BEST PRACTICE SPONSOR 2020
THE PARLIAMENTARY REVIEW
Highlighting best practice
42 | ORIONE CARE
Saint Luigi Orione
Housing, care and support
service in Teddington
The Sons of Divine Providence is a Roman Catholic
religious congregation, founded in Italy in 1893. The
Congregation takes inspiration from its founder Saint
Luigi Orione, known as Don Orione. Don Orione’s motto was:
“Do good always, do good to all, harm nobody”
. Don Orione is
remembered for his commitment to social justice and the service
of those in need, a service guided and inspired by the teachings
of the Catholic Church. The Sons of Divine Providence came
to England in 1949, and in 2009 adopted
Orione Care
as the
operational name for the charity. The secretary of the charity,
Michael Healy, tells
The Parliamentary Review
more.
Don Orione began his work with orphans and street children in the city of
Tortona, in Italy, while he was still a student. He was a man of enormous energy
and enterprise, and by the time of his death in 1940 he and his followers had
established services for the care of elderly, disabled and disadvantaged people
all over Italy, as well as in Poland, Brazil, Argentina and Palestine. Today, nearly a
thousand priests and brothers of the congregation work in 33 countries around the
world, providing services for more than 200,000 people in a variety of health and
social care projects.
The driving force behind the establishment of The Sons of Divine Providence
in England was the late Father Paul Bidone, who had joined the Congregation
following a personal encounter with Don Orione. The story is that Father Bidone
came to England in 1949 with ten shillings and the name of only one British
contact. To add to the difficulty of his mission Father Bidone spoke no English,
FACTS ABOUT
ORIONE CARE
»Founder: Saint Luigi Orione
»Secretary: Michael Healy
»Established in 1952
»Headquarters in Hampton
Wick
»Services: Housing, residential
and day care
»No. of employees: 70
»Registered charity and
registered provider of social
housing
Orione Care
43ORIONE CARE |
although he was fortunate in that
one of his first English tutors was the
celebrated writer Hillaire Belloc.
Father Bidone also developed a
friendship with the renowned
commentator and satirist Malcolm
Muggeridge, and was influential in his
decision to join the Catholic Church.
Malcolm Muggeridge would later
come to describe his friend as “a priest
of rare and subtle holiness”. What is
undeniable also is that Father Bidone
was remarkably shrewd, determined
and very adept at networking and
fundraising. Within three years of
arriving in England, Father Bidone had
established a home for elderly homeless
men in Streatham. This was to be
the first of many services established
by The Sons of Divine Providence for
older people and people with learning
disabilities in London, the South East
and Lancashire. These services were
based in properties which were acquired
by Father Bidone through his hard work,
the generosity of benefactors and his
genuine trust in divine providence.
Many of the services established
by Father Bidone were residential
care homes. Since Father Bidone’s
death in 1986, we have seen this
particular model of providing care
and accommodation to older people
and people with disabilities falling out
of favour with local authorities and
service users. People now want services
which are less restrictive and which
give them more independence.
Moving away from residential
care
It is also true to say that over the
same period the charity has found it
increasingly difficult to run residential
care services as costs have increased
and the money being made available
by local authorities to fund the care
provided has not kept pace.
Over the last 20 years we have
responded by gradually moving away
from residential care. This has been
partly by force of circumstances and
partly by design, but the effect is that
we now see our future as a provider of
housing rather than a provider of care.
Many of the people who live in our
accommodation still need support, but
it is provided by external care providers.
I think this model gives our tenants
more of a say over the care they receive
and who should provide it; it also gives
them more security because they are
not relying on just one organisation to
provide both housing and support.
Residential care service
in Surrey
Do good
always, do
good to all,
harm nobody
“
“
Rt Hon The Lord David Blunkett
Rt Hon The Lord Eric Pickles
