16th Dec 2020

Our Commitment To People

At Care in Mind, we pride ourselves on our commitment to our employees, because it is our hardworking, passionate colleagues who make us what we are.

Therefore, when faced with the opportunity to step up our Investors in People (IIP) accreditation from the Standard First Time assessment to Silver or Gold, our People Services team decided that they wanted to quite literally, ‘go for gold’. Over many months, the team worked alongside IIP, with employees also getting involved through answering questionnaires and having interviews with an IIP representative.

The People Services team were keen to achieve Gold as a way of recognising and showing to others that we are truly committed and invested in our staff. Subsequently, on 19^th November 2020, we received the news that we had been awarded the Gold level accreditation.

The CEO of IIP, Paul Devoy said of our achievement: “Gold accreditation on We invest in people is a fantastic effort for any organisation, and places Care in Mind in fine company with a host of organisations that understand the value of people.”

We could not agree more with his words, and with just 17% of accredited organisations managing to achieve the Gold level, we really believe this quite the accomplishment.

Here is what Sharron Amri, our Managing Director, had to say of our triumph: “Being awarded the Gold level accreditation by Investors in People is a huge achievement, and it could not have been done without our fantastic People Services team, as well as each and every Care in Mind employee who took part in making our dream becoming a reality.”

Additionally, Julie Burton, People Director, said: “This is an amazing achievement for Care in Mind. To achieve Gold in only our second assessment makes us extremely proud. Over the past 3 years we have worked hard to aim for the Gold standard. There has been tremendous teamwork to ensure we have the right support in place for our staff and our management and leadership team have strived to embed our new core values. The healthcare sector has faced an extremely challenging time in 2020 and this award is a testament to of all of the excellent work our teams have done to ensure a safe environment for our young people. 2021 marks Care in Minds 10^th Anniversary and achieving this recognition is the icing on the cake to what will be a very special year.“

So, why did IIP award us with Gold level accreditation?

• We are effective communicators, which allows for better decision-making.
• Our values are truly embedded in everything we do, with almost 100% of those surveyed agreeing that we have clear values.
• Staff understand how to improve with the help of appropriate, in-depth auditing.
• We are dedicated to recognising and rewarding our people, with 85.3% of those surveyed expressing that they contribution to the organisation is valued.
• Staff are well-supported through regular supervisions, staff support groups and reflective practice sessions.
• We are dedicated to collaboration across all teams.

What else did our people have to say?

• About management: “They are open and really motivating. They want everyone to work to the best of their ability and they push to be best that you can be. They are challenging in a really positive way.”
• About our values: “It’s a positive culture. The thing that appeals to me about the organisation is that values are at the centre of what we do. It feels like an organisation that puts the young people we work with at the centre and at the heart of what we want to achieve. You see and feel it everywhere.”
• About our culture: “It’s very warm and caring. I’ve worked for a number of companies and never found any as caring as here – there’s no blame culture, we thrive on lessons learned and genuinely listen to our young people.”
• About being empowered: “We are empowered. Everyone is so open to suggestions and people have boundaries and frameworks and support to make decisions.”

• About rewarding our staff: “We reward massively to be honest. Every month every house has an employee of the month and a budget for gifts and treats to use how we want. We get certificates for over 95% audit. We get thanks on the HR system. There’s loads.”
• About progressing within the company: “We encourage people to progress and achieve – we recruit people with little or no experience and then progress them with NVQs. People are empowered by the fact that they can grow and progress and there is a process for that.”
• About training opportunities: “I do feel very invested in personally. I’ve been doing training and was offered a lot of support with that, such as time off work to study. Training is really good here and the best I’ve had.”
• About our auditing processes: “Any findings from audits are sent to the internal teams, then they are reported into monthly operations meeting, then they go into clinical audit committee. Escalations are fed into appropriate groups, any lessons learned recorded onto a log and actions plans compiled form audits and each action reviewed monthly. ”
• About diversity and inclusion: “We are working on a big project in terms of inclusion and diversity. We are looking at diversity and how representative we are and looking at how this impacts on how we recruit and manage people.”

We are thrilled with our new Gold accreditation from Investors in People, and are looking forward to continuing to invest and empower our people going forward.