Organisation Summary Business Sector:Education and Care Business Activities:Health and Social Care Business Location:Heywood, Greater Manchester Chief Executive:Rachel Law Turnover:£17m Employees:600 Legal structure:Community Interest Company Website:www.possabilities.org.uk PossAbilities is a Community Interest Company (CIC) established on 1 April 2014 as part of the Cabinet Office Public Service Mutuals Programme. It has been rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It was one of the first one hundred social enterprises to be formed by ‘spinning-out’ services which had formerly been run by public sector bodies. In PossAbilities’ case, it was formerly the Adult Social Care Provider within Rochdale MBC. PossAbilities provides a portfolio of services for vulnerable people, primarily people with learning disabilities, people with dementia and young people leaving care. The range of services includes: Day services Supported living Supporting people in their own homes Respite/short break facilities Supported placements for young people Shared lives Employment services PossAbilities has very quickly become a fast paced, outward looking social enterprise that is pushing back the boundaries in the areas in which it works. Since the spin out in 2014 the company has tripled in size, growing year-on-year; has always made a surplus; has become a regional rather than local company, and it has achieved a CQC Outstanding rating on two consecutive occasions – a rating given to only 2% of health and social care providers. PossAbilities is not an award winning organisation. It follows the principle ‘Concentrate on what’s important and everything else will look after itself’. The social enterprise spends all of its time and effort in these early years, trying to work out what’s important. E3M Member Name:Rachel Law Title :CEO Rachel took the long way round to her position as PossAbilities first Chief Executive, and it’s a route that she wouldn’t change for the world. Without a great deal of thought she found herself working as a Care Assistant looking after people with learning disabilities and found that she had stumbled upon something that she loved. More than twenty years later she has worked in practically every position from Care Assistant to Chief Executive, giving her an understanding of the detail, which enabled her to restructure services significantly, before moving them out to the social enterprise sector. The creation of PossAbilities and everything it stands for is, so far, one of her greatest achievements. She says, “It took two years of hard slog, diplomacy, evangelism, technical wrangling and bureaucracy busting to get us out of the public sector. I’ve been surprised at how quickly people absorbed and bought into our new culture and values. We’ve created a place where people earn a living doing what they love; a place that’s fun to be in; PossAbilities has become a place where anything is possible.” If she has a weakness, it is her love for animals. The urban farm seems to have new recruits almost on a weekly basis and every Wednesday she receives a visit from Woody, the PossAbilities Dementia Dog.
Organisation Summary Business Sector:Education and Care Business Activities:Health and Social Care Business Location:Heywood, Greater Manchester Chief Executive:Rachel Law Turnover:£17m Employees:600 Legal structure:Community Interest Company Website:www.possabilities.org.uk PossAbilities is a Community Interest Company (CIC) established on 1 April 2014 as part of the Cabinet Office Public Service Mutuals Programme. It has been rated ‘Outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It was one of the first one hundred social enterprises to be formed by ‘spinning-out’ services which had formerly been run by public sector bodies. In PossAbilities’ case, it was formerly the Adult Social Care Provider within Rochdale MBC. PossAbilities provides a portfolio of services for vulnerable people, primarily people with learning disabilities, people with dementia and young people leaving care. The range of services includes: Day services Supported living Supporting people in their own homes Respite/short break facilities Supported placements for young people Shared lives Employment services PossAbilities has very quickly become a fast paced, outward looking social enterprise that is pushing back the boundaries in the areas in which it works. Since the spin out in 2014 the company has tripled in size, growing year-on-year; has always made a surplus; has become a regional rather than local company, and it has achieved a CQC Outstanding rating on two consecutive occasions – a rating given to only 2% of health and social care providers. PossAbilities is not an award winning organisation. It follows the principle ‘Concentrate on what’s important and everything else will look after itself’. The social enterprise spends all of its time and effort in these early years, trying to work out what’s important.