View from the Chair July 2019

Welcome to this month’s View from the Chair. This month’s Board was focused around Operational items, updates provided mainly from Jean and the Leadership Team.

Jean provided an update to the Board regarding the Leasowe and Cambridge Road project as mentioned in previous issues of View from the Chair. There are additional options and proposals to be considered around the development of a Community Centre on the Leasowe site. At the moment we are still reviewing the merits of these options and I hope we will be able to report final decision over the next couple of months.  We will of course keep you updated on our progress.

Jean attended a partnership meeting with Wirral Borough Council and this provided the opportunity to raise some of the challenges our services have been experiencing with Transport. I am pleased to inform there is a real desire to work together to improve this situation which will provide a better outcome for the people we support.

Our Governance Framework and associated Documents, Policies & Procedures have been given a robust review, led by Jean and supported by the Leadership team.  The Framework will go to next Board for final sign off and the work will then continue to improve all of the remaining, associated documents.  This has been a significant piece of work and I am pleased to update the quality of the content has increased significantly.  I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jean for all of her hard work to get this essential, challenging piece of work completed.

The Quality Improvement Team has now completed the first phase of their work. They will be meeting in late July for an evaluation exercise and to recommend steps as we move forward to ensure standards are maintained. The Board would like to thank the team for their work.

Karen Smith (Operational Change Manager) advised the Board that they have worked ‘professionally, diligently and with great tenacity to improve standards across the service.’  I am looking forward to inviting the Quality Improvement Team to Board to listen first-hand to what their experience has been and their recommendations moving forward to maintain this momentum and improvement.

I also took the opportunity to meet with Chris Shaw and Lorraine Moran to discuss the progress on the Volunteering Framework and associated handbooks, training etc.  Great progress is being made and over the next couple of months we should be in the right place to offer more volunteering placements requiring a much broader range of skills.  Volunteering and the links into the Community will continue to be core to the Company and I am really looking forward to expanding this part of the Company.

 
Mike Naden – Chair of the Board

31 July 2019