Census:

Winner of the Corbett Network SME of the Year Award

We are proud to announce that our social enterprise, Census Life, has won the 2019 Corbett Network SME of the Year Award. The award was presented by Ian Bickers – Deputy Director of Education, Employment and Industries Group at HMPPS, alongside other winners including Tideway and Lendlease Be Onsite.

The Corbett Network is a coalition of decision-makers of major rehabilitation charities and organisations dedicated to reducing re-offending by supporting people with convictions find and keep a job. The mission of the Corbett Network is to bridge the gap from custody to community by improving routes to employment.

Census Life Chief Executive, Kelly Carrel, said:

“We are extremely grateful to the Corbett Network for this award and for their recognition of the work we do. The talent, enthusiasm and attitude of our colleagues clearly reinforces just how important providing opportunities can be and we will continue to highlight these benefits to other businesses.”

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Breaking the mould

December 9, 2019 No Comments

It is widely reported that staff turnover in the call centre industry is around 26% annually, considerably above the national average of 15%.

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Richard rowley

Richard Rowley is the Managing Director at Census Life and is responsible for all criminal justice work the social enterprise undertakes. 

Richard has over 20 years’ experience of working with voluntary, public and private sector organisations in the criminal justice arena and still retains the same desire to support people to become the very best they can be. 

Richard is also very proud to be a Trustee for POPS (Partners of Prisoners and Families Support Group) in Manchester. 

On the off-chance he is away from work, you’ll find Richard watching football, cooking and spending time with his family – not necessarily in that order!

Kelly Carrel

Kelly Carrel is the Chief Executive of Census Life and is responsible for leading the strategic direction and overall effectiveness of the organisation.

 Kelly has over 20 years’ experience of working within the Customer Management sector and, over the past 7 years, has used this experience to provide meaningful work experience and relevant training to those farthest from the job market.

Most specifically Kelly is focussed on individuals serving custodial sentences, and working with them during this period to ensure they have opportunities for employment on release. Passionate about pursuing social mobility, through the route of employment, this is the key driver of the work for Kelly and her team.

Outside of the office, Kelly enjoys travelling, martial arts & air acrobatics along with spending time with friends and family.

The Census story

Census Group was founded in 2013 by Ian and Kelly Carrel, following their respective careers working in large scale in-house and outsourced contact centre operations both in the UK and overseas.

In 2010 Criminal Record Bureau (now DBS) background checking was becoming ever more prevalent, regardless of whether the role required it. The founders recognised there was an urgent need to address the issues highlighted by this process, as more contact centre agents were losing roles across the industry with a ‘blanket’ approach being applied to every adverse CRB check. This experience in contact centre environments highlighted a significant frustration – having to let well-trained, enthusiastic staff go when their checks returned showing previous criminal convictions. With attrition rates in the industry reaching levels of >25% we knew we could develop an incredibly competent workforce that would also have a wider impact on society

Through our corporate social responsibility strategy we have consistently reinvested profits, to go the extra mile and support colleagues as they leave prison and reintegrate back into our communities. To make this much more fundamental to our work we have developed Census Life, our not-for-profit social enterprise.