Changes To Supported Lives
To meet the increasing demands and changing economic climate out in the big wide world we have made some changes to the structure of Supported Lives which I will try and explain below.
New Directors
Jon Wright and John Drury set up Supported Lives in 2004 and have directed the company ever since. Increasingly there is a large amount of change going on in the local and national 'market place'. For example, developments in Bradford such as the decommissioning of the Care Trust and the introduction of personalised budgets and 25% budget cuts everywhere.
This is a period of very complex changes to social care and we have felt for some time that we need a wider senior management team to make sense of all this and provide the stability and continuity that Supported Lives needs to remain a successful company with a good reputation for providing excellent services.
Therefore we decided to
increase the board of directors to four, and approached two
people for the role, people who we know have tried and tested
skills and a broad range of knowledge and understanding of both
operational and wider issues. We are confident that they will
ably assist the company to move positively through the variety of
external changes that will affect us over the next few years.
We have
therefore appointed Owen Jones as Operational Director, and
Emilia Troc as Human Resources and Admin Director.
Both will join the board with immediate effect and will look to develop their roles over the next few years, providing continuity and stability to the company in the long term, as well as offering their own opinions and insights at director level and playing a full role in the decision making of the board.
New Manager
The company has grown
significantly in terms of the amount of support we provide
(somewhere in the region of 1200 hours per week). We wanted to
look at how to improve communication between the different areas
of the company, support workers, senior support workers Team
leaders, admin and finance and senior management at a time when
workloads and financial pressures are increasing. With the growth
in work, the new software being gradually introduced and the
increasing pressures on the management team we felt we needed to
change the management structure to simplify and clarify decision
making.
So we have created the post of Assistant Operation Manager, who will report to the Operation Director, and with him take on responsibility for the daily management of Supported Lives' operational matters. Amanda Corby was successful in the interview process and took up her new role on 1 August. Well done Amanda!
New Senior
We will soon be losing Claire Scarfe to the demands of University so we have created another Senior role to help with that loss and also take on some new elements of work. After a very tightly contested interview process it was Michael Cowgill who emerged successful.
Mention must also go to Immi Ibrahim, who also did well in the interview process, it was agreed to offer him some sessional hours for specific Senior Support Worker tasks.
A final "well done" to both Michael and Immi
Jon Wright
Allotment Update
We now have an allotment plot of our own at the Scotchman Road site. Access to the site is good. If you would like to use the site for a session please let me know when you would like to go. This could include weekend shifts as we have a key to the gate. We are well stocked for tools to use on the allotment.
I have an idea to fund what we grow on the allotment, if people are interested.
Clients or staff could pick vegetables, flowers or herbs they would like us to grow. They could then donate some packets of seeds or money, and we would grow the produce.
Please contact me at the office as soon as possible if you are interested in joining this scheme, as I would like to get a winter crop in. Brussels sprouts for Christmas!
Neil Taffs (Resources Coordinator)
Client Advisory Group
Unfortunately we had to cancel last Advisory Committee Meeting. The next one will now be on 14 September, 10:30-12:30 at Rebecca House.
If you would like to attend it please contact me on 01274 377 100.
Emilia
