On Friday 19th June, businesses across the country are marking UK Employee Ownership Day, run by the Employee Ownership Association (EOA). This year’s theme is #OwningIt – a celebration of the impact employee ownership has on colleagues, businesses, communities and the wider economy.
As a Trustee Member of the EOA, we’re proud to be part of it. But we want to use the day to say something specific about our own sector: social care.
Be Caring is the UK’s largest 100% employee-owned social care provider. We’ve been employee-owned since 2005, delivering homecare, reablement, complex care, supported living and outreach across Leeds, Sheffield, Bradford, Manchester, Liverpool, Tyneside and Newcastle. Today, our 870 colleagues support more than 1,400 people every week.
And every one of those colleagues is an owner.
More than a structure
Plenty of organisations talk about employee ownership as something nice to have. For us, it’s the reason everything else works.
Social care is a sector too often defined by instability – by providers stretched thin, profits extracted upwards, and a workforce that feels undervalued and overlooked. Employee ownership flips that model on its head. As one of our colleagues put it simply in a recent survey: there are no shareholders “whose personal profit we need to put first.”
Instead, our surpluses are reinvested in the people who deliver the care. We’ve been debt-free since 2022. Rather than servicing loans or paying out dividends, we put money back into fair pay, recognition, training and wellbeing.
What ownership looks like in practice
Being employee-owned at Be Caring shapes how we make decisions every day.
Our colleagues own the business through an Employee Ownership Trust, and they shape it through VOICE, our employee-ownership network. There’s a VOICE representative in every service, and all VOICE representatives attend our advisory Board meeting – meaning frontline colleagues have a direct say in the strategy of the organisation, not just a suggestion box. VOICE representatives are even involved in appointing Board members.
This gives colleagues genuine influence. Feedback channelled through VOICE and our engagement sessions has directly shaped real change – from our co-designed block pay model, which guarantees colleagues are paid for all the time they work, to our annual colleague bonus, long service awards, improved mileage for cyclists and e-scooter users, and personal safety equipment.
The results speak for themselves. In our most recent colleague survey, 93% of colleagues said they would recommend Be Caring as a place to work, and the proportion who feel listened to has climbed from 57% in 2021 to nearly 75% today. Earlier this year, we became the first organisation ever to achieve Business Culture Certification, independently validated by Hult International Business School, which described us as “a robust, values-led culture deeply rooted in its employee-ownership model.”
In our colleagues’ words
We recently asked colleagues what employee ownership means to them in their day-to-day work. One response captured it perfectly:
“Employee ownership means more than just working for a company. We may all have different jobs, but every employee owner is important and deserves to be treated equally. What makes Be Caring special to me is that people work together and help each other. As someone with autism, I’ve experienced that myself – Be Caring saw my potential and gave me opportunities to grow, from Support Worker to VOICE Trustee and now training to become an Assistant Expert Trainer with lived experience in autism. I’m grateful for the trust and support I’ve had from my fellow employee owners.”
– Be Caring colleague, EO pulse survey 2026
“Employee ownership means more than just working for a company. We may all have different jobs, but every employee owner is important and deserves to be treated equally. What makes Be Caring special to me is that people work together and help each other. As someone with autism, I’ve experienced that myself – Be Caring saw my potential and gave me opportunities to grow, from Support Worker to VOICE Trustee and now training to become an Assistant Expert Trainer with lived experience in autism. I’m grateful for the trust and support I’ve had from my fellow employee owners.”
– James, VOICE Trustee, Be Caring
Why it matters for the people we support
When colleagues feel valued, they stay. When they stay, the people we support see the same familiar faces, week in and week out. That continuity builds trust, and trust is what makes great care possible.
It shows in the outcomes. In 2025, 94% of the people we support rated their care as Good or Outstanding, and all our rated services hold a CQC Good or Outstanding rating, with governance and leadership independently recognised as key strengths.
When the people delivering care are also the people who own the organisation, care improves. That is the foundation of how we work.
A word from our CEO
When the people delivering care are also the people who own the organisation, care improves. That is the foundation of how we work.
“The demand for social care is rising every year, and it isn’t going to slow down. If we’re serious about meeting it, we have to start by valuing the people who deliver that care. For too long, the sector has relied on an undervalued, underpaid workforce, and that simply isn’t sustainable. At Be Caring, we’ve shown there’s another way: paying people fairly, giving them a real voice in how we’re run, and creating a culture where people are valued and supported to be the best they can be. When you look after the workforce, they stay. The relationships they build with the people and families they support are more meaningful, and the quality and consistency of care we deliver is something we can all be proud of.”
– Sharon Lowrie, CEO, Be Caring
Celebrating together this summer
Across June and July, we’ll be hosting our Summer Coffee & Cake sessions – twice-yearly events, co-designed with VOICE, that bring office teams and frontline colleagues together to connect, celebrate achievements, and have open, honest conversations about the organisation we own together.
It’s employee ownership in action. And it’s our favourite part of the year.
Be Caring is the UK’s largest 100% employee-owned social care provider and a Trustee Member of the Employee Ownership Association. To find out more about working for an organisation you’d help own, visit our Work for us page.