‘I knew I wanted my work to involve helping others’ – Janet Silvio

As the visionary CEO of HILA Homes – part of the CareMalta Group – Janet Silvio is redefining leadership in the social care sector. With a deeply personal commitment to both service users and employees, Janet has built HILA from the ground up into a beacon of personalised, community-based care in Malta.

Janet Silvio’s journey to becoming a CEO in the social care sector has been far from conventional. “I’ve always been ambitious,” she remarks. “After earning my degree in accountancy, I was determined to climb the career ladder as quickly as possible. I made conscious decisions to work with market leaders across various sectors, starting in property and later moving to media and production. I embraced change and grew quickly, but the long hours and personal challenges eventually left me feeling burnt out.”

Then, unlike most 30-year-olds at the peak of their careers, Janet made a profound shift. She sold everything she owned and embarked on an 18-month career break, travelling through Southeast Asia, India and Australia. “When you travel across certain countries, particularly India, you start to view life differently. You realise that simple things can make you happy and that, sometimes, we fuss too much over trivial matters,” she reflects.

When Janet returned to Malta, she brought with her a renewed sense of purpose. “I knew I wanted my work to involve helping others,” she explains. Her first step was to take on a managerial role at Cospicua Home, one of CareMalta’s nursing and residential care homes. Five years later, Natalie Briffa Farrugia, CareMalta’s CEO at the time, offered Janet the opportunity to expand her role by developing a new project focused on the disability sector. Thus, CareMalta’s Home to Independence and Limitless Abilities – or HILA – was born.

HILA’s mission is to provide tailored support for individuals with disabilities, focusing on their unique needs and preferences. “The system must fit their requirements, not the other way around,” Janet emphasises. “Just like a size 10 doesn’t fit every body shape, caregiving is not a one-size-fits-all endeavour. It has to be tailor-made. We listen to people. We hear what they need and want. We fight for what we believe is their right.”

This approach has positioned HILA at the forefront of social care. Each of HILA’s homes is beautifully decorated and integrated into the local community to promote inclusion. Janet and her team work closely with service users and their families to ensure that every detail, from the physical environment to the support plans, is customised to the individual.

In the spirit of adaptability, Janet has developed a hands-on, people-centric leadership style. “I get my drive, vision and positivity from being immersed in the operations,” she explains. “Beyond drafting the company’s strategy and vision, and ensuring follow-through and innovation, my role as CEO of HILA involves supporting our homes, management, staff, and service users. I walk the floors as often as possible and provide consistent moral support because being present on both the good and bad days is very important to me.”

“We ask a lot of our staff. While I lead the company, it is the care that my talented and committed team provides daily that leads to our truly extraordinary outcomes,” Janet acknowledges. The CEO has nurtured a dedicated, multicultural team from diverse backgrounds and countries, and the company strives to create a sense of unity and togetherness that goes beyond just being a workplace.

For this reason, in 2024, HILA placed a strong emphasis on staff well-being, including investing in courses on mental healthcare led by a specialised psychotherapist. “By providing our team with valuable tools for self-care and well-being, we are giving them something that will benefit them personally and professionally, forever shaping how they approach their work,” Janet highlights. “Investing in our staff is crucial to me. My philosophy is that since we ask so much of our team, we must give back to them in equal measure. Having been in their position myself, I understand the value of having someone who listens and visits in person regularly. I try to lighten their load wherever possible.”

Janet has also been instrumental in shaping HILA’s ethos of creating an extended family for both service users and employees. “The concept of ‘extended family’ at HILA emerged from conversations with parents who expressed that HILA had become like a second family, especially for those who lacked support from their own families. As we mature, we develop the ability to proactively choose the people we consider family, and that’s precisely what happens at HILA. Our service users choose us, and by integrating their family nucleus into everything we do, we become an extension of the care and support they receive.”

Reflecting on HILA’s growth in 2024, Janet explains that the sector as a whole has experienced an increased demand for care services. “It’s encouraging to witness diversification in the sector. As the country undergoes a deinstitutionalisation process, which the United Nations Convention also advocates, the focus is shifting from institutions to community-based services. There’s a growing emphasis on support provision within the community, which is one of our key focuses for 2025.”

To this end, HILA is working on developing shared homes where service users can live independently within the community while receiving necessary support. The company is also exploring opportunities to provide personal assistance in family homes, enabling individuals with disabilities to receive support in the safety and comfort of their own environments.

“Regrettably, mental health is an area where we’re still lagging behind,” Janet points out. “This isn’t just a localised issue; it’s a global problem. Governments allocate only about two per cent of their funds to mental health, and in some countries, it’s even less. It’s disheartening to see that people with mental health issues are often treated as an afterthought, like the Cinderella of healthcare. They shouldn’t be viewed this way because, in my opinion, among all social sectors, mental health is the most in need of support and resources.”

“Several countries, though not yet Malta, have adopted a concept known as ‘secure therapeutic units’. These units offer an intermediate level of care between what we currently have at Casal Nuovo (a community home) and a full-fledged mental health hospital. HILA plans to research this model in 2025 with the aim of developing a new approach that combines the safety of a secure unit with intensive therapeutic support. This initiative has the potential to bridge the gap in services and provide much-needed care for individuals with complex mental health needs,” Janet explains.

As HILA continues to grow and evolve, Janet remains dedicated to upholding the company’s strong foundation and its mission of empowering individuals with disabilities. “I’m eager to sustain the healthy growth pace that HILA has experienced in recent years. What continually surprises me – perhaps due to HILA’s unique status – is that even during challenging times, we always manage to bounce back through hard work and dedication – both at a management level and in terms of support provision. Our passion and drive to succeed enable us to overcome difficulties and emerge even stronger than before,” Janet affirms.   

This article is part of the serialisation of 50 interviews featured in Malta CEOs 2025 – the sister brand to MaltaCEOs.mt and an annual high-end publication bringing together some of the country’s most influential business leaders.