundaries for all activities providers of what is possible for wheelchair users.

We remain incredibly proud to support the cross-sector Championing Social Care initiative. In the last year, the initiative has delivered Care Home Open Week that enabled 2500 care homes to open their doors to the public (and over 100 MPs), a brilliant Care Sector’s Got Talent showcase and the return of the Care Sector Fundraising Ball that raised over £400,000 for the Alzheimer’s Society and Care Worker’s Charity!

Our smaller grants programmes remain core to our work, enabling us to support CareTech colleagues amazing charitable fundraising efforts, supporting local community projects, responding to international disasters, and, importantly, supporting individuals and their families in the wider CareTech family facing daunting financial crises.

I would like to thank our amazing trustees for their leadership, constructive challenge and steadfast support. And my incredible team, who never cease to amaze me for the quality of their work, their prodigious output and their support of each other – and me!

Jonathan Freeman MBE
Chief Executive Officer