With You, Every Step of the Way

A Letter from our Director

I set up Steps Ahead in 2009 with one mission: to change how care is delivered and perceived.

Steps Ahead is a business that was established by me, but is designed and centred around the people who use it everyday. Over the past 17 years I have watched our business grow and expand beyond what I ever thought possible, and I learn something new from the people we support everyday - who inspire me to keep going and teach me so much about strength, resilience and determination.  

Steps Ahead’s story began with me, but where we are today is because of everyone who believed and still believes in us.  

When I was 18 I moved to Birmingham to start nurse training, I worked in many hospitals across various wards and quickly realised that Brain Injury Rehab interested me - it was different from any other ward. The culture and ethos was centred around people succeeding and breaking down barriers and was centred around success. I realised I enjoyed collaborative working and being in an MDT, and realised this work when I was 18 has shaped my future.  

I returned to Plymouth only a couple of years later after having my daughter, and started working for a complex care company as a Support Worker. I was promoted quickly into management, and subsequently senior management and was an integral part of their expansion. After many successful years working with that company, the ownership unfortunately changed and so did the ethos – I felt my values no longer aligned and it was time to move on.   

I made the decision in 2009, as a single mum with two young children that I wanted to set up on my own and do something that was true to me. In the middle of a recession I was told I was stupid and it wouldn’t succeed, but I was determined to make a difference and rewrite how support could be delivered and received. Setting up Steps Ahead was never about being better, it was about being different.  

The initial set up was an incredibly challenging time, and I had nothing to fall back on and two young children relying on me. I was still awaiting a CQC registration and operating solely as an agency, providing the best calibre of staff to other registered organisations. This allowed me to be dynamic, and build a customer base for when our registration came in. I also became a Conflict Resolution and Breakaway Instructor on a consultancy basis – I wanted to change how restraint was perceived and used, and this allowed me to build the knowledge to implement into Steps Ahead.  

Seventeen years on, as I reflect on the journey that Steps Ahead has been on with me, my children and every single staff member and client that we have worked alongside fills me with a sense of immense gratitude, pride and humbles me everyday. This business can be challenging at times, but what has always kept me motivated is knowing that everything we do is centred around our clients. Seeing the people we support keep going with a strength that inspires me daily is what keeps the fire in my belly alive, and motivates me to keep building on something that is so special, and to take it one step further every day.  

Steps Ahead is a feeling, and for me and our clients a way of life.

If building this business has taught me anything, it is that life is about taking risks. We all take risks and make decisions every day, and everyone deserves a chance to do that. Our mission has always been, and will always be to empower everyone to speak up for what they believe in, and do the things that sometimes seem a bit scary. Go to the festival, take that ski trip, set up the business – you never know what could come of it! 

When I started this journey in 2009, I never thought Steps Ahead could be where it is today and to be a part of everyone’s lives in the way we are and for people to believe in us is a dream come true for me. I can’t wait to see what the next 17 years hold for Steps Ahead, and I can’t wait to see how much more change we can make to people’s every day, and to the care sector as a whole.  

Thank you to every single person who has been a part of Steps Ahead along the way.  

Love always,
Chrissy