5 minutes with Robert Stephenson-Padron, managing director of Penrose Care

Robert Stephenson-Padron left the world of finance in 2012 to found Penrose Care with Dr Matthew Knight, offering home care in North London.

Penrose Care was one of the first of four home care providers in the UK to become an accredited Living Wage employer.

This year Mr Stephenson-Padron was awarded an OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours for services to social care.

Can you tell us about Penrose Care and what you do?

I am the managing director and registered manager of Penrose Care. That means I am both the chief executive officer and head regulatory officer.

Can you tell us about the path you took to get to where you are today?

I have worked in health related roles since university. In university I was a research assistant to now renowned epidemiologist Prof Alison Galvani of Yale University. Shortly after moving to London in 2007 I worked as a healthcare stock analyst at Barclays Capital and then Merrill Lynch. Since 2013 I have been the registered manager of Penrose Care. I hold the required Level 5 diploma to hold this role. I predominantly learned about home care when I was an analyst doing a research project on home health and social care.

Who inspires you the most and why?

Probably Saint Junípero Serra. He is someone very special because, as the Apostle of California, had a great influence on the history of where I am from. Like me, an expat - he travelled from Mallorca, Spain to Mexico and eventually California. I have been to Mallorca and find it amazing he would leave such a paradise to live a life of poverty and service. He dedicated his life to service to others, was an avid walker and did his best to protect those who otherwise were not well treated by the government authorities of the time - all things I can relate to.

What is your biggest achievement in your career and in your personal life?

I have been so honoured to have had a large impact on my newfound home despite being a relative nobody:

• I pioneered the Living Wage in home care in 2012. Today there are over 240 care organisations accredited and that is just incredible.

• I got the National Minimum Wage enforced in home care in 2014 - which was a huge uphill battle. It caused a lot of chaos to the various corporate criminals in the sector back then but they were pains the sector had to go through. The lives of so many otherwise abused workers had their lives improved because of this one simple reform I achieved. It is probably my proudest achievement.

• Probably the more random thing I’ve done is start the UK’s al fresco dining movement in the summer of 2020 with the Belsize Village Streatery. I set this up as the head of the Belsize Village Business Association originally as a way to give the elderly and disabled a safe way to dine after Lockdown 1 of the Coronavirus pandemic. This has been a very successful project that transformed my community, saved so many jobs and the resulting al fresco dining movement had similar benefits to communities across the UK.

• Although it didn’t have a big impact like my other work, serving as a police officer (I am a special constable) at Her Late Majesty’s State Funeral on September 19, 2022 was the honour of my life. It was my last service to our Sovereign who made me an OBE!

What is the biggest opportunity for Penrose Care currently?

Economic dislocations will allow us to expand our workforce. We want the best people in the sector and this should allow us to find them and hire them.

What do you hope to introduce in Penrose Care in the next five years and what are you most excited about implementing?

I hope to add to our size and management mainly so I can give more responsibility to my most senior colleagues so they have a good, rewarding career in social care.

What do you think is the biggest threat facing Penrose Care?

Our biggest issue has to do with cash flow. Since the pandemic has started, some clients pay later than they used to and that has produced challenges - thankfully all we have been able to adapt to.

What do you think the government should do to improve the home care sector?

The main thing they need to do is crack down on sham classification in home care. The existence of this crime leads to underpricing of the private-pay part of the home care market which in a healthy market would more than subsidise the public-pay part of the market.

Further, the government should provide one-off grants to providers to allow them to shore up their finances harmed by the pandemic.

The government should also issue a wartime-like campaign medal to all health and social care workers who served during the pandemic to provide a durable recognition for their heroism.

When you were a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I am an avid nature lover so wanted to be a botanist. Although life has taken me in a different direction my love of nature remains.

What is your favourite book and why?

Probably 'Presidents and Peons' by Serifino Romualdi. It is a book about how the American labour movement combatted dictatorship in South America during the Cold War. It is a great story of heroism and ingenuity.

What is the best present you have received?

An OBE from Her Late Majesty at the start of her Platinum Jubilee celebrations in 2022.

How do you like to spend your free time?

Spending time with my friends and walking. Walking is my favourite hobby.