Caring and Sharing: The co-owned route to better care

This Employee Ownership Association paper by Dave Wheatcroft is the story of award winning employee owned Sunderland Home Care Associates and how founder Margaret Elliott and co-owners have built a family of enterprises lifting care standards in the North of England. Published September 2007.

The foreword to this paper, by Rt Hon. Hilary Armstrong, MP, Minister for Social Exclusion (UK), shows how the British Government has recognised the growing role and future potential of the third and social enterprise sectors and is supporting them as a way of reaching those in its society that are difficult for the Government on its own to reach.   It is interesting to see, as shown by this foreword, the broad sense in which social enterprise is viewed in the UK.

You can find information about the concept of Employee Ownership in Australia at www.mercury.org.au/employee_ownership.html and at the Australian Employee Ownership Association's website, www.aeoa.org.au

Excerpt from preface to document:

‘Caring and Sharing’ is a personal account of how an employee owned company – Sunderland Home Care Associates (20-20) – was formed and has flourished. The story is told by Dave Wheatcroft, a trade unionist, leading expert on employee ownership, and a participant in much of SHC’s story. Although this paper is about a business, and about how co-owned companies can deliver public services, it’s also about a remarkable individual - the company’s founder, Margaret Elliott. Typically, Margaret would be the fi rst to pass the plaudits to the people she’s worked with over the years to make the business – and its successful spin-offs – work. But everyone involved with Sunderland Home Care knows that success is due above all to Margaret’s extraordinary vision, passion and drive.

Both the author Dave Wheatcroft and Margaret Elliott herself are longstanding directors of the Employee Ownership Association, the publishers of this paper. A critical fi gure in the foundation of SHCA, Robert Oakeshott, also founded Job Ownership Limited, the forerunner of the Employee Ownership Association. The views expressed in the paper are Dave’s, but the Association endorses his paper and is proud of its links with Sunderland Home Care.

For further information

Contact	:	Employee Ownership Association
Email	:	info@employeeownership.co.uk

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http://www.employeeownership.co.uk