Little Things Make Big Things Happen - Celebrating Success in a Challenging Environment
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little things make big things happen - celebrating success in a challenging environment Richmond Fellowship is a registered social landlord (Housing Corporation Registration No. H2025), a registered charity (Registration No. 200453) and a company limited by guarantee (No. 662712). Richmond Fellowship’s Board adopted the National Housing Federation Code of Governance in 1996. Richmond Fellowship is a member of the Independent Housing Ombudsman Scheme. 02 little things make big things happen - celebrating success in a challenging environment BOARD OF DIRECTORS David Brindle Derek Caren, Chief Executive Peter Corley, Chair ‘Our mission is: Barbara Deacon-Hedges Stephanie De La Haye Diane French, Director of Performance and Quality making Nigel Goldie Ian Hughes Raj Lakhani, Director of Finance Rebecca Pritchard recovery Stuart Riggall, Director of People and Organisation Development Kevin Tunnard, Director of Operations AUDIT AND ASSURANCE COMMITTEE reality Peter Corley Barbara Deacon-Hedges, Chair David Kennedy Rebecca Pritchard creating our future... step by step! 4 REMUNERATION COMMITTEE success in a challenging environment 6 Peter Corley Barbara Deacon-Hedges challenges and opportunities 7 Nigel Goldie, Chair learning from the olympics 8 small steps, big achievements 10 PATRON a snapshot of what service users achieved, in their own words! 16 HRH Princess Alexandra and finally, great staff make great differences 18 VICE PATRON annual accounts & staff statistics 2012 20 The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dr. Rowan Williams, statutory sector purchasers 22 Archbishop of Canterbury HEAD OFFICE 80 Holloway Road For more information about RF’s work and its Services, please contact: London N7 8JG Marise Willis: T: 020 7697 3359 E: [email protected] T: 020 7697 3300 or visit our website www.richmondfellowship.org.uk F: 020 7697 3301 www.richmondfellowship.org.uk 03 little things make big things happen - celebrating success in a challenging environment Creating our future... step by step! Since taking up post at the beginning of August as Richmond We will invest in quality services and buildings over the next few years; Fellowship’s new CEO, I have focused on visiting our services up we have ambitious plans for growth and will continue to work closely and down the country. I have seen an impressive range of services, with organisations that complement what we do to ensure we have along a spectrum of provision, spent time with dedicated and highly even stronger packages and ranges of services to offer. motivated staff and colleagues, and had conversations with people who use our services. I am proud and privileged to lead Richmond Fellowship at this pivotal moment as together, we create our future. I would like to thank all We clearly have differing geographical clusters and spans of services like members of staff, people who use our services, partners, many national service organisations, and each brings its own unique set commissioners and colleagues, and I very much look of local requirements. But what unites Richmond Fellowship the national forward to working with you all to achieve our vision organisation is the extraordinary commitment and quality of its staff, each for people with mental health problems. individual’s belief in Making Recovery Reality for the people we support Best wishes on every step of their journey. I am reminded of what Anita Roddick said: “To succeed you have to believe in something with such a passion that it becomes a reality. If you Derek Caren think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito Chief Executive in the room.” Our recent National Service User Satisfaction Survey tells us that 96% of respondents would recommend Richmond Fellowship to another – it doesn’t come much better than that as an endorsement of the mosquito like qualities of RF staff! This is why, despite the unprecedented challenges our sector faces, I have no doubt that Richmond Fellowship will continue to thrive. Organisations that are nimble, adaptive, willing to work in partnership and who have a history of innovation and making a difference will create their own success. 04 little things make big things happen - celebrating success in a challenging environment Our recent national service user satisfaction survey indicates that 96% of respondents would recommend richmond fellowship to another 05 little things make big things happen - celebrating success in a challenging environment Success in a challenging environment On behalf of the Board I was delighted to welcome Derek Caren in August as Richmond Fellowship’s new CEO. Since arriving in post, he has worked tirelessly, with energy and enthusiasm, to get under the skin of our organisation. We are most grateful. Derek joins us at a time of unprecedented challenges for our sector as we struggle with the impact of a 28% cut over four years in English councils’ funding from central government. But against this bleak economic backdrop RF has continued to deliver against its business plan objective to improve the quality and effectiveness of its services. Richmond Fellowship is in a strong position to thrive in the uncertain times ahead. We have a robust balance sheet, ambitious plans for growth and the support of a truly remarkable, dedicated work force. The Board wishes Derek and his colleagues in RF and 2Care services across the country every success as they continue to Make Recovery Reality for many thousands of people with mental health problems in England. Peter Corley Chair 06 little things make big things happen - celebrating success in a challenging environment Challenges and opportunities unprecedented challenges facing However, we must not forget how far we’ve come in this country in the the sector, but opportunities too support and treatment of people with mental health problems. In its recent publication, ‘Transforming the Delivery of Health and Social Care’, We are facing an unprecedented programme of the King’s Fund health think tank argued that mental health had in many savings by any health system anywhere in the respects been blazing a trail for the health and social care system in world. The sector is struggling with the impact terms of service transformation. of a 28% cut over four years in English councils’ funding from central government, and although RF believes there are significant opportunities for innovation and NHS funding is frozen, because of rising demand partnership working, and we celebrate with the sector increased and health price inflation it needs to save awareness of and inroads into the stigma surrounding mental ill-health. 4% every year for four years – a cumulative £20 billion. We are seeing the consequences all around us: commissioners screwing down contract fees, then screwing them down again; withdrawal of grants; closure of day services. The National Survey of Investment in Mental Health found a 1% fall in spending on services over the past year. And we’re told by the Institute for Fiscal Studies that this is just the start: more than 80% of programmed cuts and tax rises are still to come, let alone what emerges from the next spending review. We’re gearing up for welfare reforms which are striking real fear into the hearts of poverty campaigners and charities working at the ‘sharp end’. There’s the housing benefit cap, the cap on total household benefits, DLA’s conversion into the new personal independence payment and even universal credit – a great idea in theory but the way it will work in practice is only now becoming clear. 07 little things make big things happen - celebrating success in a challenging environment Learning from the “they’re tiny things but if you clump them together it makes a big difference.” Dave Brailsford, British Cycling Performance Director As the incoming Director of Operations, in additional to my current role as In our pursuit of continuous improvement we’re Director of Performance and Quality, I took the opportunity to reflect upon • Reducing constraining bureaucracy and learning from what our this paradigm at our National Managers Meeting in October. I believe that Service Manager studies tell us in these incredibly tough times we must challenge ourselves to strive for ‘marginal gains’. We can learn a lot from the Olympics. Dave Brailsford • Managing efficiencies and overheads to target investment to enhance attributed the dominance of Team GB in cycling to the principle of growth opportunities marginal gains – that if you broke down everything you could think • Identifying wider opportunities for digital inclusion of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together. • Developing our recently launched service user forum to improve two-way communication So we’re breaking down every aspect of our operation, pointing the • Implementing new information systems for better service delivery mirror at ourselves and asking the question “how can we get better?” and staff management It seems to me that there are key operational and cultural attributes for success in RF that we need to build on – this is our challenge for the • Rolling out POD, our new People and Organisation Development year ahead. Directorate, in recognition that people are our biggest asset, our staff teams sit at the heart of what we do • Staying alert to shifts in funding systems, opportunities presented by Clinical Commissioning Groups and changes to employment legislation 08 little things make big things happen - celebrating success in a challenging environment We have just received the report of an independent review commissioned for one of our Employment Services in Knowsley. This clearly signposts the value of effective early intervention in the workplace, both in economic terms, and in terms of the quality of individual’s lives. The RF Knowsley RETAIN/REGAIN service is closely aligned with current and emerging Olympics national policy in terms of positive attitudes towards mental health in the workplace.