At Touchstone, a Yorkshire based mental health and wellbeing charity that works in partnership with many other organisations, our first priority is always the results that we achieve with and for our service users. But to do this, we invest and commit to supporting our diverse and talented staff to reach their potential. That support has been recognised by Investors In People for the second time, who has awarded Touchstone their highest level of accreditation – known as Investors In People Platinum.

In deciding to award Platinum, the assessor from Investors In People highlighted that: “People throughout the organisation demonstrated high levels of commitment to both the organisation and the services it delivers, their energy and passion for which are evident in the way they talk about their work”.

Platinum is the highest level of accreditation possible to achieve on our We invest in people accreditation. And is something only 2% of organisations achieve.

Alison Lowe, Touchstone’s former Chief Executive Officer, who stepped down at the beginning of this month to become West Yorkshire’s Deputy Mayor for Policing & Crime praised “I knew that Touchstone was in great hands when Trustees recruited Arfan Hanif as the new CEO and seeing the fabulous feedback from staff, as part of our successful Investors in People ‘Platinum’ re-accreditation, has absolutely reinforced for me how strong the whole organisation is. Nearly 97% of Touchstone staff said they share our organisational values, an amazing validation of the work we have done together for the last 17 years and I am confident that this great work will continue for many more years to come.”

Arfan Hanif, Touchstone’s new Chief Executive Officer commented “I am very proud that Touchstone has been accredited IIP Platinum for a second time. This accreditation reflects the huge amount of effort, commitment and passion demonstrated by all our staff to deliver best in class service delivery to all our diverse service users and communities. We recognise that we can only truly achieve our business objectives by involving and investing in our diverse and talented staff.  We proudly put our service users and communities first by enhancing the potential and talent of all our staff.”

Kathryn Hart, Touchstone’s Human Resources Director echoed “I am so excited that Touchstone has retained IIP Platinum, this is due to all the brilliant Trustees, managers, staff and volunteers who are all leaders in Touchstone, they live and breathe the values of the organisation and want to continuously improve and deliver the best service they can to the people and communities they support.”

Paul Devoy, Chief Executive Officer of Investors in People, said “We’d like to congratulate Touchstone. Platinum accreditation on We invest in people is a remarkable effort for any organisation, and places Touchstone in fine company with a host of organisations that understand the value of people.”

This latest accolade comes on top of a number of other awards and accreditations that recognise how Touchstone’s employment and recruitment practices help the organisation to develop the best teams for the job.

At the start of 2021, Touchstone;

  • Achieved three star accreditation in the annual Best Companies to Work For – 2021 – for employee engagement, which is classed as world class levels of employee engagement.
  • Ranked 35thin Best Large Companies to work for in the UK.
  • Third Best Companies – Charity to work for in the UK.
  • 12thBest Companies to work for in Yorkshire & The Humber.

And in 2020, Touchstone;

  • Ranked ninth in The Sunday Times Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For 2020. Winner of “Discovering Potential” award for the fourth consecutive year and winner of the “Giving Something Back” award for the second year in a row at the Sunday Times Best 100 Companies awards.
  • Ranked 44th in Stonewall’s Top 100 Employers list.

Touchstone is not complacent though. Whilst we want to celebrate our achievements we know we can be better, and this is always our aim.