Social Enterprise launch signals a new direction in Community Care
Date published: 28 September 2017
Crossroads Together, an innovative social enterprise to be jointly owned by service users, carers, employees and local people, launched today with a promise to serve communities across Greater Manchester and the North West with good quality, not-for-profit community care and develop ambitious ideas to help local communities.
Crossroads Together has been established by the charity Carers Trust in Greater Manchester following a move to cut its ties with the national Carers Trust charity. Its new, independent social enterprise status "marries quality and experience with a structure that will enable innovation and diversity in the care services offered".
CEO Paul Parlby, who has overseen the transition, explains: “Our roots go back over 40 years, originally under the name of Crossroads and more recently Carers Trust where we have been a network partner of a national charity. As a long-standing local charity supporting carers and people with care needs we have outgrown the mission of the Carers Trust national charity.
“Over the years we have had to adapt from a grant dependant charity to generating our own income to survive, and to meet the care needs of local people we have become much more diverse in what we can offer as a registered care provider. After carrying out a full strategic review early this year the board of Trustees concluded that concentrating on developing our service offer to local people through an independent social enterprise was the best way forward”.
“The challenges of operating within the Social Care sector have never been greater, whether it’s the rising cost of social care, increasing demand and the effect of government policy changes, all are impacting on the sector and will be around for some time but for me what’s more pressing is the need to be discussing and co-producing a new relationship between the state, the family and the individual and how, as a front line care provider, we can respond to this – now is the time to start thinking differently.”
