Oakland Care is delighted to have been awarded this accolade. Oakland Care is a growing provider of premium elderly care homes, developing and operating exceptional care homes across London and the Southeast. We currently have nine operational homes and a pipeline of land for the future. We have been named as a ‘Top Employer’ for three years running, and more recently, we achieved The Investors in People Gold Accreditation on our first application.

Our high-end care homes deliver quality personalised residential, nursing, memory and respite care, in luxurious living facilities, with five-star hospitality services. We provide the highest standards of care with a real sense of community, allowing our residents to feel at home while enjoying a range of fulfilling activities programmes to offer an exceptional living experience.

We truly value taking the time to get to know and understand all residents staying with us. In doing so, we tailor how we support their lifestyle and care requirements while maintaining their independence and dignity.

Our focus for this year’s HealthInvestor submission was innovation and what we do differently at Oakland Care. We are proud to lead the way on sustainability and environmental considerations, setting the standard for the social care sector and beyond.

In the last 12 months alone, we have retained our status as the only carbon neutral care group in the UK, as certified by Carbon Neutral Britain, for a second year running. We have also achieved Level 3 certification by Green Mark, the highest grade awarded by the sustainability specialist. This year we also completed the process of gaining BREAAM accreditation for our entire portfolio. We are committed to looking after our local environments and dedicate a minimum of 1,500 hours to local voluntary projects.

Most recently, we were awarded a Green World Environment Award from the world-renowned Green Organisation. Launched in 1994, the international environmental group established the awards to reward and promote environmental best practices around the globe. Our chief executive Joanne Balmer was also named the inaugural winner of the newly introduced ESG Champion at HealthInvestor’s Power Fifty Awards for demonstrating exemplary commitment to delivering positive change on environmental, social and governance issues in the sector.

Speaking of winning the HealthInvestor 2023 Award, Balmer said: “This is an incredible achievement and I am delighted that Oakland Care has been recognised as the Residential Care Provider of the Year – Small Group. This award is a testament to the hard work and dedication across Oakland Care, without which we wouldn’t be able to deliver the highest-quality care to our residents and make Oakland Care an enriching workplace”.