As another year draws to an end, we wanted to take some time to reflect with you all and look back on our busy year. 2024 was a year of growth within our community and change. In just 12 months, our community recruited many individuals, including those beginning their care career with us and others looking for a fresh start with us. We also had some of our carers start new positions at HQ along with others joining externally. Premier Community Mobility has also seen its store teams grow as they have welcomed friendly faces into their teams, too.
Achievements & Awards…
Our talented team members continued to excel in personal growth by achieving many personal milestones. In June, Lynne Mills completed an incredible 17 years of service and dedication to our community. Also, Jennifer Moss-Burton completed her Level 2 Diploma in Care.
In July we celebrated Jo Smith’s outstanding 20 years of service, a true inspiration to other colleagues around her. We also commended Lucy Hollely on passing her Level 3 Diploma in accounting, which she worked incredibly hard for, and we can’t wait to see what’s in store for what 2025 has to bring for Lucy! And we mustn’t forget Nikita Sargeant, who passed an interview with CQC and officially became a Premier Community Registered Manager for the Erewash Care Branch.
In October, we said goodbye to Charly, one of our carers, as she went on to pursue her dreams of being a paramedic with the NHS. From starting with Premier Community nearly 4 years ago whilst simultaneously completing a university course, the effort and dedication she has shown over her time with us have been remarkable.
In the summer months, we ran an internal giveaway to our staff, who entered by sharing their summer holiday pictures. Four staff members took home vouchers for hotels.com. In the process of this, we came across inspiring and impressive stories, one in particular being Tia’s trip to India. You can read more on Tia’s inspiring four-week travels by reading the highlighted blog topic.
We had the privilege of attending the Midland Family Business Awards for another year! The ceremony, hosted by Wilson’s Nottingham, was a brilliant night celebrating many amazing family-run businesses. We were honoured to sponsor the Service Excellence Award, and Dan presented the award to Vale Clearances.
We were also fortunate enough to be invited to attend the Care Conference at the NEC, where there were many thought-provoking conversations taking place. As well as innovations and ideas to consider when looking forward and thinking about what the future has in store for Premier Community.
We’ve enjoyed celebrating our dedicated carers at The Great British Care Awards in late November, where we were up for 7 nominations. Laura Thorpe in the ‘The Care Newcomer Award’ category and Sabrina Bennet in the ‘The Home Care Registered Manager Award’ category both walked away winners that night, and our Recruitment Team was highly commended. We look forward to attending the Nationals in March 2025 in Birmingham.
A record breaking year for Premier Community Mobility!
As for Premier Community Mobility, they have also had a year of progressing and smashing amazing targets, here’s what Joe Isterling, Mobility Director, had to say as he reflected back on a busy year for him and the team.
“It’s been an absolutely splendid year for the mobility team. We have absolutely loved being able to assist help the community by providing great products and service, this is down to the wonderful mobility team. It’s been a pleasure to watch the team go from strength to strength, we look forward to expand our team further by adding our new store in Swadlincote in the new year.
“A highlight that sticks out for me this year is all the outstanding and generous reviews we’ve had one in particular being “Kate is lovely, she doesn’t put any pressure on you to buy but guides you through everything. I’ve seen her a few times over the last few years. I didn’t buy anything just had a chat because I wasn’t quite ready to buy. She helped me to buy the right thing for me.””
An outstanding year for our Home Care team.
Nicola Cope, Business Operations Manager, also touched on some pinnacle moments for changes and achievements in home care, sharing the following with us: “What a year we have had here at Premier Community. I’m not even sure where to start!
“We started the year with lots of exciting plans for 2024. We had dreams and visions of what we wanted to accomplish, and boy, did we exceed our expectations. We welcomed a few new faces in HQ to support and enable us to achieve.
“In 2024, Premier Community has delivered over 403,150 hours of care to over 800 service users. We also saw record numbers of new employees join over the year, allowing us to exceed our expectations.
“After much thought and planning, we headed off into unchartered waters, branching into a new area. We now have a local office and provide services in the Swadlincote area.
“After receiving various nominations in the British Care awards, we were privileged to walk away with two awards on the night: Sabrina Bennett, who was awarded the Registered Manager of the Year, and Laura Thorpe, who was awarded the Newcomer in Care award. We were also highly recommended in the recruitment category.
“To top the year off, we are ending with a brand new CQC rating for the Nottinghamshire branch: GOOD across the board… It’s been a big learning curve for all Premier Community employees this past 12 months, but each and every employee has played a part in helping us achieve all the amazing things we have done.
“We have over 500 employees here at Premier Community, and each and every one of them is amazing… our journey would be non-existent without them!”
Final well wishes from Dan…
Finally, Dan Isterling, Managing Director, would like to round off 2024 with a few words of reflection and aspirations for to the new year. “As a team right across Premier Community, we have worked extremely hard to make 2024 a huge success. We have managed to grow our services whilst keeping and, in some areas, improving our quality of care.
“Some highlights for me this year include opening our Swadlincote Office, launching our assistive tech options, achieving a very strong ‘good’ overall CQC report for the Nottinghamshire branch, and finally, seeing all the compliments keep flooding in for our amazing care staff.
“Moving forward, it will be a challenging year ahead with the financial impact following the autumn budget starting in April and growing pressures for more of our services, but we, as always, promise to put our service users first and ensure we remain a proud family business in 2025. I take this moment to wish a happy new year to all of our readers.”
