Dear Colleagues,

We received our CQC report for Supported Living today and I am delighted to inform you that we are now officially recognised as a ‘Good’ provider. I felt I needed to write to you to mark the occasion that all services we provide are now recognised by regulators as being ‘Good’.

This is a remarkable achievement from you all, particularly given the challenges we have faced since 2022 when we had to make the very difficult decision to close the adult care homes on site. Whilst this was extremely challenging for all of us, not least for the residents and their families, it has enabled us to secure the future of St Elizabeth’s. We are now at a point where we are turning our attention to our strategy which is, as you know, focused on the growth of the Charity. We expect to admit a further 21 children in September to our School and already have 20 young people on roll for the launch of our new Sixth Form in September. St Gabriels will open in September as our new community hub and will provide the perfect setting for the adults who come in from the local area to join us daily. This is an exciting time for all of us.

You will know from our previous discussions there is a decline in applications for adults in our onsite supported living, so we aspire to develop offsite services with a housing partner over the coming year or eighteen months as the service in Centenary Close continues to wind down. This move to a community model of supported living is very much supported by our commissioners and regulators. 

We have also achieved individual registrations for our seven Children’s homes. This will enable us to continue to provide person centred bespoke care to some of the most complex Children. Additionally, our School has achieved Centre of Excellence status for inclusion – we are delighted with this recent achievement as it demonstrates our commitment to equality and diversity.

There are moments of inspiration every day at St Elizabeth’s, and I am humbled to be part of such a thriving and vibrant community. It has been a tough few years as I said, but we have navigated the challenges in the true spirit of St Elizabeth’s with each person who works here, in whatever role, focusing on being the best we can be and continuing to provide, develop and grow services to meet the needs of all who use our services and help them to live life to the full. You must all be remarkably proud of your achievements, not least the awards and nominations we have received over the past few years:

-       National Children and Young People Awards 2023 – Winner Children’s Home Team

-       National Children and Young People Awards 2024 – Finalist Outstanding Contribution

-       Education Today Awards 2024 – Finalist Head Teacher of the Year

-       Herts Care Awards 2024 – Winner Care Leadership Award

-       SME Business Awards 2024 – Finalist Employer of the Year

-       National Business Awards 2025 – Winner Best SEN Support

-       E2 Media Awards of Excellence 2025 – Awarded to our Independent School

-       Pearson National Teaching Awards 2025 – Bronze Winner FE College

-       Charity Retail Awards 2025 – Finalist Leadership Award

-       Stars of Children & Young People – Finalist Commitment to Child Protection 

In our latest CQC report for Supported Living, inspectors noted that ‘people were treated with kindness and respect’ and that ‘staff built trusting relationships and supported people in a way that promoted dignity and emotional wellbeing’. They also remarked that ‘people and relatives told us they felt safe and comfortable in their homes, with one person telling us that staff are kind, and they do a lot and hang out with their friends’. 

One relative told inspectors that the management team were ‘excellent’ and that they are ‘worth their weight in gold’. Another relative remarked that ‘the progressive improvements to systems and training since the CQC improvement notice in 2022 is I believe, incredible.’

I echo this sentiment entirely and see joy, compassion, care, support and excellence every day.

Thank you for all that you do. St Elizabeth’s is a vibrant joyful community not just for the people who we support but also for our staff. I look forward to working with you all to implement our five-year strategy and to continue to grow and develop the Charity both onsite in Much Hadham and off-site across Hertfordshire for adults. 

For those staff in our education teams who are about to go off on their summer holiday, I hope you have a wonderful break. The launch of our new Sixth Form, Community Hub and vocational provision means it will be a very busy September, so in the meantime, I hope you all have a good rest. 

For the remainder of staff who will be working over the summer, not just our education and care support teams but also our teams working in our amazing charity shops, catering and domestic, finance, IT, HR, estates and maintenance, fundraising, admissions, quality assurance, therapy, nursing, day opportunities and social enterprises we will focus our energy on one of our important values over the summer – JOY! Let’s enjoy and soak up as much of the summer sun as we can in our beautiful, peaceful grounds. 

With much thanks and appreciation to everyone for all that you do.

Have a wonderful summer!

God bless,

Jill Rankin
Chief Executive