View from the Chair Aug 2019
Welcome to this month’s View from the Chair.
You can download an Easy Read Version of this Newsletter here
Our Volunteer Strategy, Framework and associated documents have now been shared with our Volunteer Action Group for feedback and we look forward to hearing view back views on the documents and the direction we are planning for the volunteering community.
We are progressing with our plans for securing additional internal transport to operate alongside the existing vehicles provided to some of the centres by the charities. These additional vehicles will enable us to broaden the range of activities available to the people we support across all of our services. Karen Smith (Operational Change Manager) has been reviewing the options available to us within our budget and we expect to finalise our decision shortly to enable us to procure the vehicles and carry out the necessary modifications so that they are available to the service sometime in October.
Our Annual Report has now been approved by the Board and will be shared widely soon. This year’s report is focused on our continued improvement whilst acknowledging the challenges we have faced. The Board is pleased with the report and agree it is a good foundation to build upon towards next years’ reporting.
Jean has been in discussion with our Commissioner around how we can provide supportive pathways for people we support. Supportive pathways will open up opportunities for people we support to develop life skills to broaden out beyond our services. Jean has put together a plan to run a pilot scheme to help us understand the basic development of personalised pathway plans and will lead to a focus on helping people to develop skills. We are keen to explore the benefits this approach can bring and will report progress later this year.
Our Finance Manager Sue Gormley has been working on ensuring that we have a robust Financial Rules and Regulations Framework. The Board had an opportunity to provide feedback at the draft stage of the document. This is another key framework for the company and will put us in a stronger position moving forward.
Sue also presented our draft Business Balanced Scorecard that will monitor and measure the goals that were set out in our Strategic Framework for the next five years. The scorecard will collate data from across the company as well as looking at key indicators for improvement such as case studies. The development of the Scorecard and metrics will enable us to track progress, get early indication of any potential issues and enable us to demonstrate improvement in the quality of the services we deliver.
We were joined this month at Board by Together All Are Able, it is 12 months since we first engaged and a good time to reflect on what is working and
what could be better. We are keen to understand how we can bring our expertise together for the benefit of the people we support. We discussed some of the challenges that we both faced twelve months ago and agreed that we have made solid progress since they first approached the Board. We also discussed where opportunities may come from in the future for us to work together.
There will not be a formal Board in August, the Board members will ‘go back to the floor’ for a day. Jean continues to spend time across all of the
services, Pam will spend a day with Best Bites, Lisa will be going to Dale Farm, Carey will be attending one of the centres and I will spend time at Royden
Park. It a great opportunity to experience the service and get closer to the people we support.
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Mike Naden – Chair of the Board
2 September 2019