First Community Health and Care has again been named a UK top 50 employee owned company.
For the second year running the organisation made the list, released as part of the 9th annual Employee Ownership Day on 25 June.
First Community Health and Care provides NHS health and care services including district nursing, rehabilitation, and a range of therapies to children and adults across east Surrey and West Sussex.
This October the employee owned organisation celebrates its 10th anniversary from its formation to date, and this great achievement sits among the many successes since the organisation’s inception.
Sarah Billiald, CEO said: “We firmly believe that being co-owned means that our staff are more engaged and care more about the services they are providing, and this means better quality care for our patients and families.
“Our latest staff survey results show that 80% of our co-owners say they value working for an employee-owned organisation and would be happy to recommend First Community to friends and family – far higher than the average 70% of staff working in the NHS. Importantly, patients are very positive about our services too, with an average 95% positive experience rating in surveys over the last year.
“Over 50% of our employees are a ‘shareholder’ in a one member one share model that reinvests any surplus in services to improve the health of the community we serve. We operate within strict budgeting and accountability measures to deliver value for money, bespoke care, focussing of the health and care of patient and families.
“We look forward to celebrating this achievement as part of our 10 year anniversary, part of which will see some of our long serving staff members who joined First Community back in 2011 share their experiences of the last 10 years and what it means to them to work for an employee owned organisation.
“Being employee owned allows all of our staff to be engaged by having a voice, and input into how the company runs and means that our employees at First Community have an interest in the overall health of the company.”
To qualify for a top 50 place, companies must be incorporated in the UK as companies limited by shares, unquoted, independent and at least 25% owned by employees.
The RM2 Partnership and the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) assess companies using several sources including internet searches, lists of EOA members, Companies House searches and professional advisers active in the sector. Figures for employee numbers and revenues are taken from companies’ latest published annual accounts at Companies House.
There are 730 businesses that are employee owned in the UK and as part of the Top 50, First Community is proud to contribute to the positive performance at the top end of the employee ownership sector.
Deb Oxley, Chief Executive of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA), said:
“Despite a difficult year where 78% of the sector said they had been affected adversely because of the pandemic, we are still seeing the significant increase in sales and employee numbers in the top end of the employee-owned sector.
“Alongside this, through the stories of our members, we are seeing a trend of resilience, good governance and communications building trust in the business which helps to respond to business shocks, and clear and impactful focus and health and wellbeing that is supporting individual resilience during these testing times. Something that sets them in good stead to be inclusive and resilient in their plans for recovery and renewal.”
To view the full Employee Ownership Top 50 list, please visit: https://employeeownership.co.uk/employee-ownership-top-50-2021/