Founder receives OBE in New Year Honours List
PRESS RELEASE
SUNDERLAND WOMAN RECEIVES OBE IN 2008 NEW YEAR’S HONOURS LIST
Margaret Elliott, the founder and executive director of an employee owned care provider in Sunderland, has been awarded an OBE in the 2008 New Years Honours List for services to the City of Sunderland.
Margaret, a native of Sunderland, had been a leading light in the Social Enterprise movement for many years before founding the employee owned Sunderland Home Care Associates some 13 years ago which is now one of the largest employee-owned home care company’s in the UK.
“I would like to say that this is a great, personal honour for me to be awarded an OBE,” said Margaret on hearing of her award, “and I see it is a huge pat on the back for the 220 owner workers of Sunderland Home Care Associates for their hard work and commitment to providing high quality care and support to our clients.”
Sunderland Home Care Associates has gained national and international recognition for its employee ownership and participation model and won the prestigious Social Enterprise Coalition’s Enterprising Solutions Award for the outstanding UK Social Enterprise of the Year in 2006.
Margaret is also presently a director of Care And Share Associates which is a company that has replicated the successful Sunderland model in three other areas in the North of England and is seeking funding to create many others.
Margaret went on to say:
“I have been totally committed to the principles of employee ownership for over thirty years. I know it changes peoples’ lives. We strive to put people before profit. I believe that this way of working contributes to social justice and is a way of putting something back into the community.
To this end, we created a company called Care and Share Associates (CASA) to replicate the hugely successful model of Sunderland Home Care Associates in other areas. As a result, North Tyneside Home Care Associates, Newcastle Home Care Associates, Manchester Home Care Associates and now, South Tyneside Home Care Associates are all successful, employee owned companies where each worker owns a piece of the business and I am very proud of what has been achieved by each individual company.
Finally, I would like to thank all those people from all walks of life who have supported me in my vision of fairer working conditions for all employees. Your support has been, and continues to be, invaluable.’