About Southend Care Ltd

Southend Care Ltd (SCL) is a dynamic and forward-thinking Local Authority Trading Company wholly owned by Southend Borough Council (SBC). It has an £8 million annual turnover, employs 350 staff and supports over 1000 customers per year.

Trading since April 2017 its performance has exceeded business plan expectations both financially and also in operationally. SCL has a unique and special relationship with Southend Borough Council being the company the council turns to in the first instance for additional transfer of business. Already the company has secured new contracts with SBC to a total value of over £7.5million and is planning to take on additional services over the next 18 months. A new ten-year service contract to go live in 2022 will see the strategic partnership with SBC further strengthened.

A major business development includes being the exclusive care operator in a new £13million care facility due to open in Autumn 2021. This will be local flagship of excellence, delivering a range of specialist residential and day services including complex care, short term assessments and day opportunities for people with profound learning disabilities. Services offered will be a combination of those commissioned by Southend Borough Council and those purchased by self-funding customers. The company is poised therefore to enter a period of significant development and growth with the opportunity to transform service delivery and shape new models of care.

SCL prides itself on working with some of the most vulnerable people in society including those people with very complex and challenging needs. Their positioning reflects this in terms of being a more specialist provider in Southend market. Customer satisfaction ratings currently stand at 96% and the current portfolio of services includes day opportunities, residential care, supported living, shared lives, reablement, supported employment and provider of last resort. (see Appendix 1 for further details)

Their workforce has grown by almost 100 people since trading, changing the composition from pre-dominantly former council staff who TUPE transferred to SCL. Their terms and conditions are in the top quartile locally, providing the Real Living Wage and an excellent package of other benefits. Staff satisfaction ratings are positive and there is more work to be done in building staff engagement including developing staff forums and communication channels. Their workforce development strategy is near completion and will shape and nurture the talent within the company, enabling SCL to respond to future population needs and new business opportunities.

The Company has a flat management structure and a Board of Directors (see organigram in Appendix 2) responsible to the Shareholder (SBC) represented by the members of the council. In this form the business is agile, able to respond to new opportunities and make swift and sound decisions that support this. The Managing Director, Operations Director and Business Manager and HR Manager work as an Executive Management Team coordinating the business of the company in line with the business plan.

Their planned business activity is guided by five strategic aims. These are as follows:

• To occupy an exclusive position in the market by providing a unique set of services that are not easily replicated. This means becoming a strategic delivery partner of Southend Borough Council for services that the independent sector providers cannot or are unlikely to be able to provide and / or for which there is a commissioning gap in the marketplace. It also means acting exclusively as the provider of last resort in Southend to enable SBC to maintain a stable marketplace.
• To become an exemplar care organisation within the local community and marketplace. This means ensuring outstanding services are offered to people; being a leading provider in terms of workforce development and empowerment; and living their values and behaviours as part of daily working life. High levels of customer satisfaction with services offered and being a reference point for inspiring the marketplace in terms of quality of care.
• To expand their reach to support more vulnerable people. This means providing more services for SBC through new direct awards; building the capacity of existing services to deliver more; working with NHS partners to develop and deliver service offers; expanding the offer to self-funders of care and support in particular for homecare services.
• To be a sustainable business providing value for money. This means balancing commerciality and care to ensure the company is on a sound footing to deliver services; having a longer-term relationship with SBC for delivery of cost effective services; reinvestment in the infrastructure of the business so it is able to grow and do more.
• To be a catalyst for transformation. This means enabling all services to be strategically relevant and continually fit for purpose; being ready to take on new services to remodel and redesign; developing new ways of delivering services through innovation and enterprise; and ensuring services are able to meet future population needs.