5 Years with CF Group - A Reflection

November marked five years since I returned to work with CF Group, and as I pause to look back, I’m struck by just how much has changed — and the incredible growth and impact we have achieved.

When I first walked back through the door, there were just eight of us sharing an office that was barely a quarter of the space we have today. We offered education and social work services only, specialising in tuition, family support and reverse residential assessments. Back then, as now, we were fuelled by a shared passion for helping young people and families. Whilst we may have been small in number, we were already making an impact through our energy and ambition to make a difference.

We began to see a real deficit in the availability of services for young people in our area and further afield, so started to develop new services to step into that gap and provide the solutions needed. Our small team flourished and slowly became something far greater in a relatively short time. We’ve expanded our cohort of people, building our team of employed and contracted staff. We’ve strengthened our expertise, and broadened the services we provide, becoming a trusted, respected leader in the field of social care. With every new programme, every new partnership, and every young person we’ve supported, CF Group has grown not only in size, but in depth, purpose, and impact.

Our first children’s home opened in 2021 and was the start of a critical area of our business, which now sees us offering safe, caring support and accommodation to children across four homes. I initially focused on our homes division when I returned, before eventually becoming operations manager then operations director, and am really proud of the foundations I was able to help lay for what is now a flourishing children’s home provision, led by a team of dedicated managers and staff.

Our education service has grown exponentially, supporting more and more children every year with bespoke education provision designed around their specific needs. The impact we see here is quite extraordinary, supporting young people back towards education when often any engagement has been lost, and helping them on their way towards positive outcomes and brighter futures. We’ve recently developed our ‘Future Focused’ programme, providing a bespoke education pathway for young people at risk of exploitation and have quickly had to grow our team of specialists delivering this project due to the rising demand we’ve seen.

One of the most exciting milestones in our journey came recently with our acquisition by Keys Group — a major national organisation. Keys Group has more than 25 specialist schools across England and Wales, alongside its 180 residential children’s homes. Our tutoring and mentoring services will complement the established alternative provisions already offered by Keys including its hybrid learning model.

Keys may be a far larger company than CF, but it shares our passion for delivering high-quality outcomes for children and young people. Their values and vision align perfectly with ours and our determination to make a meaningful difference. Finding alignment with a partner of this scale is something truly special. It brings not only new opportunities, but also a renewed confidence that the work we believe in so strongly will continue to evolve and reach even more people. Our previous experience working with external partners brought only positivity and pushed us into a new phase. I’m totally confident we will now experience this once again.

As we look to the future, the possibilities feel bigger than ever. With the backing of Keys Group and the incredible team we’ve built at CF Group, we’re poised to expand our services, strengthen our support systems, and help more young people and families than ever before.

I’m incredibly proud of how far we’ve come — from eight people in a tiny office to a thriving organisation entering a bold new chapter. And I’m even more excited for what lies ahead. Here’s to the next five years of growth, innovation, and impact.