A Lewisham Success Story

Just ten years ago, we were a small business that started with only twelve carers and provided nursing to just a few local care homes.

We were then taken over by, Marc Santhiapillai, and we have since grown at an unprecedented rate. The picture is a stark contrast to that of a decade ago, with Eleanor now employing more than 800 staff and working in 30 boroughs around the UK – all while retaining the same local business ethos of our quieter past. We really have built Rome in a day.

From our headquarters in Lewisham, we have seen a meteoric rise from our humble beginnings, and we are now starting to be recognised for the work we have done. In 2013, we were commended at the South London Business Awards in the Best Medium Sized Business and Business Innovation categories, while last year we received a Business Award from the Mayor of Lewisham, Sir Steve Bullock, for Excellence in Environmental Practice.

Our efforts to go green are one of the many projects we have undertaken in order to give something back to our local community. We pride ourselves on being able to provide local people with new career opportunities – creating hundreds of jobs and supplying valuable training to our staff members. Through the Eleanor Foundation, we are also working with local charities and voluntary organisations to share our success with them.

However, at Eleanor we have had to overcome many challenges to get to where we are today. Health and Social Care has been one of the sectors worst affected by the Government’s austerity measures that followed the financial crisis. Companies have been forced to centralise and make cuts in order to survive, compromising the level of care they can deliver. However at Eleanor, we are swimming against the tide, investing as much as we can to provide high quality care through our unique local branch system.

Our determination to succeed is evident in our mission statement; “Eleanor aims to set the standard in the care sector… with a team who have a real passion for delivering client-focused care…” It is this commitment to the cause, coupled with a strong principle of community, which has caused our chief executive, Marc Santhiapillai, to reject numerous acquisition attempts from larger competitors.

Mr Santhiapillai makes his reasoning clear; “This is not an industry for people seeking purely to make a profit. It is those people who give the industry a bad reputation in the media.

“You have to possess a passion for care, and be guided at all times by a strong conscience; otherwise you’re in the wrong business. Instead of sinking to centralisation or takeovers, we have relied on innovation to cut costs, working with their service users and stakeholders to deliver the optimal service.”

The key to our remarkable success has been our passionate staff, each and every one of whom appreciates the value of their work, which gives them the motivation to succeed in the most challenging of environments. They have certainly proven themselves to be the jewel in Lewisham’s crown.