Richard's Round Up!

Looking back on the last 12 months what has changed at Circle? 

The biggest change is that we are no longer a regional business, we have taken the push on to video as a positive and used it to provide a UK wide service. We now have new case managers all over the country in many areas we have never worked in like, Liverpool, Manchester, Yorkshire, Wakefield, Oxford, Cardiff to name but a few.

Alongside the move from being a regional company to UK wide we have refocused and reduced our product range. We now provide 3 specific services case management, Expert Witness reports and mental capacity assessments.

The MCA service especially has been really exciting, this is a completely new service with a new service lead in place. To see this new service from conception through to delivery has been a great process.

Managing a business through a pandemic must of had its struggles?

PPE! Say no more, we take our responsibilities very seriously and we worked tremendously hard to ensure all our vulnerable clients were fully supported and supplied with everything they needed.

On top of our responsibility to our clients we also needed to make sure our valued staff team were fully looked after and supported through unprecedented and uncertain times.

What has been the MD’s highlight at Circle Case Management over the last 12 months?

Definitely the process of taking the MCA service from an idea through recruitment of service lead to delivery and seeing it flourish.

I also get very excited when we get a new client in an area where we have never worked like Liverpool for instance.

Circle Case Management have continued to win awards despite a pandemic – why do you think Circle is a multi-award-winning company?

Its all down to the quality of our team, without the people our business would not be the success that it is.

You have a low turn over of staff – why do you think that is?

We try really hard to look after our team, and to make us a premium employer to work for. If people believe they are working for someone who cares and values them then we hope they will not leave.

When you started Circle Case Management with Pippa Bird and Yvonne Spijkerman, did you imagine it becoming a multi-award-winning UK wide service?

Over the last 6 years we have learnt a great deal and I think that if you had asked me then where I would want the business to be now, I would not have believed we could have achieved so much. We are never standing still and always planning and that probably why we are able to achieve so much.

What does the next 12 months hold for Circle Case Management?

We will push ahead developing our different teams making sure that each aspect of the business is as productive and sharp as it can be. We will continue to recruit the best staff and offer the highest standards of training and supervision to ensure that we continue to deliver top quality work.

When you aren’t at your desk working, what are you doing?

Exercise and travel are what makes me tick, I run, swim and bike have completed a number of triathlons and duathlons and love to travel whenever I can. I have visited over 50 countries and am always planning the next adventure.

If you weren’t MD at Circle – what other career could you see yourself doing?

Well I have been a banker, windsurf instructor, physio, and now MD of Circle. If I were not doing this I would still be self employed probably within the property sector which holds an interest for me. If money and responsibility were not a consideration then I would probably be doing something in the travel industry.

What is one thing you’ve changed how you do during the pandemic, that you will continue?

During the pandemic I always exercised at the end of the working day and I find this helps me to switch off from work so I will continue that. For work the video meeting is clearly here to stay although I do really enjoy getting out and meeting people.

And what is one thing that you really want to return?

I like meeting people so I want more opportunity to do that. Also I like stress free travel so a removal of the current barriers to travel would be nice.

Richard Thorp, Managing Director, Circle Case Management.