Five Rivers Child Care founder and CEO Pam McConnell is listed among the finalists in one of the UK’s leading care sector awards.
Pam (pictured) has been included as a contender for the prestigious Outstanding Contribution Award, which is presented to an individual who has made a long-term, outstanding contribution to the lives of vulnerable children and families.
Pam has dedicated her career to working with children in care, training first as a social worker, then a foster carer and then a family therapist. In response to the growing need for psychologically informed care services, Pam went on to found Five Rivers Child Care, a national social enterprise headquartered in Salisbury, in 1989.
Her vision was to create evidence-based services that help children to rediscover their childhoods. With over 500 staff, the organisation has grown significantly since it began 33 years ago and has helped thousands of children through its therapeutic fostering, education, residential and psychological services. Today, it is a renowned provider of high-quality foster care, residential housing, education, assessment & therapy and crisis intervention for children and young people in England and the Republic of Ireland.
As a social enterprise operating in foster care, any surplus income that Five Rivers Child Care makes is re-invested to provide more foster care support and more training. It also contributes to recruiting more foster carers to offer more stable and loving homes to greater numbers of children in need.
The National Children & Young People’s Awards recognise the accomplishments of those who have demonstrated expertise and drive to positively improve the lives of people and communities most in need. This has been illustrated not only through the work that Five Rivers does, but also through the social reinvestment it makes in research, training and services to support care leavers.
Pam McConnell, founder and CEO of Five Rivers, said: “It is an honour to have been named a finalist at the National Children and Young People’s Awards. Experiences in my early career led me to believe something different was needed to deliver services that would make change possible and have a real and lasting difference to children in care.
“I set out on a mission to develop therapeutically supported services. I have made it my focus to help children and families who have been in need of care ever since. It is a huge responsibility we share as professionals with our local authority and NHS colleagues, and as corporate parents.
“I have always felt strongly that we have a responsibility to the communities we live in and to positively shape how they see children in care to make sure they have improved life chances. I also see it as our responsibility to serve research and evidence-based approach to our work to make it as effective as possible. That is why I set Five Rivers up as a social enterprise; we have a strong social conscience and a commitment to reinvesting our surpluses into training, research, and extra support services, in the organisation and communities around us.”
The winner of the award will be announced at the National Children and Young People’s Awards at the ICC in Birmingham on Thursday October 6.
