Opening the door to independent living
7
services to many thousands of people
but also helped to bring about
change.
Despite the financial situation, since
April 2010 (until the present day) we
have increased the number areas in
which we offer support by 33%, which
means we offer support in one fifth of
the local authority areas in England
and Wales, (please refer to the
director of operations’ report).
Recently, this success has been
attributed to our new bid manager,
Tracy Coombes, who has achieved so
much in her eight months with us in
partnership with Mark Stirling, finance
manager (strategy).
Our continued market awareness has
therefore helped us gain an
advantage. We continued to invest in
small but important capital projects
we believed would strengthen our
infrastructure and marketability. More
detail is provided in the director of
operations’ report which details our
significant achievements. However,
two in particular stand out.
We reported last year that Penderels
Trust was about to launch a new
independent company, All About
People (Coventry) Ltd (AAP), which
selects and vets individuals wanting
to become carers. As a wholly owned
subsidiary of Penderels Trust, AAP
will not only provide additional income
(to be used to benefit the charity), but
is already reducing the amount of
time and effort involved in recruiting
new staff for people with disabilities.
As with all new ventures, there is
often a lead in period before any
income is received. I am, therefore,
pleased to report that, thanks largely
to the efforts of its service manager,
Kirsty Ellis, AAP is now fully
operational and helping employers to
swiftly recruit their staff.
The second significant achievement
has been the development of an
application (an ‘app’) that can be
downloaded onto mobile phones. This
provides information regarding our
services in addition to calculating the
cost of any services an individual is
looking to purchase. It has already