Since the fourth quarter of 2013, Penrose Care has experienced a marked increase in press coverage for our pioneering efforts in ethics in social care. Such press coverage is in of itself a testament to a component of our ethos that it is not sufficient to just be ethical within our own remit, but also to promote ethics generally by speaking up. Our firm belief that ethics in social care promotes excellence is care is backed up by the facts of Penrose Care: to date, all our client feedback has been excellent and we’ve had no care worker leave voluntarily.
To assist our clients and prospective clients in keeping abreast of Penrose Care’s social impact initiatives, we have collated this press coverage in this article.
Press coverage since the fourth quarter of 2013
In our first news coverage of 2014, on 7 Jan 2014, the Guardian published an article “Care at Christmas” (by Claire Burke), which mentioned a Guardian Witness submission of a video of a Penrose Care-organised choir singing Christmas Carols at Marie Curie Hospice Hampstead on 15 Dec 2013, as part of a community giving initiative. Read More…
We at Penrose Care were particularly proud to be featured in the December 2013 homecare.co.uk, the UK’s #1 independent information site for home care, in a 4 Dec 2013 article “Profile: ‘To promote a caring workforce, the organisation itself must be caring’ says Penrose Care managing director” (by Nina Hathway). The article highlights the unique and pioneering ethical frameworks underlying Penrose Care’s home care services including our being the first independent sector home care provider to be compliant with Citizens UK’s landmark Social Care Charter. Read More…
One of the most high-profile ethical commitments of Penrose Care has been our London Living Wage commitment, which really stood out after the HMRC revealed that a number of providers were flouting the national minimum wage, let alone paying the living wage. A 4 Dec 2013 Guardian article titled “Pressure mounts for better pay for homecare workers” (by Sue Learner) noted Penrose Care’s unique commitment to the living wage. Read More… The article followed an article of the same topic on homecare.co.uk published 25 Nov 2013 titled “A third of home care providers pay less than national minimum wage” (also by Sue Learner). Read More…
Within a wider set of coverage on whether or not Westminster Council should be paying the London Living Wage, the Wood & Vale ran a special feature on 21 Nov 2013, “Care bosses take salary cut to ensure staff receive fair income” (by Alex Wellman) for Penrose Care’s management accepting to be paid below typical rates to ensure frontline care staff can be paid the London Living Wage. The article also highlighted our community giving initiatives with St John’s Hospice. The article can be read online on page 4 of this 21 Nov 2013 digital edition of theWood & Vale. Read More…
On 04 Nov 2013, at the start of the UK’s Living Wage Week 2014, ITV published the current list of Accredited Living Wage Employers. The list exemplified the continued uniqueness of Penrose Care’s Living Wage commitment with it being only one of nine such Living Wage employers in England’s home care sector out of over 7,000 providers. Feeling that its excellent workforce deserved the new London Living Wage rate of £8.80/hour (from £8.55/hour), Penrose Car’s management took the heroic decision of implementing the rate increase immediately. This move was picked up by homecare.co.uk in its article “London home care provider raises carer pay” (by Nina Hathway). Read More…
On 10 Oct 2013, the Great British Care Awards announced Penrose Care had been shortlisted as a finalist in the Great London Care Awards 2013 as “Best Employer”. This news was followed up on 11 Oct 2013, in the Jewish Chronicle’s article “With friends and outings, life is rosy” (by Billie Josephs) on page H12 of the Health & Wellbeing Supplement (digital copy not available).
Older articles
On 28 June 2013, the Jewish Chronicle’s article “What makes a perfect carer?” (by Elisa Cowen) on page CN6 of the Care & Nursing Supplement (digital copy not available), highlighted Penrose Care’s industry leading induction program for care workers that lasted up to 12 days. For comparison, in the same article, a competing provider described as “another agency with a highly developed training infrastructure”, only provided a two-day induction training for its care workers – highlighting the uniquely high standards of training Penrose Care workers are put through.
On 5 Nov 2012, we received our first mention in a media outlet with the Guardian publishing the first-ever list of the UK’s Accredited Living Wage Employers in the article “Boris Johnson and Ed Miliband” (by Andrew Sparrow) speak on the living wage: Politics live blog, for which Penrose Care is among the first four in England’s home care sector. Read More…
Robert Stephenson-Padron is the co-founder and managing director of Penrose Care.