The Care Friends app, which was launched in partnership with Skills for Care, has received a prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise.
The app has been awarded for excellence in innovation. It works by enabling care staff to refer potential recruits to apply for a role in their organisation faster and more easily. By utilising this personal recommendation process, applicants have proven to be more likely to be high-quality and new recruits are more likely to stay in their roles long-term. Employees are rewarded with points for referring successful candidates, which can be redeemed for cash.
The King’s Awards for Enterprise were previously known as The Queen’s Awards for Enterprise.
Care Friends founder and CEO Neil Eastwood said: “I am absolutely thrilled to receive a King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation. It means so much to all of us at Care Friends.
“We really are offering an innovative solution to the unprecedented recruitment and retention challenges that we know the vitally important social care sector is facing, and for our work to be recognised in these prestigious awards is a real achievement.
“Since launching in 2020 Care Friends has generated over 85,000 candidates who have been hand-picked for their values and suitability for social care by our existing workforce. Care workers have earned £4.5m via the app and employers are reporting year one staff turnover rates of new starters hired via the app are as much as six times lower than they are used to from other sources.
“We will continue to optimise the technology and are looking forward to bringing it to many more employers to support the social care sector in the future.”
Oonagh Smyth, Skills for Care CEO, added: “We are honoured and proud to see Care Friends recognised in the King’s Awards for Enterprise.
“We have always been excited by the work which Care Friends does to support recruitment, retention and recognition within the social care sector and we are delighted to be their partner in offering this creative innovation for the social care sector.
“There is so much great work and success happening within social care and it is important to see the sector recognised in these notable awards.”
