C A S E M A N AG E M E N T
‘We’ll never be standing still, that’s for sure’ As A Chance for Life marks its 20th anniversary, NR Times learns how the case management and rehabilitation business has grown into a leader in the North of England, and continues to grow and develop as it enters its third decade ambition of A Chance for Life in planning for the future. “I'll always be looking for opportunities for us to do even more, go even further,” says Louise. “My mum had her own market stall business and I was brought up on there from a very early age. I had all sorts of businesses before I was even 16, so it’s just in me, I think. “We’ll never be standing still, that’s for sure.”
The background that inspired a business Having worked as an occupational therapist since 1988, Louise had become an established name in brain injury rehabilitation in and around Manchester. Working at key sites including the From starting life in the spare bedroom of Louise renowned neuro-rehab specialist Highbank Chance’s home in 2002 as a means to continue Centre in Bury, with the turn of the millennium, her love of supporting people with brain injury, Louise began looking for her next move. case management company A Chance for Life has “I loved working in brain injury, I absolutely grown beyond all expectations over the past two adore brain injury, but I realised I wanted to decades - not least Louise’s. fulfil more of what I knew I could do without “It was just me, the plan was never to employ being constrained by somebody else’s business anybody,” recalls Louise. model,” says Louise. “But then as I got busier, my next door neighbour “I didn’t want the constraints of a manager or came in and did a little bit of secretarial work, and organisation with goals or targets, it was about that was it. me setting those myself and knowing what I “Gradually you realise you need support. There needed and wanted to deliver. were some peers who asked to join me and we “I felt I had a good clinical background and formed a very small team, which has gradually was very privileged in some of the places I had expanded over the years to where we are today.” worked, and in 2002, it felt like the right time. It Now, A Chance for Life Ltd has a team of around wasn’t an overnight thing, but over time I could 80 people across the North of England and feel things coming together.” Scotland, with case managers, occupational By the early 2000s, case management was therapists, physiotherapists and rehabilitation becoming more known and accepted within the support workers working with adults and children world of personal injury, having previously been with complex life-changing injury. prominent in the United States, but not widely Having celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2022, adopted within the UK. the progress of the Cumbria-based business “There was really quite a buzz in the brain injury shows no signs of slowing down, with its and medico-legal world at that time,” says acquisition of Neurocare Physiotherapy in 2021 Louise. and the impending creation of its OWL Barn “There was a real explosion in research from service to continue to improve lives through the late 1990s, which meant we knew and specialist rehabilitation both highlighting the understood much better what we could achieve
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in rehabilitation.” “So it was a very timely way of starting my business, there was a lot of good energy around and it felt like the right time.” Initially based at Louise’s home in Bolton, supporting clients in an increasingly wide geographical area, A Chance for Life took on its Cumbrian roots when Louise was tasked with producing an acquired brain injury pathway for Lancashire and Cumbria. “This really showed me that there was a need for more training, some co-ordination, we needed more specialists in Cumbria for the treatment of ABI in particular,” she recalls. “While it is a very challenging place to start a small business, in a rural area without much infrastructure, it was clear the resource was very much needed.”
Specialist support across the North In moving to Penrith, A Chance for Life has brought vital and much-needed provision in brain injury and complex care to Cumbria and the wider North of England. With a team of specialist case managers and therapists, and a separate team of rehabilitation support workers, the business has worked with clients as far afield as Inverness, the Isle of Man and everywhere in between to bring high quality, person-centred support and rehabilitation to those living with life-changing injury. Its core case management business continues to win new clients based on the strength of its reputation; a reputation which is shared by the specialist occupational therapy and neurophysiotherapy services the team also offer. The business is also a stand-out name in the sector through its provision of in-house, CQC-registered rehabilitation support work, with its specialist team established in 2011. In 2021, the team delivered 52,660 hours of rehabilitation support.