Good news business round-up featuring: Spire Elland Hospital, Accept Cards, Ramsdens Solicitors and Unity Homes & Enterprise

We love it when businesses send us their good news and here’s our latest good news round-up, kindly sponsored by PALADIN. Awards, expansion, new contracts or new appointments, if you’ve got some good news you want to share please email the editor, Martin Shaw, on martin@huddersfieldhub.co.uk.

Local clinicians from Spire Elland Hospital, Elaine Rowland and Ellie Houlihan, are two of the first ever winners of the prestigious IRIS awards at Spire Healthcare.

The Inclusive Recognition of Inspirational Staff (IRIS) awards recognise extraordinary clinical colleagues who go above and beyond. Any patient or staff member can nominate someone for an award.

Health care assistant Ellie was nominated for being a ‘pioneer of excellence’, acting as an integral part of a recently introduced imaging service.

Having recently completed the AHP apprenticeship and gaining a distinction in the process, Ellie’s confidence and knowledge have flourished.

Ellie (pictured above, right) said: “I feel incredibly lucky and overwhelmed to be one of the first recipients of the IRIS award. I always put our patients first, as we naturally do, and strive to provide a comfortable and dignified environment, and for that to be seen and recognised by my colleagues is wonderful.

“Thank you to the staff at Elland that raised me up. I will appreciate and remember this forever.”

 

 

Governance, quality and risk manager Elaine was nominated for being an ambassador for safe, high quality patient care. With her belief in continually improving and learning, she ensures patients are at the forefront of everything she does.

Elaine said: “I have worked in healthcare for nearly 40 years and have never been so proud as I am feeling now.

“I am really lucky that I work with such a supportive team at Spire Elland Hospital. The team are so receptive to new ways of working, sharing knowledge and embracing changes.”

Over 40 people from across the country were nominated for an award, and a cross-departmental panel selected the three winners. The scheme will run four times a year, with the next group of winners being chosen in the summer.

Lucy Bedford, director of clinical services at Spire Elland Hospital, said: “I’m thrilled that Elaine and Ellie have been named two of Spire’s first ever IRIS award winners.

“They exemplify the outstanding, compassionate care we strive to provide for our patients, and work tirelessly every day to make our patients’ experience of being in our hospital as comfortable as possible. They are an absolute credit to Spire.”

 

 

Independent payments broker Accept Cards, which works with some of the biggest names in financial services, has reported a 34% pre-tax profit uplift in its latest accounts.

During the financial year-ended February 29 2024, pre-tax profits rose to £804k, up 34% from £600k in the previous year.

Accept Cards secured a turnover of £2.3m, 7% up from £2.1m in the previous year.

Operating nationally, Accept Cards is a whole-of-market broker offering bespoke solutions and working with more than 45 partners including Handelsbanken, Metro Bank, Lloyds Cardnet, Barclaycard, Square, Zettle and WorldPay.

Accept Cards helped 2,316 new businesses and its customer base process more than £2bn card transactions during the financial year. The firm also reduced processing costs for the businesses it works with by an average of 35.3%.

The Elland-headquartered business was founded by CEO Richard Bradley in 2005 and announced it had become employee-owned in January this year in a transaction understood to be the first of its kind in the UK independent payments sector.

Accept Cards made a key new appointment during the 12-month period. Mark Firth joined as senior partnerships and corporate sales manager. He has more than 25 years of industry experience having previously worked at Barclays, Lloyds and WorldPay.

Richard Bradley, CEO of Accept Cards, said: “It’s fantastic to report a further year of growth at Accept Cards. This has been possible because of our hard working and knowledgeable team, who are exceptional at building and maintaining trusting relationships with partners and clients to ensure we offer the best payments technology.

“Innovation has also been key to our continued growth. As the original disrupter in the sector, it’s our role to be ahead of the curve.

“Through the economic headwinds in recent years, we’ve seen owners and management teams further scrutinise their payments solutions to optimise their businesses.

“We help them to navigate this complex, regulated and ever-changing area and expect demand to continue.

“We look forward to supporting more businesses of all sizes and sectors to ensure that they can maximise their potential in the year ahead.”

 

 

Yorkshire-based Ramsdens Solicitors has promoted Jennifer Slater, Katie Sharp, Jane Holroyd and Rosanna Drewery to the position of partner across the firm’s network of a dozen offices in the region. Jolene Briggs has been promoted to conveyancing manager for the Calderdale region, based in the firm’s Elland offices.

Having qualified as a solicitor in 2015, Katie Sharp has worked in conveyancing for over 10 years. Based at Ramsdens’ Mirfield office, she has in-depth knowledge of the residential property industry, including the sale, purchase and re-mortgage of freehold and leasehold properties as well as new-build, unregistered and help-to-buy properties. Katie also deals with private mortgages, lease extensions and title splits.

Based at the Edgerton office, Jane Holroyd is a partner in Ramsdens’ commercial property team. Since qualifying in 2014, she has dealt with all types of property transactions, such as the acquisition and set up of development sites, buying and selling commercial freeholds and commercial leases from both the landlord and tenant perspective, including new leases, renewals and licences.

Jane also specialises in acting for SIPP and SSAS pension trustees in respect of pension schemes’ commercial property investments.

Paul Joyce, managing partner of Ramsdens Solicitors, said: “As a firm, we are committed to bringing on board new talent and giving them the support they need to develop their careers with us.

“It’s fantastic to see these five knowledgeable and committed lawyers moving up in the firm, and these promotions are well deserved recognition of their contribution to the continued growth of the firm.”

Working within the firm’s private client practice at its York office, Jennifer Slater has over 18 years’ experience, including expertise in advising on wills and lasting powers of attorney.

She also specialises in lifetime tax planning, and the creation and administration of trusts and estate administration, in particular, estates with complex issues and agricultural estates. Jennifer is a full member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners (STEP) and a member of the Law Society’s Private Client Section.

Having joined Ramsdens soon after her qualification in 2014, Rosanna Drewery has become a partner in the child law practice and works across both West and North Yorkshire.

She has a specialism in public law proceedings, also known as care proceedings, and primarily undertakes work under the Children Act 1989, representing parents, grandparents and other family members.

She also deals with special guardianship cases. Rosanna is an accredited member of the Children’s Panel, representing children in public and private law proceedings, through their guardians.

Jolene Briggs has become conveyancing manager for the firm’s Calderdale offices in Halifax and Elland. Based in Elland, she deals with all types of conveyancing matters including freehold, leasehold, unregistered, equity, right-to-buy and auction properties. Jolene previously worked in a property practice in Leeds for 10 years before joining Ramsdens in 2014.

With a heritage of providing a wide range of legal services to businesses and individuals for more than 150 years, Ramsdens Solicitors has 12 offices throughout Yorkshire. The multi-award-winning law firm has a 280-strong team, including 39 partners.

 

 

Unity Homes and Enterprise has won the Team of the Year prize at the Northern Housing Awards 2024.

The BME housing association’s Employment Services and Enterprise team triumphed over eight other shortlisted finalists from across the north of England to scoop the highly coveted accolade at a ceremony in Manchester.

Founded in 1987, Unity manages over 1,386 affordable properties for tenants from all communities and ethnic backgrounds in Leeds and Kirklees.

Working alongside housing officers, the Employment Services and Enterprise team helps people in hard-to-reach communities to access jobs and training. They also assist those already in work to boost their career prospects by gaining new skills including how to set up and run their own business.

In the last financial year, the team helped 198 people to find jobs, 256 people to improve their skills and employability through training and 15 people to enter voluntary work.

CEO Cedric Boston said: “I am incredibly proud of the team’s achievement which is thoroughly merited.

“Being shortlisted for this prestigious award was a great success in itself. To win it in the face of such stiff competition from housing associations many times bigger than ourselves is outstanding.

“I want to congratulate every member of the small but immensely talented team who work hard every single day to change people’s lives for the better. They are a credit to themselves and to Unity.”

Please support Huddersfield Hub by becoming a Patron for just £4.99 a month to help continue our coverage of local news, charities, community events, entertainment, business and sport. Subscribe via the link below.

Become a patron and help Huddersfield Hub thrive, grow and spread the positivity