The CareTech Charitable Foundation, the first independent grant-making charitable corporate foundation in the care sector, has appointed its first CEO.
With ambitious and clear-sighted objectives to deliver meaningful impact to communities in need in the UK and overseas, the foundation has appointed charity sector heavyweight Jonathan Freeman, former managing director of Mosaic, HRH The Prince of Wales's mentoring charitable initiative, as Interim CEO.
He will be responsible for setting its strategic vision and driving forward the charity’s partnership network and is joined by foundation manager Sara Smith who brings with her a wealth of experience from Business in the Community and The Prince’s Trust International.
With more than 280,000 adults in England aged 18-65 reliant on social care, and a reported £2.1bn social care funding gap, the CareTech Foundation will have an important role in supporting the care sector and the communities in which it operates. The Foundation’s work will be focused on the following three key objectives and will support:
· 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, particularly for those from deprived and disadvantaged backgrounds, to enable them to pursue careers in the care sector.
· the CareTech family and the communities in which it operates. The Foundation will develop an ambitious CSR programme in partnership with CareTech, as well as supporting the family and friends of CareTech employees and their communities.
The Foundation is supported by CareTech’s most senior leaders, with its trustees including CareTech’s chief executive officer Haroon Sheikh, executive chairman Farouq Sheikh and finance director Michael Hill. Other trustees include leading disabilities rights campaigner Mike Adams OBE, who is a CareTech non-executive director, and staff member Jon Plummer who was the overall National Winner of the CareTech Care Awards 2016. Three external trustees will also be appointed, underlining the independence of the Foundation.
Jonathan Freeman, interim CEO of the CareTech Foundation, says: “The CareTech Charitable Foundation will serve as a powerful vehicle to help some of the most vulnerable people across communities in the UK and overseas.
"We have a very clear objective to deliver meaningful change and we will achieve this through a programme of partnership grant-giving, by supporting CareTech’s employees to give something back through volunteering programmes and also launching a match-funding programme for employees’ own fundraising activities.
"Additionally we will also be supporting CareTech’s family and friends and the communities in which CareTech operates with funding support for those facing significant challenges.”
CareTech plc’s staff are central to the foundation’s approach, ensuring a staff presence on the board of trustees as well as having a staff committee to make recommendations to the board.
