Trustees Report

Objectives and Activities

For the year ended 30 September 2024

Our purposes
The following is a summary of the Foundation’s purposes as set out in full in its governing document and as available on the Charity Commission register

What

  • General charitable purposes
  • Disability
  • The prevention or relief of poverty

Who

  • Children/young people
  • Elderly/old people
  • People with disabilities
  • Other charities or voluntary bodies
  • The general public/mankind

How

  • Makes grants to Individuals
  • Makes grants to organisations

Our aims and the difference we seek to make
This year was the first of the Foundation’s second three-year Strategic Plan, covering the period 2023/24-2025/26. In this Strategic Plan, the trustees determined that the Foundation’s work by which to deliver public benefit in relation to its objects should be focused on delivering meaningful impact to communities in the UK and overseas by supporting and championing the social care sector, carers and those living in care. In particular, trustees agreed that the Foundation’s support should be particularly targeted on the following three impact areas:

THE SOCIAL CARE SECTOR

  • support improved recruitment and retention to the UK social care sector, particularly for those from deprived
    and disadvantaged backgrounds, with a particular focus on improving leadership and career pathways
  • champion the contribution of the UK social care sector to wider society
  • support the local communities of which social care services are a vital part.

CARERS

  • invest in skills development for care professionals in the UK
  • support unpaid carers, particularly internationally
  • support the family and friends of CareTech employees facing significant financial hardship.

THOSE LIVING IN CARE

  • support disabled people and those with long-term health difficulties, including those with mental health
    conditions, complex physical and learning disabilities, and issues related to neurodiversity
  • invest in action-based research and innovation to better understand the early identification, treatment and/or
    management of care-related conditions.

Values

The trustees and staff team have agreed the set of values by which we wish our behaviours and actions to be
guided; they are:

INTEGRITY

of people and process, ensuring that we always operate at the highest standards of probity and
good governance.

COLLABORATION

with partners and stakeholders, proactively reaching out to forge new relationships and
building alliances to deliver greater impact.

EMPOWERMENT

of our beneficiaries and people, pushing decision-making down to the lowest levels possible
so that people are in greater control of their lives and careers.

COMMITMENT

to outcomes, focusing on delivering meaningful impact in all that we do.

Strategic Aims 2023-2026

By 2026, we will judge our success in achieving the following three strategic aims:

 

AIM 1

The Foundation will maximise the impact of its funding by investing in a tight portfolio of projects, action-focussed research, and innovation to enable sustainable, replicable improvements that will deliver step changes in the areas about which we most care.

The Foundation’s four grant streams are an effective means by which to deliver its strategic aims. The Partnerships Grants are a good demonstration of how a creative approach to the Foundation’s assets – financial and otherwise – can be deployed to good effect.

Trustees have agreed that, to most effectively manage our risk and to deliver the best possible impact, we will limit our Partnership Grants portfolio to 3-4 Flagship Partnerships and 10-15 other partnerships. Flagship Partnerships will be those where trustees consider the scope for impact to be greatest and where additional staff (and trustee) time and effort should be devoted. Whilst it is likely that Flagship Partnerships will also receive larger financial investments, this is not necessarily the case.

Over the period of this Strategy, we will:

  • transition to a portfolio of Partnership Grants that consists of 3-4 Flagship Partnerships and 10-15 other partnerships;
  • ensure that the majority of Partnership Grants Fund supports innovative projects and new ideas in line with its impact areas, creating unique new collaborative partnerships;
  • ensure partnership programmes delivered locally are sharing learnings with a wider network to maximise reach;
  • ensure that partnerships focussing on employability have a dedicated focus on addressing the UK social care vacancy challenges;
  • ensure that the three small grants streams operate at full capacity and deliver maximum impact in line with their objectives;
  • ensure all research programmes have a strong basis in practicality and action which is tested regularly by CareTech and the wider sector for viability;
  • seek out co-funding opportunities with other grant-making bodies by which to increase the Foundation’s scale and reach; and,
  • ensure rigorous reporting and effective partnerships are in place for all partnership grants, with well-evidenced impact evaluation plans and reports.

AIM 2

The Foundation will collaborate with a network of trusted partners to maximise its investment and activities, creating leverage to make our funding go further and bringing to bear our own expertise and that of our CareTech Group colleagues.

The Foundation is in a special position of being able to bring together social care sector partners, charitable
partners and wider funding partners. This rich mix of expertise from different disciplines is one that we will seek
to develop further over the course of this Plan.

Over the period of this Strategy, we will:

  • continue to build partnerships and relationships across the social care sector, charitable sector with other
    funders, and beyond;
  • ensure that CareTech Ltd champions for individual partnerships are regularly feeding back thoughts and
    observations;
  • ensure match-funding is in place for programmes or, reasonable effort is being made to evidence match-funding before Final Stage completion of Partnership Grants programmes;
  • ensure CareTech Ltd is involved in the early stages of partnerships so viability against social care needs is
    being assessed ahead of 2nd Stage approval;
  • ensure the 10-15 non-flagship partnerships have synergy with at least one flagship partnership;
  • ensure CareTech Ltd staff receive sufficient information on Community Grants and Partnership Grants to
    volunteer and contribute across all levels; and,
  •  ensure Community Grant recipients, where possible, are receiving exposure to CareTech’s expertise that
    may benefit the sector.

AIM 3

The Foundation will play a leadership role within the social care and charitable sectors, acting as an example of a smart, innovative and ambitious change-maker that harnesses its funding, experience and expertise to deliver high-impact interventions and contributing to wider public debate.

The Foundation has positioned itself as a funder that welcomes risks, makes bold investment decisions and champions the social care sector with a unique perspective using a charity lens. In addition, the Foundation’s strong commitment to and action on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion issues and also to Environmental Sustainability add strength to our commitment to high standards.

Over the period of this strategy, we will:

  • invest in the development of the Special Education Needs initiative in Pakistan;
  • continue to advocate and develop the proposed Social Care Leaders Scheme proposition;
  • use our commissioning expertise to develop new propositions by which to further our purpose;
  • ensure the Foundation’s trustees and CEO are regularly contributing thought pieces for circulation across the
    sector;
  • maintain our commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion issues, regularly reviewing progress against our
    public commitments;
  • ensure we deliver on our sustainability commitments, as agreed in 2023 by trustees in our Environmental
    Sustainability Policy;
  • ensure our staff are regularly attending social, charity and corporate foundation events to maintain visibility;
  • ensure our digital content is regularly updated and reviewed to maximise reach;
  • devote more attention to external media, developing strong national, regional and local press contacts and relationships;
  • ensure the Foundation is informed about and partnering with programmes that are relevant to challenges faced by the social care sector; and
  • ensure the Foundation’s annual Impact Reports capture relevant themes to inform stakeholders on wider social care issues

Our Model

We deliver meaningful impact through three main approaches: Grantmaking, Commissioning and Hosting and Convening.

The Foundation supports a small number of significant partnerships with credible and high-quality charities and social enterprises consistent with its three key focus areas.

Our Match-Funding Grants are open to all CareTech staff and those in their care for their individual fundraising efforts for charitable causes in line with our Charitable Objectives.

The Foundation delivers a small grants programme to support the communities, families and friends of CareTech staff facing significant financial hardship or for issues affecting local communities in which CareTech operates.

The Foundation receives a restricted donation from CareTech Holdings Limited to enable us to provide small grants to CareTech staff and those who may recently have left the company who find themselves in significant financial hardship or at serious risk of becoming in significant financial hardship.

Commissioning 

The Foundation will directly commission projects with partners to tackle issues of relevance to our work, especially when we have access to in-house expertise within the Foundation and/or our colleagues in the CareTech Group.

Hosting and Convening

Where appropriate, the Foundation will act as the host charity for initiatives relevant to our agenda. This was first used to good effect during the COVID-19 pandemic when we were able to provide strong governance arrangements to support important new initiatives. Our most notable, and successful, hosting arrangement is that for Championing Social Care.

How We Measure Success

With the support of Bean Research, the Foundation has established its Theory of Change and accompanying Impact Assessment Framework. Our Theory of Change seeks to articulate the value that the Foundation can provide.

Sitting below the Theory of Change is the Foundation’s Impact Assessment Methodology which provides a common set of indicators by which we assess the impact of our work. This includes a sub-set of common indicators that are used to assess the impact of the work we are funding through our Partnerships grants.

The Foundation has published its latest Impact Report based on the Theory of Change alongside this Report (https://www.caretechfoundation.org.uk/about/reports/) the highlights of which are reported below.

“The CareTech Foundation delivers meaningful impact to communities in the UK and overseas by supporting and championing the social care sector, care workers and those living in care.”

Charity Commission guidance on public benefit

The Trustees have complied with their duty pursuant to Section 4 of the Charities Act 2011 to have due regard to guidance published by the Charity Commission regarding Public Benefit, a copy of which is provided to all trustees on appointment and on an annual basis thereafter. The Trustees ensure that the activities undertaken are in line with the charitable objectives and aims of the Foundation. Public benefit is achieved through improving lives, this includes:

  •  Awarding grants to CareTech Ltd staff, their family and friends at risk of or in significant financial hardship

  • Entering strategic partnerships in the UK that answer a need of the social care sector, care workers and those living in care

  • Awarding grants to projects where a positive difference is being made or in response to an urgent need

  • To promote and advocate on matters related social care through hosting, commissioning or convening.