Penrose Care named London Living Wage Champion 2016

British Library, London, UK: Penrose Care is pleased to announce that this morning at the British Library, the Living Wage Foundation announced that Penrose Care has been named the London Living Wage Employer Champion of 2016.

The Living Wage Champion award recognises organisations that have made a real difference by supporting the Living Wage movement. The Awards are judged by an independent panel of community leaders and winners are announced during Living Wage Week 2016. The Living Wage Foundation announced Employer Champions for each region of the UK, Penrose Care winning in the London region. These awards celebrate the organisations that have done the most to implement, promote and celebrate the Living Wage in their regions during 2016.

Out of the about 1,000 Accredited Living Wage Employers in London, five were short-listed to be the London Living Wage Champion – ArtHouse, Cannon & Cannon Fine Foods, Cause4, Oliver Bonas, and Penrose Care – and Penrose Care won out of this very prestigious group of excellent organisations.

Stuart Wright, Chair of the Living Wage Foundation, presented the award to Robert “Bob” Stephenson-Padron, Penrose Care’s managing director, who received the award on behalf of the company. Mr. Wright said:

“Many congratulations to all the short-listed organisations. Of course there can be only one winner. The winner this year is Penrose Care. Congratulations to all the team as an organisation that has shown amazing leadership in the social care sector and campaigned for change in this area in the press, at events, through social media and quite honestly in every small way every single day.”

Following receiving the Living Wage Champion Award on behalf of Penrose Care, our managing director Robert Stephenson-Padron said:

“Penrose Care is incredibly humbled by the incredible honour of being the London Living Wage Employer Champion of 2016. In 2012, the year we started and the year of our first Living Wage Week celebration, Penrose Care’s founders, myself and Dr. Matthew Knight, had the firm conviction that the best way to build and manage a care organisation that respects the dignity of the vulnerable persons it supports, we must first respect the dignity of the care workers providing that support. By acting ethically and morally, Penrose Care provides the surest guarantee to our management and to our clients that Penrose Care will provide the highest quality of care that no legal or technological innovation could ever mimic. This is because Penrose Care’s innovations in home care have been innovations of the heart and spirit, and it is the healthy hearts and spirits we need in care. Until we get these basic fundamental features of social care right, all other innovations will be wanting. Thank you to my colleagues at Penrose Care, to our clients who believe in us, and our community supporters who have had the courage to share Penrose Care’s vision for better home care.”

Penrose Care was joined by guests of honour at the Living Wage Champion awards ceremony, Tulip Siddiq, MP for Hampstead and Kilburn; Cllr Claire-Louise Leyland, Leader of the Opposition of Camden Council; and Mr. Kosuke Wada of the Embassy of Japan.

Tulip Siddiq, the Member of Parliament from Penrose Care’s home constituency of Hampstead and Kilburn, said after the award ceremony:

“Congratulations to Penrose Care for a fantastic achievement.  I am proud to support them and I hope other organisations will follow their brilliant example.”

Cllr Claire-Louise Leyland of Belsize ward – Penrose Care’s home ward – said:

“I’m so delighted to see a local Belsize business, Penrose Care, receiving an award this morning. The approach that Penrose has taken to supporting their staff and their clients is so inspiring – a truly holistic model, that shows real understanding of and respect for the relational nature of business, especially in the homecare sector.  Bob and his team have set an example for small businesses across Camden. I hope that the providers of homecare nationally will see what can be achieved with a passionate commitment to service excellence and real care.”

Due to Penrose Care’s research collaborations with the Government of Japan into social care, Penrose Care was also joined at the awards ceremony by Mr Kosuke Wada, First Secretary for Health, Labour and Welfare at the Embassy of Japan. Mr. Wada said following Penrose Care being named the Living Wage Champion 2016:

“Congratulations Penrose Care for winning the Living Wage Champion Award 2016. I appreciate your great job. Labour issues are getting more and more important globally and an excellent model is necessary for everyone.”

In conjunction with the awards ceremony, the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan announced the new London Living Wage of £9.75/hour, up from £9.40/hour to reflect the higher cost of living facing families in the city – an increase of 3.7 per cent. This compares to the mandatory “national living wage” or enhanced minimum wage of £7.20/hour for persons 25 and above. As is our tradition at Penrose Care, our care workers will receive the pay increase immediately.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said:

“It’s great news that London is leading the way in paying the Living Wage and that over 1,000 businesses are now accredited and helping to make this a fairer and more equal city.  I’m glad to say we’re well on track to see it rise to over £10 an hour during my mayoralty, but we need to go further and for many more businesses and organisations to sign up.

“Our economy continues to grow and for the first time in London’s history we now have over one million businesses based here.  It’s essential that hard-working Londoners, who keep this city going, are rewarded for their integral role in this success.

“Paying the London Living Wage is not just the right and moral thing to do, it makes good business sense too.  As many employers already accredited know, the benefits are clear – including increased productivity and reduced staff turnover.

“The London Living Wage is a fantastic campaign and I will be working to encourage more businesses across our great city to get involved.  This will not only help London become a city where it’s a badge of pride for employers to pay the London Living Wage, but help us become a city where everyone benefits from the capital’s success.”

ENDS

Media Contact

 

Penrose Care

Robert Stephenson-Padron

robert.padron@penrosecare.co.uk

0207 435 2644

 

Living Wage Foundation

Lola McEvoy

lola.mcevoy@livingwage.org.uk

0203 384 2627

 

About Penrose Care

Penrose Care is an ethical provider of home care services London, United Kingdom to adults with disabilities and elderly persons, including those with dementia.  The company operates upon a fundamental belief that to promote a caring workforce, the organisation itself must be caring. As the pioneer of ethics in home care in the UK, Penrose Care in 2012 became one of the first four providers in the country to become an Accredited Living Wage Employer and in 2013 the first independent sector provider to be compliant with Citizens UK’s landmark Social Care Charter.

Penrose Care’s ethical approach promotes higher quality social care workers and low staff turnover which in turn results in excellent care. Penrose Care is headquartered in Belsize Village, north London and was founded by Robert Stephenson-Padron, a healthcare research analyst, and Dr. Matthew Knight, a hospital consultant physician.

 

About the real Living Wage

Only the real Living Wage is independently-calculated each year based on what employees and their families need to live. The current UK Living Wage is £8.45 an hour. The current London Living Wage is £9.75 an hour. Employers choose to pay the real Living Wage on a voluntary basis. The rates apply to all workers over 18 – in recognition that young people face the same living costs as everyone else. The real Living Wage that meets the cost of living enjoys cross party support, with public backing from successive London Mayors and MPs across the four nations of the UK. Paying a wage that is enough to live on is good for business, good for the individual and good for society.

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Penrose Care managing director Robert Stephenson-Padron with Camden Council Leader Cllr Sarah Hayward, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, MP for Hampstead and Kilburn Tulip Siddiq and activists of Citizens UK.

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Mr Kosuke Wada, First Secretary for Health, Labour and Welfare at the Embassy of Japan with Penrose Care managing director Robert Stephenson-Padron

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Penrose Care managing director Robert Stephenson-Padron with Tulip Siddiq MP, Member of Parliament for Hampstead and Kilburn.

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Penrose Care managing director Robert Stephenson-Padron with Cllr Claire-Louise Leyland, Belsize ward councillor and Leader of the Opposition of Camden Council.

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Penrose Care managing director Robert Stephenson-Padron receives the London Living Wage Champion Award 2016 on behalf of the company.

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Penrose Care Senior Care Worker Olga and managing director Robert Stephenson-Padron with the Living Wage logo and Living Wage Champion trophy.

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Penrose Care’s London Living Wage Employer Champion 2016 trophy.

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