Provider of specialist social care and education services for adults and children CareTech Holdings has acquired two businesses in the United Arab Emirates.

Following CareTech’s first international investment in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the group has made two further acquisitions, with the aim of developing a whole-person care pathway of services for people with complex needs and disabilities.

This targeted international growth represents a strategic move to take the group’s expertise to a region with significant unmet population needs, as well as attractive policy and payer dynamics.

CareTech acquired 51% of UAE-based AS Group in February 2020. Operating under two brands, the American Centre for Psychiatry and Neurology (ACPN) and Maudsley Health (a partnership with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust), the AS Group provides outpatient mental health services in the UAE and inpatient clinical management services to the Al Amal Psychiatric Hospital in Dubai.

Since CareTech’s investment in the AS Group, and in line with its commitment to support the development of additional services, a training academy is being established by the AS Group and education expertise from CareTech’s UK teams seconded to support the development of special education needs services in the UAE.

The acquisition of Wellness and Dmetco-Bayti will expand the care pathway to encompass specialist health and social care services in-home care environments and physical healthcare services in specialist clinic settings. CareTech’s long term goal in the Gulf region is to create a world-class integrated solutions provider of care and technology for the mental health, social care, special education, and physical healthcare pathway, offering the widest possible access to people with complex needs and disabilities in their local communities.

Chief executive officer and shareholder of CareTech’s subsidiary AS Group, Shafqat Malik, will take on additional responsibilities managing Dmetco-Bayti and Wellness, with the intention of integrating a number of areas.

“I am delighted to build on the already successful business at AS Group by adding these well-regarded homecare and clinic brands to the portfolio,” said Malik. “We warmly welcome the management teams of Wellness and Dmetco-Bayti to the AS Group.”

“These new partnerships will mean that our whole person care pathways strategy, successfully deployed in the UK, is gaining momentum in the UAE. The Gulf markets are underserved with specialist social care services and therefore provides CareTech, through its AS Group, a platform to create an integrated pathway in the UAE that can also act as a template for the wider region in due course.”

“This is an exciting next step development in our investment in the AS Group as CareTech’s platform for growth in the UAE,” commented CareTech executive chairman Farouq Sheikh. “Dmetco-Bayti and Wellness complement the existing brands of the AS Group and together offer a pathway of specialist health and social care services to an underserved market with favourable growth prospects.

” We look forward to supporting the AS Group to realise our collective vision of being the benchmark for specialist services in the UAE serving individuals with complex needs and disabilities. CareTech has established its regional Managing Office in Dubai, and as we invest in regional platforms, the Managing Office will provide strategic oversight to these investments with governance support from CareTech’s corporate functions – a model that we are further embedding through these investments.”

Dr Ali A. Hamidaddin, chief executive officer of Dmetco-Bayt, added: “We are excited at the prospect of working with the AS Group and its parent CareTech as it now provides Dmetco-Bayti with the ability to complement its existing service provision with the portfolio of specialist expertise and care pathway that the wider AS Group offers.

“The supported living and home healthcare market in the region is growing rapidly and is evidenced by a rapidly changing demographic, a high frequency of lifestyle illnesses and increased longevity of life. There are additional opportunities for growth as the region is now becoming a leader in the digitization of full-spectrum healthcare as well as funding and promoting the provision of mental well-being services. We believe that with the scale of expertise that CareTech brings, we can grow this business to a pre-eminent position.”