North East Lincolnshire Care Trust Plus’ (CTP) Open Door service has been shortlisted for the award of Best New Social Enterprise in the Social Enterprise Awards. Eight other organisations from across England are on the shortlist for the awards that are run by the Social Enterprise Coalition.

In 2003 it was identified that 1,000 people in North East Lincolnshire were not registered with a GP. The East Marsh area in Grimsby, which is the main focus of Open Door, is among the top 10 per cent of most deprived areas in England.  

Operating from two sites – social care at Hainton Avenue and health care at Freeman Street – Open Door offers a drop-in service to homeless people and those not registered with a GP around the East Marsh area. 

Jane Lewington, chief executive, CTP said: “The nomination is more evidence of the ground-breaking work done by Open Door and the dedication of their hard working staff. Open Door has done this area proud and we all wish them luck in the national finals.”

Lance Gardner, director of care, CTP, said: “I am really pleased to see the national recognition that Open Door is receiving with this nomination. It is the result of an enormous amount of hard work by the fantastic team and, more importantly, continues to highlight how difficult it is for vulnerable people to secure care from mainstream services.” 

Anne Taylor, assistant director of care at the CTP, said: “Open Door was developed as a Social Enterprise in 2006, one of the first in the country.  

“In the past year, 40 service users have been supported into either employment or education. Those registered with a GP have increased from 320 to 930 ensuring that they receive the health care that they require. The number of volunteers has increased and we now have 11 volunteers, many of whom are ex-service users.  

“This is a massive encouragement and future plans include providing services for those on probation, more employability projects and services to meet the needs identified by our service users.” 

Open Door provides a nurse led medical service, shower facilities, refreshments, internet café, free telephone use, drop in sessions by the homeless team, Citizens Advice benefits, immigration services, health trainers, psychologist, dental hygienist and holistic therapist. There are also language classes for non-English speakers, groups for men, women and the gay/lesbian population as well as fitness activities and a photographic group. 

A new service has also been launched to work with people on the autistic spectrum who are over 18.

Social enterprises are businesses run for social and environmental purposes. There are approximately 62,000 social enterprises in the UK with a combined turnover of at least £27 billion, and they contribute £8.4 billion per year to the UK economy.

The winners will be announced at a special reception held at 10 Downing Street on Social Enterprise Day, November 19. They will then go on to compete alongside winners from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland for the overall UK prizes, which will be decided by online public voting and announced December 3.