2021/22 proved to be a significant year as we contended with managing the impact of Covid-19. The pandemic continued to have a significant impact on workforce availability and resilience. Despite these challenges, we are proud to say that we managed to avoid any service closures across the year. We continued to deliver high quality care and support across all of our services and opened two new youth homelessness services in Dumfries and Galloway and in South Ayrshire.

In 2021/22, we continued to focus on making Quarriers a great place to work. We invested heavily in front-line pay, introducing a new minimum hourly rate of £10.50 per hour, taking us 60p per hour above the Scottish Living Wage. For this reason, and our wider investment in training and development, we managed to retain our platinum Investors in People accreditation.

We also continued to make steady progress in building organisational sustainability. Following two difficult years from 2018-20, we have succeeded in returning a modest surplus for the second successive financial year, which we can reinvest in the organisation and make progress in rebuilding our reserves. This involved making some tough decisions around participation in the national redress scheme, and while there is more to do, 2021/22 represents a solid financial performance in difficult times.

Chief Executives Report extract from the Quarriers Annual Report and Financial Statements (For the year ended 31 March 2022)