Be Caring Ltd, previously CASA homecare, had never made a surplus, that is until this last financial year.

Under the astute leadership of Sharon Lowrie, the organisation has, over the past 2.5 years, gone from strength to strength. Recognising that our culture needed to change, Sharon brought in leaders and managers with experience from outside the sector.

The priority in the first 18 months was getting the basics right. This meant focusing on our performance and our care quality, removing wasteful activities and treating our colleagues fairly.

As a result of our incredible turnaround and getting our culture right, we can finally recognise and reward our colleagues as employee-owners. We can now join the likes of John Lewis, Suma and Gripple – ensuring our colleagues are the direct beneficiaries of our successes. In December 2019, we rewarded our coleagues with a £50 Love to Shop gift voucher, which was the first time in our 14-year history that our colleagues had received an annual reward.

This year, despite the effects of Covid-19, we’ve been able to reward 740 colleagues with a £50 gift voucher and up to £200 cash bonus.

As a sector, care is often under-valued, especially when viewed in comparison to the NHS and wider health partners. The care sector has been under-funded, is poorly commissioned, resulting in poor terms and conditions for many working in the care sector. At Be Caring, we understand the need to work collaboratively with our commissioners and our partners – to demonstrate the value of care and our the value our coleagues can bring.

It is our ambition to transform care, to eventually salary our entire workforce. We are already demonstrating, in Leeds, that we can do this. Head over to our Annual Review where you can find out more about our transformation and our ambitions for the future.

The success of Be Caring over the past 2 years is both as a result of the our un-relenting focus on our culture and our performance, and it’s our colleagues that continue to live our values – this could not have been any more evident than it has been over these past 9 months – the dedication, kindness and compassion of our colleagues throughout the pandemic has been truly inspiring.

On Tuesday 24th and Wednesday 25th November, we will find out whether or not we are winners in the categories of Best Medium Business or Culture in a Crisis at the Business Culture Awards

Regardless of the outcome – we can honestly say that everyone of our colleagues is an absolute star and should be proud of everything they’ve achieved!