ThinCats provides £4.5m growth funding for leading Scottish children’s care home operator

Glasgow-based specialist residential childcare group, Inspire Scotland Ltd, have been supported with £4.5m in refinance and growth funding by leading alternative lender to mid-sized businesses, ThinCats.

Established in 2012 by a group of passionate professionals with a diversity of experience in residential school care, foster care, criminal justice, inspection, and regulation, Inspire Scotland champions a modern, empathetic and grounded approach to residential care that ensures young people get the kind of support and opportunities essential to creating home lives that lead to flourishing futures.

Inspire Scotland provides a range of services to children and young people who have suffered emotional and/or physical trauma, abuse and mental health issues, to name a few, and is partnered with all 32 Scottish Local Authorities. The team at Inspire promote inclusion, education and work opportunities, working within the principals of social pedagogy, which provides a holistic and coherent framework of professional, personal and practical knowledge, skills and abilities.

The funding was sought to finance the acquisitions of five further homes to complement the existing portfolio, in a variety of rural and urban locations across Scotland.  Stephen North, of Edinburgh based North Commercial Finance Ltd, (part of Synergy Commercial Finance), introduced ThinCats as funding partner.

Michael Doolin, managing director of Inspire Scotland: “We are very proud of the service that we provide to our chidren and young people; our team is incredibly experienced, and we work together as a community with our shared vision ‘to be the best we can be’.  Both ThinCats and Stephen have worked extremely hard to provide us with a bespoke funding package that will enable us to grow our portfolio of homes further, which will enable us to reach even more childen and young people who may need care and support at this time in their lives.”

Stephen North, North Commercial Finance Ltd.  I have known and worked on and off with Inspire for a number of years, and was delighted to assist them once again.  Thincats approach, and their desire to assist and understand the exact requirements of Inspire stood out.  For me it was the perfect partnership.  These funds will support future generations of children, and it was a pleasure to be a part of it.

Richard Henshaw, director, National Development Healthcare, ThinCats: “I have known the team at Inspire Scotland for a number of years – the service that they provide is second to none, and vital to the local communities.  It is extremely rewarding to be able to support them in these acquisitions, which will ultimately provide more vulnerable children with a way to turn their lives around.”