Keeping Connected and New Directors
It has been fantastic to chat to so many of you at our Keeping Connected Employee Engagement Sessions this summer. We cannot do what we do without knowing what is important to you, the people you support and their families.
With 700 staff, nine communities and our Central team involved, this has to be one of the biggest engagement and listening events undertaken by Camphill Village Trust.
Thank you for your great questions, suggestions and really positive response to the Trust’s aims and aspirations. Your views, written on hundreds of post-it notes and in chat comments, have been heard and will influence our future commitment’s. As promised at the sessions; we will keep you updated.
All the information I shared during the sessions is now on our intranet:
- Keeping Connected Employee Engagement presentation
- Magic Moments and Heroic Acts
- Building Brilliant Basics plan 2023-2024
- Building Brilliant Basics lite summary
- Life of Opportunity video
It was a real joy to celebrate your many and varied achievements, magic moments and heroic acts of the first year of Building Brilliant Basics. I hope you are as proud as I am of how each and every day you provide a life of opportunity for the people we support.
Can you believe we are nearly six months in to Brilliant Basics year two already? I know you will all be contributing through your Departmental and Local Plans and I really look forward to celebrating your progress with more magic moments and heroic acts on the intranet this autumn – telling your story is really important to me.
If you were unable to attend a session please let your General Manager or Head of Service know and they will advise you of what to do next. We will be using footage from the events in Autumn so will let you know when that is on the intranet.
Staff Survey Results – coming soon!
In addition to all those post-it notes on Being Irresistible, Great Communications and Green Care, your voice was also heard through the Staff Survey. I touched on this at the engagement sessions explaining that your feedback aims to help shape what being an irresistible employer looks like for you.
Remember, I have committed to sharing the results with you all. We’ve nearly finished collating the Workbuzz data and, as promised, the key themes will be communicated to you in late September.
New Directors recruited
I am really pleased to announce the successful recruitment of three new permanent Directors who join our Executive Management Team.
All bring a range of amazing expertise and will play a significant role in leading the Charity through Brilliant Basics and beyond.
Sally Watts has been appointed Director of Supported Living & Green Care. This is a revised role and replaces the Operations Director position. Sally joins early October and will head up our Supported Living/Registered Services, Day Opportunities (our Green Care Offer), co-production, enterprise, education and therapeutic activities. With ten years’ director experience in the social housing sector, Sally is passionate about high quality people-focused services and supporting teams to strive for continual improvement.
Claire Twaites, is the Estates Director, leading the Charity’s long-term aspirations for Environmental Sustainability, Farming and Land Management (to enable our Social Farms and Gardens to flourish), and leading on unlocking the potential and investment in our Homes and Assets. Claire starts on 11 September bringing a broad range of expertise in estates, facilities, homes and sustainability gained in large public and commercial organisations.
As the new Director of Fundraising & Communications, Matt Wilkley has oversight of our Fundraising and Communication directorate. He joins in early October, with a focus on ensuring we continue to generate charitable income which funds all of our Life of Opportunity activities. He will help drive great communications and engagement which support our long-term strategic aims. Matt was previously Director of Income Generation at Independent Age, the UK’s leading charity for older people in poverty.
Working with me, Sally, Claire and Matt will join the Directors Group’s interim People Director John Lucey and interim Finance Director Heather Lees. They look forward to getting to know employees, the people we support, families and our external partners. I am sure you will give them a warm welcome.
