The Care Friends recruitment app has been honoured in the first ever King’s Awards for Enterprise, receiving a King’s Award for Enterprise in Innovation.

The Care Friends app was launched in partnership with Skills for Car and is a digital employee referral solution which supports the recruitment and retention of high-quality care staff.

Care Friends was one of 148 organisations nationally to be recognised with a prestigious King’s Award for Enterprise.

Neil Eastwood, founder and chief executive of Care Friends and author of ‘Saving Social Care’, 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 £4.5 million 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, chief executive of Skills for Care, said: “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.”