The financial strategy that reshaped WCL

We Change Lives (WCL), a learning disabilities charity, faced severe financial difficulties: rising costs and insufficient local authority funding led to several services being closed. After posting a £0.9m loss in 2020, the charity turned to Kent Finance for support. Within 12 months, they turned a profit. Since then, WCL has acquired 3L and Creative Care, and now has a combined EBITDA of around £4.0m, with approximately £2.4m in annual free cash flow.

With robust lender support and a sustainable business model, Kent Finance has helped to strategically position WCL to scale its impact and deliver long-term social care solutions.

Founded in 1991 as ‘Warrington Community Living’, WCL began as a charity supporting people with learning disabilities transitioning from institutional care. Over the years, it gradually expanded to include residential and domiciliary services and expanded its services to provide support for people with disabilities, acquired brain injuries, mental health issues, dementia and older people. By financial year 2020, WCL was struggling with rising service demand, shrinking public funding, inflationary cost pressures, and competition from other local providers. These challenges strained resources and tested the sustainability of traditional service delivery models.

Like many other small providers, WCL needed to improve cash flow to rationalise and expand its low-margin care services. Through a series of comprehensive strategic reviews, Kent Finance revealed that WCL’s extensive asset base was underused. This represented a hidden opportunity that, if strategically leveraged, could boost cash flow, cut costs, unlock new revenue, strengthen funding bids, and drive sustainable growth. But there was another path too: growth through acquisition. Kent Finance’s insight was clear. If WCL could leverage existing assets and find the right acquisition, they could stabilise their finances and create new revenue streams to fuel growth and protect against long-term decline.

To achieve this, Kent Finance built a comprehensive financial model that gave the charity total clarity on where it stood financially. The model used data from across the organisation to build a structured and detailed projection of how WCL would perform financially, including profit, cash flow, and balance sheet outcomes. Crucially, the model was built to evolve with the business, providing the perfect foundation for strategic planning, assessing investment risk, and tracking performance.

Before involving Kent Finance, the charity was facing the prospect of high-risk, high-cost lenders. With clear data and a solid plan, they secured a transformative relationship with Unity Trust Bank. This enabled WCL to acquire 3L Care in 2023. It was a bold move backed by rigorous modelling and a strong strategic case. In 2025, the charity acquired Creative Care, using the existing financial model as well as a comprehensive due diligence exercise delivered by Kent Finance. This £12.2m acquisition was funded with a new £16.0m facility raised with Barclays Bank, and included the refinancing of the Unity Trust facility.