'Independent Lives was established 21 years ago, a group of disabled people who received direct payments got together with the local authority and a local charity and helped develop and form a new organisation.

That was ILA which became Independent Lives, but over that time we've really grown and now we as well as supporting direct payments employers, both to get started as an employer and to manage their direct payment, but also to support PAs, to help people who are being discharged from hospital and care and support in the community through domiciliary care.'

'I think Independent Lives biggest achievement over the last year is being able to work with more people.

There is much greater need after COVID and other issues that have gone on worldwide and more locally, people needed more support and we've been able to increase the number of calls we do, the number of people we help come out of hospital, the number of employers who wanted to start or have different kinds of support from us.

Another big growth area has been our PA support and training and our ability to kind of respond to the need quickly is I think the biggest achievement and that comes down to the staff and volunteers, what they're able to deliver.'

'The biggest challenge we've really received over the last year is around the workforce.

I think COVID had a massive impact on people and care and support workers, both PAs and our direct workers, have just put so much into what they deliver and the passion and the work they've done has been amazing to support people but, that comes at a cost it's been hard work for everyone.

So I think now in the last year what you've seen is a lot of people feeling a bit tired and needing a bit more support, so I think that's the biggest challenge going forward is how do we make sure that this workforce is respected and supported and given what they need to continue to do such an amazing job.'

'Over the last year we really worked on our values, working with staff and volunteers and our trustees and our customers to work out what it is that are really core to our belief system to how we work, so over the next year I'm really excited about how we implement that further into our recruitment practice which is already there somewhat but to really push it in and make it one of those areas which really defines us as an organisation.'