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Azure Charitable Enterprises

azure charitable enterprises

Cramlington

In recent years, our ability to generate funds from our charitable businesses has become increasingly important to our clients as budgets for the provision of care services (for our clients) have been progressively reduced (since 2009/10). Years of significant under funding (of Local Authorities across the country), coupled with rising demand and costs for care and support, have combined to push adult social care services to breaking point. Since 2010, Local Authorities have had to bridge a £6 billion funding shortfall just to keep the adult social care system going. In addition the Local Government Association estimates that adult social care services face a £3.5 billion funding gap by 2025, just to maintain existing standards of care, while latest figures show that councils in England receive 1.8 million new requests for adult social care a year – the equivalent of nearly 5,000 a day. Decades of failures to find a sustainable solution to how to pay for adult social care for the long-term, and the Government’s recent decision to delay (again) publication of its long-awaited green paper on the issue is increasingly problematic as political leaders (national and local) remain reluctant to discuss and inevitably determine that increases to income tax (e.g. 1p on basic rate income tax), and/or national insurance premiums (e.g. 1p increase) and/or council tax (e.g. 3%) are unavoidable and entirely necessary. While Azure is a non-political organisation, we are naturally concerned by the failure of policy-makers to grip what is, after all, a fairly rudimentary exercise in basic arithmetic. Moreover, from a practitioner perspective, the fragility of the system is illustrated most starkly by the number of care providers that are reluctantly closing their operations or returning contracts to Local Authorities with the result that there is significantly less choice and a lack of capacity to support the rising number of people with care needs. The Centre for Economics and Business Research have recently reported (December 2018) that 59% of the providers they surveyed (nationally) have said that they have had to hand back contracts over the past year and 68% have said they will need to do so in the near future. Service closures are obviously the last resort for any provider; and it is at odds with the way Azure and the majority of our fellow providers usually operate, particularly when we have supported individuals for the majority of their adult lives. It is, however, the clearest indication yet that the under funding of social care is having a deeply negative impact on providers and their ability to deliver critical support to vulnerable adults. We are indeed fortunate (to an extent) that the charitable businesses we operate - and public support for them – helps to sustain our care services. We are however concerned (and for many of our fellow care providers) that there is now: an untenable, over-reliance on the goodwill of an already-overstretched charity sector (that is already subsidising the delivery of care services); an entirely ill-advised presumption that the funding gap can be met by armies of unpaid or under-paid carers; an assumption that the approach to the delivery of care can be re-designed to balance budgets and deliver economies without having an adverse impact on the nature and level of care clients need.

Oasis Academy Enfield

oasis academy enfield

Enfield

Everything within Oasis Community Learning is framed by our ethos. Our ethos is rooted in what we believe and who we are. Grounded in our story, it is an expression of our character; a set of values that inform and provide the lens on everything we do. A passion to include A desire to treat people equally respecting differences A commitment to healthy, open relationships A deep sense of hope that things can change and be transformed A sense of perseverance to keep going for the long haul It is these ethos values that we want to be known for and to live by. We are committed to a model of inclusion, equality, healthy relationships, hope, and perseverance throughout all the aspects of the life and culture of every Oasis Hub and academy community. We encourage every member of our family, be that staff or student, to align themselves to these ethos values. The values themselves are inspired by the life, message and example of Jesus but we make it clear that we will not impose on anyone, the beliefs that underpin our ethos values. We recognise and celebrate the richness that spiritual and cultural diversity brings to our community, respecting the beliefs and practices of other faiths in the hope that we will provide a welcoming environment for all. The Oasis 9 Habits The Oasis Ethos is aspirational, inspirational and something that we have to constantly work at. It is important to remember that every organisation is made up of its people, and people don’t always get things right. This means that there can sometimes be a dissonance between what we say we are, as stated in our ethos values, and what we actually do and experience. Recognising this is helpful because it reminds us that we each have things to work on; we have space to grow, develop and change to become the best version of ourselves. To help us in this process of personal growth and development we have the Oasis 9 Habits. It is our bespoke and unique approach to character development. We know that by living the way of the Habits, the Oasis Ethos will become second nature to us. We also believe that this process of continually developing our character and being transformed to become the best version of ourselves is really important for every student and staff member alike. Therefore, we actively promote and practice the Oasis 9 Habits which are an invitation to a way of life characterised by being compassionate, patient, humble, joyful, honest, hopeful, considerate, forgiving and self-controlled. We believe that by becoming people who live this way, by becoming the best version of ourselves, whether we are a staff member or students, we are transformed, and we are also able to play our part in bringing transformation locally, nationally and globally.