Our history

Founded by the wonderful Eleanor Rathbone and Dorothy Keeling back in 1919, PSS has always been a firecracker, beginning its life with the title Liverpool Personal Services Society. Our motto was: ‘a society for any citizen in difficulty’ – and that is exactly what we were, and what we are today. For the last 100 years, we’ve been providing services that change people’s lives for the better.

From our Liverpool home, we’ve been responsible for starting a whole host of social movements, believing in and passionate about making sure all people matter, moving and shaking the first services of their kind across many different disciplines of social care (we kicked off a ton of recognisable names – from Age UK, Legal Aid and the Citizens’ Advice Bureau to Relate and Riverside Housing). Where we saw a need for change, we approached gently, listened closely, imagined the possibilities and came back with a service that fit the bill. Thing is, even when we didn’t come up with the idea ourselves, those around us knew they could trust us to do what’s right.

Our founder Eleanor Rathbone said ‘what ought to be done, can be done’ and when everyone else was turning a blind eye or unsure of how to help people in their time of need, we said ‘we hear you, let’s see what we can do’. We’ve always been unapologetically different, a rebel with a gritty and heartfelt cause – and although our organisation has grown and developed in so many ways since 1919, that’s never changed – and it never will.

It’s now our mission to be around for 100 years more (at very least). To help make that possible we’re going to be shouting a whole lot more about how special we are over the whole of 2019. Stay tuned for plenty of performances, parties, pieces of PSS history and lots more spectacular stuff. We’re super excited!