• New Reflexions is a specialist children’s home operator headquartered in Shropshire
• It provides integrated care, therapy and education to young people with complex needs
• Evergreen will support New Reflexions to expand into new regions, whilst maintaining its strong culture and focus on delivering the best possible outcomes for the young people in its care
• This is the first investment for Evergreen, a permanent capital vehicle that provides long-term investment and support for mission-led businesses

Bridges Evergreen Holdings (“Evergreen”) is delighted to announce a £6m investment in New Reflexions, a leading children’s residential care provider based in Shropshire.

Evergreen – which is managed by specialist sustainable and impact investor Bridges Fund Management (“Bridges”) – will support New Reflexions to roll-out its proven model to other regions, enabling it to work with more vulnerable young people.

In the UK, more than 80,000 children are ‘looked-after’ by the state, about 10% of whom live in residential care. Bridges has previously supported a number of programmes that seek better life outcomes for looked-after children; for instance by helping those in care homes move into foster families, or by supporting those on the edge of care.

New Reflexions works specifically with young people with complex needs who are unable or unwilling to live within a family setting, providing placements that combine care, education and therapy. Its entire philosophy is geared around providing a stable, supportive and nurturing environment for these young people, for as long as they need it, encapsulated in their philosophy of “never give up on a child”. As part of this commitment, all its carers and therapists are directly employed and provided with market-leading training, to try and ensure stability and consistency of care.

This approach is helping change the lives of some of the most vulnerable young people in the country, and has helped New Reflexions become a market leader: the specialist school it operates is rated ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted, as are more than half of its care homes. It also makes New Reflexions very attractive to local authorities looking for quality providers, creating a strong foundation for growth. This investment from Evergreen will allow management to expand into new areas of the UK, whilst maintaining New Reflexions’ strong culture and focus on improving the lives of the young people in its care.

Greg D’Arcy-Watson, Care Director of New Reflexions, said: “We’re hugely excited about this next chapter in New Reflexions’ growth. We wanted to work with Bridges because they understood our sector, our ethos and our values – and they shared our focus on delivering the best possible outcomes for the young people in our care. Through Evergreen, they are able to provide the long-term support we need, making sure we can grow while maintaining the high standards of care we have set over the last ten years.”

Scott Greenhalgh, executive chair of Bridges Evergreen Holdings, said: “New Reflexions is a perfect example of the kind of market-leading mission-led business we are looking to back through Evergreen. It has an excellent team, who are already delivering a hugely impactful service to some of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged young people in the UK. We admire their ethos and we’re excited to be able to support their growth in the coming years. We know the care sector well, and we firmly believe that New Reflexions can become a national exemplar.”

Notes to editors

About Bridges Fund Management
Bridges Fund Management is a specialist fund manager focused exclusively on sustainable and impact investment, with offices in London and New York. Since 2002, the firm has now raised almost £800m across its Sustainable Growth, Property and Social Sector funds in the U.K. and the U.S. It invests in high-impact SMEs, properties and social sector organisations that are helping to solve some of society’s biggest challenges, with a focus on four key impact ‘themes’: health & wellbeing, education & skills, sustainable living and underserved markets.

About Bridges Evergreen Holdings
Bridges Evergreen Holdings is a new kind of investment vehicle, designed to free ambitious mission-led businesses from the constraints of traditional fund structures.

• It will look to back profit-with-purpose companies, public sector spin-outs, social sector organisations and employee-owned businesses.
• It is structured as a holding company rather than a fund so it can provide ongoing support over the long term, with no exit requirement.
• In addition to financial capital, it will also offer strategic, operational and impact management support plus access to the specialist networks of the Bridges team

About New Reflexions 
Reflexion Care Group Limited (trading as ‘New Reflexions’) is a specialist residential children’s home provider based in Shropshire. It provides short, medium and long term residential care to young people who for are either unable or unwilling to live within a family setting. New Reflections operates 17 children’s care homes, 4 response homes and one specialist school.