Care UK

Care UK had emerged from the most disruptive period in social care’s recent history. Staff were tired. The sector was short of skilled people. A new COO was joining, and the next five years of growth depended on getting the people strategy right — not on a slide, but in practice.

The brief was clear-eyed: a strategy strong enough to attract talent into a sector facing real headwinds, retain the carers and leaders they already had, and stay aligned to the values and employee value proposition they’d worked hard to define. The danger was the obvious one: another HR document that no one outside the HR team ever read.

We started with the truth on the ground. Manager surveys, focus groups with employees, team leaders and frontline carers, one-to-one conversations with new starters — both experienced and brand new to care — and stakeholder interviews. Then a desktop immersion in everything Care UK had already written about itself.

From there, working closely with the HR team, we built the framework: a People Vision, and five People Priorities to focus the next 3–5 years — Recruit people who genuinely care; Deliver a warm welcome and create a place where everyone belongs; Support people to thrive; Inspire and enable people leaders; Celebrate success every day.

Each priority came with its own initiatives, categorised as continue and embed, strengthen and enhance, or refocus or transform — so the strategy didn’t just describe ambition, it told the team where to plan, budget and build business cases.