Category Archives: CEO Message

Dear Colleagues

I wanted to share some key updates following our recent Trustee Board meeting.

Our Strategic Direction

Trustees have now approved the overarching strategic aim for the Charity for the next five years. This represents an important milestone and provides a clear direction for where we want to be and the impact we want to have for babies, children, young people and families.

2030 Ambition: By 2030, all children and families within our catchment area who are eligible for support from Derian House (expected to be around 5,000) will be aware of our services, and at least 20% will access and benefit from them. Through safe, sustainable and family-centred services, we will extend our reach and impact whilst maintaining the highest standards of quality, governance and care

Whilst the overarching aim has now been agreed, this is very much the beginning rather than the end of the process. Over the coming weeks and months, colleagues from across the organisation will be involved in helping us put the “meat on the bones” of the strategy, shaping how we turn our ambitions into practical actions and priorities for each department and team.

This engagement will begin with a series of staff briefings, dates will be shared soon, followed by team discussions and opportunities for colleagues to contribute their ideas, expertise and experience. It is important that our strategy reflects the collective knowledge and passion that exists across the organisation.

Our New Values

Trustees also approved our new organisational values:

Safe
Accountable
Compassionate

These values reflect who we are, what matters most to us, and how we want to work together and with the families we support.

Alongside the values, Trustees approved a set of guiding behaviours aligned with the letters within DERIAN, that bring these values to life in our day-to-day actions and decision-making. Thank you to everyone who has been involved in developing these.  Further information about the values and behaviours will be shared shortly, and we will be working together to embed them across the organisation.

Family Engagement and Voice

A key area of discussion was our commitment to family engagement and ensuring that the voices of children, young people and families are at the heart of everything we do.  Trustees formally approved our approach to strengthening participation and engagement and reaffirmed their commitment to ensuring that the experiences, views and feedback of families help shape our services and future plans, through the formal approval of a paper that went to board.

Danny shared the paper in an email last week, if you haven’t had the opportunity to read it I would encourage colleagues to do so.

Getting Ready for Growth

Trustees were also clear that the coming year should be focused on ensuring that we have the right foundations in place for the future.  This means spending time getting our “house in order”, strengthening our infrastructure, governance, leadership arrangements, staffing structures, systems and ways of working so that we are well positioned to deliver our strategic ambitions and support future growth.

You will hear more about this work over the coming weeks as plans develop and we begin to engage colleagues in shaping the next phase.

Questions and Further Information

We recognise that colleagues may have questions about any of the areas outlined above. Please feel free to speak with any member of the Executive or Leadership  team, who will be happy to provide further information and answer any questions you may have.

Thank you, as always, for your commitment, professionalism and passion. The progress we are making as an organisation is only possible because of the dedication of our colleagues, volunteers and supporters, and we look forward to shaping the future together.

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to confirm that we have now resumed overnight respite care following the recent temporary pause, as of last week.

This has been a challenging period for everyone. I want to sincerely thank you for the professionalism, flexibility and commitment you have shown throughout. Many of our clinical colleagues have undertaken additional training and upskilling, supported service changes and adapted quickly to new expectations. Your response has demonstrated the very best of this organisation.

I also want to recognise the contribution of our wider teams across the charity. Our retail, fundraising, facilities, HR, finance, governance and administrative colleagues who have continued to keep the organisation steady during this time. Whether maintaining safe environments, strengthening processes, supporting staff wellbeing, ensuring compliance, or sustaining vital income, your work has enabled clinical services to refocus and strengthen safely. Reopening overnight respite is a whole-organisation achievement.

During the pause, we have introduced a number of important improvements to ensure we are fully assured in the safety and quality of care we provide. This includes the formal introduction of a Nurse in Charge (NIC) model, clearer Director on Call (DOC) oversight, enhanced escalation processes and additional clinical training focused on recognition of deterioration, sepsis and safe decision-making. These changes are designed to strengthen operational grip and provide greater clarity and support across shifts.

Our Trustees have reviewed the actions taken and feel assured that we are able to provide safe, high-quality overnight respite care. As CEO and CQC Nominated Individual, I share that assurance and remain committed to ensuring our systems, leadership and governance continue to strengthen.

I also want to take the opportunity to acknowledge that this period has also been emotionally difficult. Alongside service changes, we have experienced the deaths of a number of children known to us and an increased use of our sunflower suites. Supporting families through loss while navigating organisational change is not easy. Your compassion, resilience and support for one another during this time has been remarkable.

Thank you for rallying round, for staying focused on children and families, and for embracing the improvements we are making. Reopening overnight respite is an important step, and it is one we are taking with confidence, vigilance and care.

Thanks,

Karen

Hello Team Derian, Happy New Year 🙂

Welcome back to everyone after the festive break, hopefully everyone managed to get some time off and enjoy the break, and here’s hoping 2026 is a wonderful year for you all.

Here’s just a few updates to keep you tuned in to the developments across the charity…..

1. First week back and the senior leaders have been cracking on with the strategy refresh process.  We’ve held 2 of the 6 workshops so far, and are making good progress.  Wednesday session especially brought the group together on what is important for the charity going forward.  Caroline will share more details in an update specifically about the strategy.

2. I spent an hour with Kerry in fundraising earlier in the week to chat through all the events that are planned for the year.  If you haven’t got a list please do grab one, we’ve got so much planned including a few new events.  It’s a busy programme and will hopefully raise a significant amount for our work.  There are lots of opportunities for staff and volunteers to get involved.

3. As you know I am currently leading the recruitment and appointment of new trustees.  We are almost complete on the recruitment of a clinical trustee, and a media/PR trustee, I hope to be able to announce these very soon.  In addition we are meeting a social care/safeguarding trustee next week.  Over the Christmas period Helen Curtis stepped down from the trustee board due to an increasing commitment required to her family, she has asked me to pass on her thanks to everyone for the great work that you all do and that she hopes to be involved again at some time in the future.

4. In the run up to Xmas we were busy with recruitment.  I can confirm that we appointed Matt Kilbane as our new Finance Director, Matt will start in a couple of months, and Kal will continue to support us until that point.  In addition we have appointed to the HR & OD Manager role, and Helen Southworth will join us at the end of March.

5. We will be advertising a number of roles over the next few weeks, once the budget has been approved for the coming financial year.

6. This week HR are updating the holiday records on SMI for 2026 and we will communicate once this has been completed. In the meantime, colleagues are still able to book holidays for 2026; their entitlement may just not show what they might be expecting.

7. Currently colleagues are using the finance distribution list “DL Finance” for specific queries or requests, which means every finance team member gets the email. This can cause confusion as to who should be responding, often leading to two or three colleagues looking at the same email. Can I ask colleagues to please use the finance mailbox “Finance” going forward. This should allow for the query or request to be directed to the correct colleague only and hopefully helping the team to resolve queries a bit quicker. It also helps to make the finance team a bit more resilient if a colleague is on leave.

8. The Shared Care Record (SCR) continues to significantly enhance clinical practice at Derian House by enabling seamless access to key patient information. This reduces the need for families to repeat their stories and strengthens continuity, safety and quality of care across services.  Derian House has taken a regional leadership role in showcasing SCR, supporting and inspiring other hospices to adopt the system in partnership with the Lancashire and South Cumbria Integrated Care Board (ICB). This work has positioned Derian House as an exemplar in digital care integration and information sharing.  From January 2026, Derian House has successfully collaborated with the Greater Manchester Integrated Care Board through the Care Database to support the Care Shared Record across the Greater Manchester area. This development represents a significant milestone and now enables shared record access for all children supported by Derian House across the North West.

9. The senior team are actively in the recruitment process to fill the huge shoes that Bridget leaves at the end of the month.  A first stage process has taken place today and we hope to move forward with second stage over the coming weeks, where colleagues will be able to get involved in the process.

10. Parking on the drive is a potential obstruction for emergency vehicles, therefore please consider this when parking your vehicle.  In addition, Signing in and out of all visitors and guests, I appreciate it is a tough time for some people but members of staff have been seen to wave people through and tell them they don’t need to sign in.  This breaches our policies and procedures so please do ensure everyone signs in and out.

11. And finally we’re launching a special partnership with a large sports club over the coming weeks, we are unable to share who or what, as it is embargoed, but it will be huge and we can’t wait to shout about it !

Thank everyone, any questions please let me know…

Hello everyone, I hope that you’re all well.

I wanted to provide a brief update on a number of matters across the charity so that you’re all up to speed.

1. Strategic Plan and priorities.  Now that we have a new Chair of Trustees and will be recruiting additional members of the Board, I have been asked to revisit our current strategic priorities and provide clarity on strategic KPIs and objectives across all departments.  To enable the team and I to do this we are engaging an external consultant who will facilitate a number of workshops over the coming weeks so that we are able to present a new strategic plan to Trustees in early 2026.
2. Caroline and Karen (HR) will be leading a piece of work over the coming week alongside the strategy review process, to ensure that our current values are fit for purpose and support our ambitious plans.
3. Growth is central to this new plan, particularly across our non-clinical service delivery and we will be appointing a new Director position to help to lead that growth going forward.
4. My role will become much more strategic and driving progress against our new strategic plan and therefore the board have supported the creation of a new role, a Deputy CEO position.  Following a competitive process I am delighted to share with you all that Caroline Taylor has been appointed and officially takes that position from today, the 1^st Caroline will retain all of her current responsibilities, we will provide some backfilling support to free her up a day or so a week to focus on the developmental side of her new role.
5. The new offices in the hospice are almost completed.  Thank you everyone for putting up with the noise and inconvenience caused when having building works carried out.  I’m sure it has been very frustrating, but it is very much coming to an end this week.
6. As you all know The Little Things has been one of the most innovative and empowering projects that we have been part of over recent years.  Its ability to reach all over the world and put children hospice work directly into people’s living rooms is so special and unique.  To recognise all that Paul Woodward has achieved and contributed to Derian House I have personally asked him to become a Patron of the charity, which he has accepted.  Paul joins Kiki Deville as our 2^nd
7. As engagement with our families is central to everything that we do, we are developing a Family Experience Strategy which will outline clearly our commitment across the whole organisation of how we put families at the heart of everything that we do.  I’m hoping to share this with everyone very soon.

As always, my door ( or doors now that I have 2 spaces J) is always open, feel free to let me know what’s happening in your area of the charity.

Thanks everyone

Hello Team Derian, I hope that you are all well.

It’s been a while since I sent a staff update email, so I thought I’d share some brief information with you all:

1. Cost of Living Increase: You will recall the Trustees approved a cost of living increase in April of 3%.  Since then we have been following the public sector pay award decisions, and can now confirm that following a request to the Trustees we will be increasing that 3% award to 5.5%, matching the NHS pay award for this year.  This is great news, however not everyone will be eligible, you’ll need to have been in employment at Derian on the 1^st April this year at the time the cost of living increase was awarded.  The additional 2.5% will be backdated to the 1^st April and you will receive this in your August salary.  You will also recall that we became a Real Living Wage employer in April also, and many staff had an uplift in hourly rate to match the RLW rate.  Some of this uplift was greater than the cost of living increase, and therefore these employees will not receive a further increase.  If your RLW uplift is less than the 5.5% then you will receive some uplift to match the 5.5%.  Apologies if this sounds confusing – please check with HR for any queries you may have.

2. Recruitment: We have been extremely busy with recruitment across both the care and non-care  areas of the charity.  New roles appointed to include a Perinatal Nurse (Vicky), Midwife (Maria), Community Team Leader (Victoria) and our new Head of Integrated Care, who I am delighted to say is our very own Rosie Thomas.  We have also appointed  new Finance Director (Tracy) who will join in September.  We are still very actively recruiting Nurses to continue to build the team.  Other roles across the charity will be advertised also.

3. All Staff Away Day: Given the amount of new staff joining Team Derian we have decided to postpone the away day until the majority of posts are recruited to and new staff have joined us, we thought this made sense.  A new date will come out soon.

4. CQC Awareness: Anthony and Catherine have carried out a workshop for Trustee and the GPs to remind them of their responsibilities within the CQC framework, this was very well received and we plan to provide them with more knowledge around CQC compliance.

5. Visits: We’re now putting Derian back on the map in terms of our external positioning and reputation building, and so you’ll see many visitors over the coming weeks and months as we re-build our profile.  Many of the Chief Nurses across the health system will be visiting along with many other colleagues as we build partnerships and collaborations.  Catherine is leading this piece of work.

6. Income Generation: We are developing an Income Generation strategy across four key areas of our financial modelling, as we aim to raise more funds over the coming years to help support the growth in our hospice services.  We’re focussing particularly on our fundraising plan, and Emma our new Fundraising Manager will be key in developing this, also our Retail growth plan, and two new areas of fundraising for Derian, Major Donor fundraising and developing our strategy for Legacies.  We’ll share more about all of this over the coming months.

That’s about it for now

Rather than a weekly email which can be difficult to commit to and often there isn’t much to share, going forward I’ll email fortnightly if there is anything to update staff with.

Have a great day/week everyone…

Hello Team Derian, please find a brief below an update from across the Hospice……

1. Our new Children & Family Advocate and Engagement Lead, Natalie, has settled into Team Derian. Thank you to those of you who have met up with Natalie and made her feel welcome. She is currently working her way round the teams, meeting as many people as possible to build up a picture of the services we offer and all of our touchpoints with families. She will be looking at everything we do to engage with our families – from referral to discharge – and will be helping us to ensure that their voices are being heard in everything we do. Natalie will be joined by Ionie, our Children & Family Advocate and Engagement worker in early June. These roles will be vital in ensuring that we put our families at the heart of all decisions, and that we can co-design services in the future.  Natalie and Ionie will play a key role in our next Strategic Needs Assessment which will help develop the services for the future.  These roles were directly requested by the board of trustees and set us apart from the rest of the hospice world. It is important that these roles are independent to service delivery and as such sit within our Engagement structure under Caroline. Welcome to the team.

2. We now have a new graphic designer in post. Welcome to Kathryn who started work last week. She is now available to receive your graphic design requests.

3. Have you seen our recent TV advert? Holly’s Story is now running on ITV Granada, encouraging people to leave a gift to us in their Wills. Thank you to Holly’s family for letting us tell the story of their special girl. If you haven’t seen, you can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFJe7u-ywSE&feature=youtu.be

4. Bridget Thomas, our new Deputy Clinical Director has hit the ground running this week.  Bridget helped to deliver training during our standards re-set week, and has now started in earnest and is spending her first few weeks getting to know Team Derian and reviewing all of our policies and procedures to support our teams to deliver outstanding and safe care.

5. A small group of staff represented Derian House at a £1million celebration dinner held by Together for Cinema, the charity who donated our £100,000 cinema room back in 2019, and reported that the quality of our cinema room is one of the best of all children’s hospices across the UK.

6. It’s pay day (yay!) and you should all have your 3% increase back-dated from April. Thanks to the finance team for the extra work they’ve put in this month to ensure this has happened smoothly.

7. In terms of statutory funding, we are clear on the funding from L&SC for this financial year.  It is less than last year due to many matched funding pots no longer existing.  GM continues to be difficult to navigate however we will get there I am sure.

8. As many of you will know Ruth will be leaving the team over the summer and therefore we are now out to advertisement for her successor.

9. In addition to the roles mentioned above we’re busy on the recruitment front with the following colleagues having recently joined or arriving very soon !

• Ken Whalen – Facilities
• Heather Skinner – Care Team
• Alice Whaley –  Care Team
• Dorota Rebis-Witkowska – Care Team
• Nicola Grindley – Cook
• Vicki Boe – Temporary Finance Officer
• Samantha Oakes – Care Team
• Emma McClymont – Care Team

• Thank you to those of you who expressed an interest in supporting Kim with designing our new staff engagement survey.  There are 11 of team Derian involved and they’ll be getting together very soon to redesign the survey to be more bespoke to our needs.

• Managers embraced a half day training session this week on Employment Law.  The session was delivered by Employment Lawyer John Hassalls who provides legal advice on more complex HR matters.  Feedback on the session has been wholly positive, and we’ll be providing more development for managers around HR in the coming months.

Finally, thank you for your continued hard work and I hope that you have a well-earned break over the Bank Holiday (for those of you who are not on shift).

Take care everyone

Hi everyone, just a brief update on a few things….

1. You’ll be pleased to know that the Trustees have approved a 3% cost of living increase which will be awarded in your May salary and backdated for the month of April.  Other fab news for staff is that as Derian House became a “Real Living Wage” employer, rather than a minimum wage employer, 12 colleagues will have their hourly rate increased in line with the increase for RLW employers.  This is great news and we are really pleased to be able to pass on this benefit.
2. Many of you will know Lisa Kauffmann who has been a Trustee here at Derian for many years, and last year took up the role of Chair of the Trustee Board at Together For Short Lives.  Sadly, Lisa has had to resign from her trustee roles due to her health.  She will be a huge loss, brining that paediatric consultant experience to both the board and to the QSI sub group.  I am now looking to find an equally experience medic to fill these huge shoes.  Bringing experience across a range of health services is really important for the board and therefore I have this week appointed a new trustee who is a physio by profession, and is currently Chief Allied Health Professional at LTHTR.  Claire Granato will officially join over the coming months but we should expect to see her around over the next few weeks.
3. We welcomed colleagues from the RCN on Monday.  It was really interesting to meet Melissa, Lead Nurse for the NW, and hear about the support the RCN can provide not only for our colleagues who may be members, but the organisation as a whole.
4. We’ve had a really big interest from across the care team in developing their skill sets across our community provision, this is wonderful to hear and is a key feature of our new integrated way of working.
5. We say a very fond farewell to Kirsty on Monday as she embarks on a new role with the Kentown Nursing Team, we are delighted Kirsty will remain within the L&SC wider system and look forward to working closely in the future.
6. We now know what are funding looks like for this year from the L&SC ICB, which encompasses almost half of the children’s hospice grant.  We will receive a reduced amount for this year, mainly as the education and exemplar projects were match funded, and this funding no longer exists. Discussions with GM continue.
7. Leadership is about making popular decisions, but sometimes it’s about making unpopular decisions.  This time last year I was proposing significant changes to the trustees regarding our retail portfolio based on the financial performance of the shops that I had inherited.  We were on track at that point to make a loss of around £200,000.00 on retail.  I had to take some brave decisions with the charity at the heart of them and we had to sadly make some staff redundant and re-shape the retail offer.  I am absolutely over the moon to share that under Micks leadership the retail team have absolutely flourished and we have ended the year in an almost break even position.  Our budget for this year 24/25 will make a surplus for the first time in years.  I’d like to thank all the staff across retail, including those working hard in the shops, Tony who has stepped up as Area Manager and the warehouse/driving team Gaz & Peter, who have all worked their socks off turning our retail portfolio around.  We are now in a position to start thinking about how we grow retail, and that’s just amazing….
8. My favourite email this week came from Katie McNally… no… not the car accident…. BUT THE AMAZING ACHIEVEMENTS OF OUR YOUNG ADULTS !!!! Derian Dynamos rock again !!!  so inspiring and so wonderful that we can create opportunities like this for our CYP
9. And finally I’d like to shine a bright light on the education team, just back yesterday from the Nursing Times Awards where we had made a prestigious short list.  Sadly, this year wasn’t our year, however that takes absolutely nothing away from the team and the wider care team for their support for student nurses.  Well done everyone…. We’re very proud !

That’s about it for now, thanks everyone for your hard work and commitment

Hello team Derian,

Welcome to my update for this week.  I hope you find the information useful, and as always please do pop in and see me if you have any questions on the content.

So let’s talk growth…. What do we mean when we say we are growing ?

I wanted to clarify with you all about the level of recruitment we have across the charity at the moment.  I know that many of you are wondering why we are recruiting to some of the positions currently advertised/being recruited to, so I thought I’d try to provide some context for you.  If you remember the staff briefings that were held in November, we shared the ambitious plans for growth across the charity, in particularly our care offer.  And whilst we have had to step back a little bit on this growth plan due to staffing pressures, the plan is very much to build back capacity and continue to reach for our goals.

So with this comes the need to invest in our care team staff, and we have been appointing CSWs and Nurses, and we need to continue to recruit more.  With the staff we have recruited so far we expect to be in a position to increase our in house care from 4 to 5 beds in July, and would hope to aim to 6 in the Autumn, subject to continuing to recruiting staff.  We’ve also recognised that driving the growth plan forward is a HUGE task, much bigger than we first realised, and to achieve this Catherine has requested additional support in a leadership capacity to free her up to focus on the strategic side of her role, and so we have appointed Bridget Thomas who will join the team as Deputy Clinical Director on the 20^th May.  In addition, Catherine and Bridget will need dedicated admin support to free up Kelly and Rebecca, and so a part time PA role has been recruited to, and Julie will start in June.

The investment in the care side of the charity is much needed otherwise we will not achieve what we need to in ensuring we not only get back to previous recent capacity levels, but that we fly past them and then move forward to increasing capacity to a 10 bed model.  Yes – 10 beds !

It’s probably at this point that I share with you all that the Trustees have asked me to develop a proposal for getting us to 10 beds available every night for a range of complex and stable children and young people.  Ruth and I have worked up a draft staffing model including specialist roles and an increased medical model, and this has been costed.  I’m looking forward to exploring this with the trustees next week.  If approved this will create opportunities for development across the care team.  We have a very supportive Board and if the plans are in line with what they wish for us to deliver they will approve the funds required to achieve a vibrant, busy, and most importantly high quality safe in-house offer for more bcyp.  It is really exciting !!

As part of this we will review the facilities and other resources needed to support the growth.  One discussion is about a dedicated nursing station in the children’s bedroom corridor, but there will be much more, and I want you all to be part of these discussions.

What is absolutely clear though, and we are under no illusion, is that we are not going to be opening 10 beds any time soon.  This is a planned approach and will require careful project management, but the very fact that we are looking at how we do this is brilliant and hopefully provides clarity for everyone on what we are trying to achieve.

The other side of the recruitment is in non-care roles.  Clearly if we are growing our services we will need to raise more money and have a bigger back office support function, and this is why we are now investing in these areas, to build the platform ready to grow.

If you have any feedback on the ambitions, or want to chat to me about any aspect of it please do.

Have a lovely weekend everyone

K

Hi everyone, slightly later weekly update….

Recruitment

1. We had a phenomenal response to our advertisements for CSW and Nurses, and as a result we have offered positions to 7 candidates.  We’re still keen to find a few more and so we’re continuing with our recruitment.
2. Over in Income and Engagement we’re getting ready for interviews for the Family Engagement role.  We are recruiting to a brand new role in fundraising – the hunt is on for an Events and Community Fundraising Manager. The new role will manage the team, allowing Head of Income Generation Mick Croskery to focus on the strategic overview of the service as well as our retail.
3. We’ve had a brilliant response to our Graphic Design role, and we’re also looking for a really savvy e-commerce assistant to drive our retail e-sales.
4. We’ve shortlisted for Catherine’s PA role and we hope to have someone in post soon.

General

1. Thank you to everyone who made good use of our new suggestion boxes. These were read out at We Are Derian las t week and passed to the relevant Department Leads to review.  Hopefully we can resolve all of the low-level suggestions quickly and then see some really exciting ideas and suggestions for how we can improve our services coming through – aim big!
2. The new vending machine has gone down a storm! You told us that you needed somewhere to get that mid-afternoon sugar fix and we hope this hits the spot.
3. Some successes in the fundraising team this week include: Morecambe Bay Walk now fully filled with all 200 places snapped up. We also have 20 groups of youngsters signed up for £50 Junior Challenge (more than double last year’s total!) and our brand new fundraiser – Walk this Way – which will see people enduring a firewalk, glasswalk and Lego walk to raise money for us – has been launched. Do you dare take part?

Good News

1. We did some twinning with Saint Oswald’s children’s Hospice this week.  Suzanne facilitated a wonderful experience for two training ACPs, who wanted to understand the role of ACPs at Derian house
2. I’m delighted to let you all know that Colin has been appointed as Director of Finance and Resources.  This appointment was explored over the summer when we re-structured the senior leadership team, and I am really pleased that we now have that crucial role in place.  Colin will continue to oversee the charities finances and investments along with developing the charities IT strategy and looking at future proofing systems.

And finally we said goodbye to Barbara who has retired but who will be back as a volunteer, and to Verity as her fixed term contract has come to an end.

Enjoy the week everyone, celebrating birthdays before the end of the month are Karen Radley, Caroline Williamson, John Pye and Prisha Patel….. Happy Birthday !

Hi Team Derian, here is your weekly round-up….

• Goodbye and good luck to Lizzie Lysons who has now left us due to personal reasons. The search is now on for a new graphic designer to join our comms team and we are delighted with the response so far.  Yesterday, after 13 years at Derian, we waved goodbye to Sue Duckett.  Sue will leave a huge hole in our community offer and we wish her all the best in her new role.

• Some of our most loyal donors were treated to afternoon tea and tour of the hospice on Thursday afternoon. It’s really important for us to show our donors where their money goes and they left feeling inspired (and full of Jeff’s delicious cakes).

• Our family section of the website is preparing to launch at the end of next week with just a few last minute tweaks needed. The idea is to provide an area for families to find out more details about our services. If anybody wants to have a sneak peek and let the comms team have any feedback that would be much appreciated. The link is derianfamily.co.uk

• Our Palliative and End of Life Care Education project has successfully launched and received some wonderful feedback from the professionals who have undertaken the training so far.
• We have 65 sign ups including some internal staff, 3 were rejected though so 62 total. We have 41 active learners who are on the platform and 78 courses have been completed with a total of 25 learning hours.

• Over in retail, our Blackburn and Preston shops will be treated to a mini makeover in the coming weeks to make sure our shoppers are getting the best experience.

• The Stars and Cars event (14 April) is looking for volunteers. If any staff are interested please get in touch with Mick Croskery. Jobs include setting up the event, stewarding duties and checking tickets. In return you will get fed and watered and get the chance to meet TV stars including Hacker T Dog and Doctor Who’s Sylvester McCoy, and also to see some of the coolest cars from your favourite movies.

• Thanks to everyone who took part in our CQC preparation sessions. We’ll have more of these in the coming months to make sure we are all happy and confident of what to do at our next inspection

• Thursday also saw another professionals day at Derain, with over 20 colleagues attending the education and learning suite with Keynote speakers throughout the day

• We’re well on the way planning our annual Forget Me Not service and we’ll share more about this over the coming weeks.

• Thank you to those of you that met with the Leadership Team and Trustees on Monday.  Sadly I was unable to attend after organising the meeting, I understand it was a productive meeting exploring both our current challenges and also thinking about our future cohorts of BCYP.

Celebrating birthdays are Shirley, Megan, Natalie and Catherine…..have a wonderful birthday.

Have a great weekend everyone,

Hi everyone, hope that you are all well and enjoying the warmer brighter March days….. here’s your Friday update:

1. Staffing update….. we welcomed Paula Buchanon to the team this week in her role in Admin, and today we said a fond farewell to Gareth and Lindsay, and we wish them the very best of luck and thank them for their hard work and contribution to Derian.  We also send Andrea much love as she embarks on her Mat leave, and we look forward to seeing her and baby soon.  We wish Tina a very happy 25^th work birthday today, what an achievement and what an absolute asset to Derian.  Our very own Ellie has been appointed to the Performance and Data Lead role, this is great news and fab to see Ellie progress her career at Derian
2. We have had an amazing response to our recruitment campaign, it was definitely helped by the wonderful video that many of you were part of.  Over 80 applications were received and we will be interviewing 25 candidates for nurse or CSW positions on the 20^th and 21^st March.  We look forward to growing the team over the coming months.  We shortlist next week for the Family Engagement role, and we’re still on the hunt for estates support staff.
3. We’ve had a more positive discussion with L&SC ICB, we’re hopeful we will know more before the end of March regarding the ongoing funding.  GM are a little way behind but we are in discussions and hope to have clarity soon.
4. L&SC have developed a new commissioning framework for children’s palliative and end of life care and are seeking views on the document in its draft form.  We are very much part of driving this agenda, Catherine is representing Derian on the task and finish group that has been set up to drive this forward, and the first meeting of the group is on the 18^th March, here at Derian.
5. We’ve been rolling our Risk Management Training to the trustees and the wider management team.  Don’t be upset that you’ve not attended yet….. its coming your way…. J
6. The CQC awareness workshops have started this week.  Please do get yourselves booked on.  They are really useful and will help us ensure that we are ready and dare I say looking forward to CQC visiting at some time in the future.
7. I have had feedback regarding the generators not coming on at times when we have a power cut.  I can assure everyone that the generators were set to switch on when power had failed and been off for a few minutes (it was set to this to allow the power sufficient time to reset and come back on) and have been working effectively, however since the power cut in the evening a couple of weeks ago we have now changed this and the generators will switch on after 10 seconds.
8. World Book Day efforts across the hospice were brilliant !!
9. We absolute recognise the staffing challenges currently across the care team.  Discussions have taken place at the recent trustee meeting regarding the impact of this and the necessity to reduce planned stays.  A further meeting has been planned for Monday with Trustees, SLT and Care Team Leadership to explore how we can manage the situation and how we can look forwards and agree a process of discharge.  Further discussions will take place about our longer term catchment area and our ambitions for Derians reach/cohort size etc.
10. We’ve welcomed a number of visitors this week, all of whom have been absolutely blown away by everything that you do.
11. We hope the improved benefits package has been warmly received, please do pop in to Kim’s drop in session on the 18^th with any specific questions or queries.
12. Two suggestions boxes are now available for staff to provide feedback, ideas, ask questions etc etc.  Please do use them.  They are located in the Diner and the entrance to Vinten Place.

Apologies to Catherine Prince, who celebrated her birthday over the weekend and I hadn’t sent an email out last week, hope you had a great birthday, and celebrating their birthdays this week are Olivia Jones, Amy Wilkinson, Lauren Prochyra, Ellie Smith and Shirley Parkinson.  Happy Birthday everyone !

Finally, from me personally, thank you to everyone for your support and well wishes regarding my other half’s ill-health, it is very much appreciated, I definitely feel the Derian love.

That’s about it for now

As always, I have an open door policy so please do pop in….

Happy Friday everyone, please find below your weekly CEO Derian update….

Whilst not everyone values these emails and some felt they were “too positive”. It is important to clarify that I will never break bad or negative news over an all staff email – it will always be done face to face where possible.   I want these emails to be of value to you all and so perhaps you could suggest what subjects you would like me to talk about or share in these emails.

One idea is to have a weekly point dedicated to celebrating good work in the hospice that is clearly linked to and demonstrates our values. Staff could email me in confidence to celebrate something positive that they have seen in their colleagues that week and I could include it in my weekly email.  If you have any other ideas please let me know.

1. The We Are Derian Forum met this week and provided much feedback, we hope that holding the forum monthly as requested enables us to work through challenges/concerns together as they arise.
2. We have quite a lot of recruitment at the moment.  As a reminder we are working hard to increase our care team and looking to appoint a number of registered and non-registered Integrated Care Team staff.  We are also recruiting to the Child & Family Advocate/Engagement Lead, Administrator, Data & Performance Lead, Facilities support.  This week we have also added an additional Exec Assistant role to work with Rebecca in providing support for the Trustee Board, myself and Catherine.  Our retail operations are searching for a number of exciting volunteer roles to support our online sales, please do share with anyone you think may be able to provide some help.
3. We’re very much looking to shine a light on areas of our work that we are massively proud about.  The Say My Childs Name campaign will be put forward for national recognition through the Charity Awards.  Fingers Crossed.
4. I had the privilege of being able to chat to sunflower “A”s parents this week.  It was humbling and inspiring to hear how much they have valued their stay with us at Derian, and the care and compassion our teams has provided for them and their beautiful baby girl.  Thankyou everyone for going above and beyond to make the most precious of memories for them.
5. Our Trustee meeting takes place next week on Thursday evening, please do give our trustees a warm welcome, many of them do come in to the hospice earlier and enjoy a walk round and informal chat to staff.
6. The new furniture for the sunflower rooms and reflection room has arrived, I hope you all agree that it improves an already wonderfully special space.

Birthday wishes over the coming week go to Chantal Porter and Rebecca Shivji, have a great day J.

And finally…. I saw this I thought I’d share…..

Good morning everyone, I hope that you are all well.

Thank you for your feedback at the We Are Derian Staff Forum held on Tuesday of this week.  My apologies I was not in attendance due to being on annual leave.  I thought it useful to come back to you all with a response on the key themes that were raised during the forum especially as much of the feedback was not dissimilar to the feedback that you gave to me 12 months ago when I chaired my first forum.  I also wanted to share with you that when I was briefed on the feedback on Wednesday morning I contacted Karen Swindley, Chair of the Board of Trustees, who came in to the hospice that day so that I could share your feedback directly with her.

From the debrief I received I can summarise the key points, and my initial response, as follows:

1. Staff feel unnerved and unsettled

I absolutely acknowledge this, change in whatever form is unnerving and unsettling for all.  One of the slides that was shared at the strategic plan staff briefings in November was dedicated to change and how it can impact on everyone.  I would encourage anyone who may be feeling anxious, overwhelmed or just unsure to seek support and guidance from your team leaders and managers, or come to chat to me personally.  Whilst it is undoubtedly uncomfortable for many of us, me included, it is very much a normal part of the process of change in any organisation, and I would ask that you give it time and work collaboratively with your colleagues as we move forward together.

1. A lack of clarity in roles and teams

The Integrated Care Team has been established following the merger of the Community Team and the In House team.  The bringing together of the two teams that had previously worked very much in silos was proposed from the feedback given from staff during the early part of last year.  Having thought about your feedback, we should produce new organograms and structure charts for the charity and this may provide more clarity, so I’ll ensure that we do this.  If there are any other concerns or queries relating to this these then please do let me know.

1. High number of leavers

You are right to be concerned, this concerns everyone at the organisation, and as such we have agreed that the HR Strategic Sub Committee will do a deep dive audit in to the number of staff who have left recently to identify any concerns and/or themes, or lessons learnt going forward.   The number within the last 4 months is less than the 27 that I think was mooted, it is 16 – which is still very much a worry.  Following the deep dive a report will be produced and the key messages will be shared with everyone.

1. Lack of Trustee presence and a feeling of not being able to speak to Trustees

I am very much a supporter of open communication between all staff and our trustees, and have encouraged this.  It is how I have always worked with a trustee board – and as a trustee on several boards that I have sat on.  The trustees will explore this at their next meeting.  It is very positive though that a number of trustees have been visible over recent weeks and many staff have taken the opportunity to feed back about their views directly to trustees.  To make this process more robust and provide clarity on process, going forward where there may be matters that cannot be resolved or addressed through internal escalation procedures we will have an identified nominated Trustee who will become a Freedom To Speak Up Guardian.  Once this appointment has been made we will share their details and how you may wish to access this.

1. Communication

From what I can gather there were a few points raised here.  As a result we will undertake a review of our current Internal Comms, as this is key to staff engagement, ensuring that we are sharing the right things at the right time with everyone.  It was also raised that the updates following SMT meetings weren’t being shared, we absolutely agree that this has fallen by the wayside as we have re-focussed the management team meetings, and so we will ensure that an update from these meetings is shared going forward.  And thirdly there seems to be some distrust of my weekly update email.  Whilst I have received a huge amount of positive feedback about the weekly email, some of you think the email is too positive and isn’t truthful.   You have my assurance that the emails are open and transparent but I’ll definitely bear your views in mind going forward.  If anyone would like to provide examples of information that you feel hasn’t been true then please do let me know.

1. The structure of the Leadership and the Management Team

There seems to be a lack of understanding regarding the management structure.  We will share clear organograms, but as a reminder here is the charity wide management structure which came into effect in September 2023 to help deliver our strategic aims.

1. CEO & Directors – The Leadership Team (Strategic Focus)
2. Heads of Departments/Managers – The Management Team (Operational Management Focus)
3. In addition, given the size and complexity of our Care offer, we have a Senior Care Team Structure under Catherine, which provides oversight and leadership across our clinical and care services.  (Heads of Service, Education Manager, ACPs)

1. Finances

Some people have asked whether they should be concerned about the charities financial position.  The answer here is absolutely not.  I have been keeping everyone up to date regarding our statutory funding discussions and in the last weekly email shared that a deficit budget had been presented to and approved in principle by the F&I committee, ahead of full approval being sought at the upcoming trustee meeting.  Many charities set deficit budgets, especially in times when they are awaiting clarification on funding, it’s also being prudent and cautious to some extent.  Financially we are good shape with strong levels of reserves which will enable us to weather any possible reduction in funding.   We do, however, need to ensure that every penny that we spend is spent well and on the right things and that we obtain good value in all that we do.  As you know we have set an ambitious strategic plan for the next 3 years, this is very much a plan around growth and that remains our focus.

1. Culture

Many are concerned about culture, but it feels like the expectation is that improving the culture is someone else job.  Culture is everyone’s business, it’s how we do things with and to each other.  Your experiences will shape the workplace culture. People work well together when they trust one another, feel a strong sense of community, care about one another’s success, and appreciate one another for who they are. Therefore, to improve our culture, we all need to establish and build trust, build community, invest in each other, and celebrate our differences.  It’s not easy…. and it takes commitment from everyone.  I will think about how we can actively measure our success in improving the culture and everyone’s alignment with our core values.

1. Vinten Place and the Hospice

It was disappointing to hear about the continuing “Us and them” mind-set that is defined purely by two separate buildings.  We are one team.  We are all here for the same reason.  No one team is more important than another.  We will continue to work to break down these barriers, and ask that you all support this.

1. CEO

It was felt by a couple of staff that I am not a visible enough leader.  As CEO my role is across the whole of the charity and it can be difficult to be everywhere, I will however reflect on this and look to spread myself more across the departments.  Since Catherine’s appointment I have consciously stepped away from day to day involvement in Care to enable Catherine to establish her leadership presence.  Over recent weeks due to matters outside of work, I have needed to be more flexible with my working hours and this may have impacted my visibility on site.

1. A loss of fun

You said that we don’t do anything fun anymore.  Who has stopped the fun?  This hasn’t been a directive from anywhere.  You don’t need permission to create a wonderful environment, it’s a given.  We are a children’s charity and we should be creating wonderful activities and fun filled days every day for our children (and our staff!)  Please put the fun back in to your work and if unsure please ask.

1. Anonymous feedback

We were until yesterday unaware that there was a facility for staff to feedback anonymously via the intranet.  This has never been brought to our attention.  Now we know about it we can certainly follow up on this going forward.  In addition we have ordered 2 lockable feedback post boxes which we would encourage you to use.

1. We Are Derian frequency

You have asked that the forum meets more frequently and therefore Kim has already shared monthly dates for the rest of the year.

There may have been other items discussed, if you feel that I have missed something critical then please do let me know.

As you all know, we are on a journey of change at Derian House, a collective journey that involves everyone.  I think some are still unclear as to what this journey is.  This journey is our 3 ear plan which incorporates the change and transition as we aim to be the very best employer, provide excellent in our services, and become sustainable.

I am personally disappointed that we have not made as much progress as I’d have hoped to at this point and have asked that the ongoing difficulties that we have with culture, which spans many years,  are discussed fully at the trustee meeting on the 29^th February.  I have also cc’d our Trustees in to this email for openness and transparency.

If anyone wishes to have a chat with me personally please do let me know.

Thanks everyone and have a great week.

Let’s do this…..together, it’s not easy but as one we will be the Derian we aspire to be.

Good morning Team Derian,

My apologies for the lack of a weekly update email last week, events overtook me… however this week its early and you’re in for a bumper edition !  Here we go…..

1. Footballers from Oldham FC came to visit the hospice last Friday along with club mascot Chaddy the owl to pay a special visit to “T” who is currently staying with us. The team will presented T with a special award – goal of the month – after he scored a blinder that made fans go wild when he was the team mascot last month.  It was a lovely afternoon.

2. We received an update from makers of The Little Things documentary this week when the team’s new editor Max came for a tour of the hospice. After shooting more than 200 hours of footage at the hospice over three months of the summer, the team is now busy editing and have given us a completion date of June in order to show the film at this summer’s film festivals where they hope it will get picked up by a distributor.

3. Our Chorley shop will be closing its doors to the public in March and we’re currently in talks to secure new town centre premises.  We will provide more information as it unfolds.

4. Our 2024/2025 budget has been drafted and was considered by Trustees at the Finance and Investment Sub Committee meeting on Friday.  The budget – which is a deficit budget – was approved at that stage and will now go to the full trustee meeting on the 29^th  Thanks to all departments – especially Finance – for their hard work in pulling it together.

5. There is no further information regarding statutory funding, we’re doing all we can to ensure we are at the table when decision are made across L&SC and GM.

6. Our care team recruitment drive continues at pace and we have now advertised the Child and Family Advocate and Engagement Lead. This brand new role will be crucial in ensuring our children and family’s views, wishes and feedback are right at the heart of all decision making at Derian.  If anyone is interested to find out more, feel free to speak to me about the role.

7. On Monday we enjoyed a visit from the wonderful Alfie Boe, this created a real positive joy around the hospice and I am delighted to share that Alfie is keen to be a Patron.  I missed his visit and so he’s got to come back!

8. Catherine’s interview with the Nursing Times has now been published, it’s a great article and the link is here… https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/community-news/hospice-nursing-a-privilege-and-honour-says-chief-nurse-13-02-2024/

9. We’ve been busy this week interviewing candidates for our new administrator role, we’re looking forward to welcoming someone to the team very soon.

• On Monday we had a large group of students from Uclan, Bolton and Edge Hill, we had a great morning and fabulous feedback from attendees.

• We have been shortlisted for an award through Nursing Times nomination, this is really great news although embargoed until today, well done all.

• The Quality, Safety and Improvement subcommittee of the board met earlier this week.  We were delighted to share with them a demo of Care Database, and we’re keen to develop the reporting requirements and dashboards that they require.  Also at the meeting we explored our current challenges regarding staffing levels and the processes we are using for determining the occupancy levels and the needs of the children that access the in house offer over the coming months.  A further discussion is taking place at the next trustee meeting.

• I’m gutted I missed sharing the love this week as we celebrated pancake day and valentines, well done everyone on having fun and creating a wonderful environment for all, the photos (and videos) are brilliant!

• Catherine has had some progressive meetings with ICB medicine management to discuss ACPs prescribing in the community, this is a great step forward.

• Continuing on our CQC readiness theme Anthony has scheduled a number of CQC briefings which he and Catherine will lead over the coming months, so watch out for the invite.

• We are welcoming Gillian Viragh on Monday.  Gillian is joining us as our new HR Administrator, so please say hello and give her a real warm Derian welcome.

• We’ve had some lovely feedback from sunflower “A”s family.  This is a really important part of our offer at Derian, thanks you to everyone who made their experience the best it possibly could be.

• Don’t forget, we have We Are Derian on Tuesday afternoon in the Seaside room, make sure you get along if you can, it’s your chance to chat openly about all things Derian.

1. Over in fundraising, February sees the start of our Derian’s Top Dog fundraiser in which a record-number of pups (51!) are taking part this year to take on 100km of walkies over the course of the month (and seeing as it’s a leap year they get an extra day). Our Dive for Derian skydives are also back – with so many people signing up to chuck themselves out of a plane to raise money for our children this summer that we’ve had to put on an extra date already. Great work guys! It’s been great to see so many staff and families get involved.

2. Derian is coming to TikTok… keep your eyes peeled as we launch ourselves onto the platform and show the world what an awesome job we do. This week’s video will focus on our nurse recruitment.

3. Speaking of which, our nurse recruitment drive is in full flow with our video running on Facebook and the job advertised on NHS jobs. Catherine will also be doing an interview with Nursing Times on Monday to help spread the word further. It would be great if you could all share our video on Facebook. If someone you have recommended gets one of the jobs you will receive a £30 shopping voucher as a thank you. Here is is: https://fb.watch/pXdD253HXE/
4. The Keepsake Circle: Chapter 3 was officially launched at a very moving event on Sunday at which some of our bereaved families attended and listened to their child’s special song performed live by our Patron Kiki Deville and song-writing partner Angus Powell. You can listen to the album here:
   (Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/artist/2PBaGhRlJZP71eNMs6bH9i?si=MnEYSv6EQP-6ufY8CyIUbg (Apple Music): https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/the-keepsake-circle/1612316980
5. We received some lovely feedback from one of our families who received a stamp of their child’s initials in our Say my Child’s Name campaign this week: “I have just sorted out a mummy Valentine card for my daughter which will be ‘signed’ with the stamp. She had also been ill so was great to send a get well mummy card to her. Such a wonderful gesture from Derian House. Many thanks, a grateful grandma.”

A very happy birthday to Denise, John Pilling and Lynsey Johnston, have a wonderful day.

And finally we are in February !  Congratulations to anyone who completed Dry January….good effort to those of you who tried….now let the wine flow…

Have a great weekend everyone, and thanks so much for all your hard work and commitment.

Hi everyone, here’s your weekly round-up…..

1. We’re saying goodbye and a huge thankyou to members of Team Derian who are moving in to new roles or taking retirement.  We wish them all much success and thank them for their service, care and compassion whilst at Derian.  We’re launching a new “bank staff” scheme again and we hope to see some people back on that basis.
2. Congratulations to Siobhan who has just completed her studies, with distinction, officially now an ACP, and we wish her all the best as she embarks on the next chapter of her career.
3. It’s the launch of Volume 3 of the Keepsake Circle on Sunday, I’m looking forward to hearing the bespoke songs for each of the bereaved families that have taken part and sharing the experience with them.  Thanks to Helen for organising everything.
4. Thank you to everyone for your understanding regarding the changes that we feel we have needed to make to the catering prices, to help with cost control, it is very much appreciated.
5. Kirsty and the education team are well underway with the rollout of the external training programme and are providing train the trainer sessions across L&SC.
6. Sadly, we have had to say an unexpected farewell to Louise Bamber this week, after just a very short time with us in the HR team.  Louise has left for personal reasons. Kim is looking to recruit another HR admin support as soon as possible.
7. I’ve had further meetings with L&SC ICB this week regarding future funding, unfortunately there isn’t an update as of yet regarding any funding post March, and it is unlikely that they’ll be able to confirm anything until mid-February at the earliest, as soon as I know we’ll then be able to share this information.

Happy Birthday for this week goes to Katie King, hope you have a lovely day Katie.

That’s about it for now….. thanks everyone for your hard work and keep smiling J

Hi everyone, hope that you’re all well and looking forward to the weekend – even if you’re working it 🙂

Shorter update today…   here you go….

1. It’s here…. The Blockbuster that you’ve all been waiting for…. our new Recruitment video starring YOU and our amazing youngsters…. Watch it here……  https://vimeo.com/903698892/b2826dc40f thanks everyone – its brilliant ! Hopefully we’ll attract great people to join our fabulous team.
2. What a week weather wise – absolutely freezing, thanks for braving the cold, frost snow and ice this week and making sure our services continue, next week is looking much milder.
3. This week the LMT ( Leadership & Management Team) agreed that all Risk Assessments from across the organisation should be stored and accessed via the Q Drive.  If you can’t find something please ask.  Only Policies will be locatable on the intranet going forward.
4. Have you noticed new notice boards ?  We’ve added two boards in the hospice, one id the Diner and the other in reception.  These notice board are to keep everyone (including visitors and parents) up to date with the changes in CQC over the coming months and the Quality Statements that all of us are working in line with.  Our Quality & Gov Team will keep the boards up to date and relevant.
5. We’ve got a busy year ahead of us and are driving transformation across many areas of our work and therefore we’ve suggested that the Trustees might want to meet a little more regularly to help keep on track and ensure they are fully assured of our progress.  Trustee meetings are likely to move from quarterly to bi-monthly and the four sub groups, QSI, HR, Finance and Audit/Risk are likely to meet more often also.  It’s great to have the trustees on site more and visible, as this enables them to be fully assured on the work that we all do.

And finally…. A big Happy Birthday shout out for this week to Illyas Mulla, who works in our Preston shop… Happy Birthday!

Hello Team Derian, a slightly later weekly update… but better late than never 🙂

Here’s your weekly summary, enjoy…..

• This week we waved goodbye to Steve who left to pursue an amazing opportunity which involves moving to California…. We wish him all the very best in his new role and re-location.  So what’s going on with IT ??? I hear you all say….. We weren’t expecting Steve to leave so we didn’t have a plan initially but now we do.  Long term we will appoint to the role of IT & Systems Manager, the role will have a wider remit than just supporting us technically, but also over seeing further systems development and overhaul across all areas of the charity including HR, payroll and finance, alongside a plan for us to move to cloud based systems rather than server hosted.  They’ll also review the phones, the wifi, and everything else IT related.  Until then we have our external IT support company – Abbey – on hand to deal with the day to day matters.  If you need any IT support please in the short term contact John Boe, but we’re hoping by next week to have someone from Abbey on site and a dedicated abbey email address for all day to day IT problems.  Any questions please just ask.

• We’ve gone live with recruitment campaign for Care staff.  Alongside this we’re creating a recruitment video which I know some of you will have a starring role in, and we hope that it will extend our recruitment reach.  In addition we have 2 maintenance roles advertised.  The Family Engagement Lead JD will hopefully finalised by the end of next week.

• As many of you will know we currently have a sunflower (Skyla) resting with us and her family are on site.  Please be mindful when making your way around the hospice.

• We’ve had some great feedback regarding our Perinatal Team, the feedback has come through the National Palliative Care Team Nurse, Alex Mancini.  It’s great to hear, well done Katie and Kathryn.

• The Care Database implementation is moving forward well, we start trial runs from Monday with a go live date on the 29^th All areas of Care will be fully live by the end of March.  Huge thanks to everyone involved in leading and implementing, it’s been a mammoth task – bigger than we ever thought – but the teamwork has been wonderful to see.

• Thanks everyone for doing your annual e-learning, has everyone started ? anyone completed ???? I really need to get some time in my diary to complete.  Seriously though, it is ally important and an indicator with CQC for whether we are well led and safe.

• Our first fundraising events of the year have been launched. Dog owners – could your pup be Derian’s Top Dog? If you fancy taking part in our four-legged fundraiser this Feb visit derianhouse.co.uk/events

• We’re extremely busy drafting the coming financial year’s budget.  This includes predicting both the income we’ll receive and also the expenditure across the organisation.  The Trustee Board will approve / decline the draft budget at their meeting at the end of February, and then we can share this in March.  We’ll roll out training for key budget holders and also review the financial procedures and sign off levels across leaders.

• I’m spending much of my time chasing the commissioners across the 2 ICBs that are within our patch, GM and L&SC.  As soon as I have any updates about statutory funding post March I’ll share the position, and any impact as a direct result.  One of the difficulties in convincing funders about our value has been the issues relating to good quality reliable data, impact measurement data and delivering in line with contracts.  Going forward we will be in a much better position.

And finally… Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear………Abi Conway and Kirsty Blackburn….. happy birthday to you 🙂

Have a great weekend everyone

Happy Friday Team Derian…. & Happy New Year!

Here’s your first weekly news update of 2024….

Firstly, let’s celebrate birthdays.  Celebrating their birthdays earlier this week we’ve had Kim and Fran, hope you’ve both had wonderful birthdays, and celebrating this coming week are Rosie, Faye and Jen. Enjoy!

• Kirsty and the Education Team have been successful in securing an online platform to host the Palliative and end of life care education project content. We have sent the modules over to the developers and are very excited to see how all of our hard works looks! The content will include key areas for your practice in a hospice including grief and bereavement, compassionate communication skills, symptom management and more. We are hoping that it will be live by March 2024, and once live you’ll be able to access the content at any time.
• This week we’ve doubled our HR team, as we welcomed Louise Bamber to support Kim with implementing our new strategic aims for being an employer of choice.
• We’re continuing to develop a great relationship with our friends over at CQC, Catherine is now officially our Registered Manager and we’re making a few changes to our registration details and updating our Statement of Purpose. We’re really keen to ensure everyone within the organisation is confident in the role of CQC and so we’re developing a briefing document about the new framework and also a helpful one-page guide on how we’ll respond should we get an unexpected visit at any point.
• We’ve been in the news 325 times in 2023 including stories on BBC News, in the Independent newspaper and even on Newsround – well done for all your hard work that has made us so newsworthy.  This really helps with our profile, reputation and funding.
• We’re making the final plans for our HUGE recruitment drive.  We’re hoping to attract a number of registered and non-registered staff in to the Integrated Care Team.  We will also be advertising a new exciting role, a Family Advocate/Engagement Lead.  This role will have autonomy across the organisation and will ensure that families are at the heart of all decision making.  If anyone want to chat about the role, please do come and grab me.
• And finally, for this week, we’re looking to relocate our Chorley shop.  We’re keen to have a flagship store in our hometown and so the search is on for a bigger store – we’ll keep you updated!

That’s about it for now, have a lovely weekend everyone

Happy festivities Team Derian, here’s your “Mad Friday” festive weekly round-up….enjoy

1. I literally could have been out of a job earlier this week as 15yr old Junior who was staying for respite took the role of CEO for the afternoon.  He hosted the Bolton Wanderers visit and quizzed staff on their role and responsibilities across the hospice, it was wonderful to spend time with him.
2. The hospice has been filled with joy, laughter and music this week which has been wonderful to see and hear, there is a real positive vibe!
3. Catherine hosted a visit from the Ribble Valley Mayor this week, who was absolutely overcome with tears to see the work and has promised to come back.
4. Thursday evening was the annual Trees of Love event, it was touch and go if the event would go ahead, but despite starting the day with all of the trees fallen like dominoes after the storm, the whole team – including Gareth the gardener – pulled together to fix it, securing the trees, fixing the lights and baubles, to give hundreds of children and their families a magical experience. Everyone did an amazing job including our wonderful volunteers.
5. Bolton wanderers footballers visited the hospice on Tuesday to hand out gifts and toys and play a few (very competitive) games of FIFA with some of our youngsters. Keep your eyes out for some more sporting heroes when rugby players from Wigan Warriors visit this afternoon.
6. The fundraising team have been rushed off their feet – in the last week alone we’ve had more than 70 different donations of toys, chocolate and money dropped off by generous businesses and people in the community – this has been by far our busiest Christmas for donations.
7. We’ve had some amazing feedback from CQC – they contacted Catherine earlier this week to say that they were using Derian as an example of best practice with a children’s hospice they were currently inspecting, and making particular reference to our plans for sunflowers, and also our Say My Childs Name campaign, this was wonderful feedback.
8. Who knows what to do if our friends at CQC decided to make an unannounced visit ?  Fear not – we’re working up a new one page flow chart and SOP if and when the day should come – we’ll all know exactly what to do and be very confident.
9. Our children thoroughly enjoyed a live-streamed performance of We’re Going on a Bear Hunt from the Lowry on Wednesday.
10. I need a name change !!  It’s a good time to be called Joan. Our £5,000 Christmas raffle winner was drawn last Friday, 79-year-old Joan from Chorley… and a couple of hours later we received an email to say one of our players on the Derian House Lottery had won the £25,000 jackpot. Would you believe another Joan, 83, from Burnley!

And finally – festive birthdays coming up ahead of the New Year…. A HO HO HO Birthday shout goes to Clare Carter, Rhianne Hodgson, Jessica Fagan, Lindsay Bruton and Gill Rabbett….. (I always wondered if people with Xmas birthdays got more or less presents ????) 😉

Have a fabulous Christmas everyone

Hi everyone, here’s another round up from me to keep you all looped in… it’s a little early as I am not around on Friday

1. The trustees have their final meeting today of 2023.  We have decided to start all Trustee meetings with the opportunity for our families to share their experiences directly with the Trustees.  This week Holly, Alfie’s Mum, will talk about the support he and his family received at Derian.  It’s important that trustees are able to meet families directly and ask about the services received, and whether families feel that their experience was positive and where they feel we could do more or provide different services.  This helps trustees be assured and enables us to ensure we provide services that families need and want.  It’s also a key part of our family engagement work and makes sure that families are at the heart of everything that we do.
2. Catherine and I had our 6 monthly engagement call with our Relationship Manager at CQC this week.  This was a hugely positive meeting, Karen (yes another one…) has been our contact at CQC for over 2 years and had visited Lynn and I earlier this year.  However given the changes at CQC, her role will be changing and we will be allocated a new Relationship Manager who we will meet in around 6 months time.  During our call with Karen she advised that there had been an anonymous whistle blow in November from an employee at Derian.  The concerns raised were not within the remit for CQC to investigate as they were not in relation to patient safety, but they wanted to share with us the detail of the case so that we could explore ourselves.  As you know I (and the wider Leadership team) are very keen to develop an open and transparent culture at Derian and on that basis I am very happy to share a brief summary of the nature of the concerns that were raised as part of the whistle blow.  The concerns raised can be described in two themes.  The first is around culture, the whistle blower described a culture that had been around for a number of years that was negative and bullying, one which undervalued staff.  The second theme was in relation to the merger of the community and in house team and the development of a one team approach through the integrated care team.  Catherine and I talked Karen through the changes we are currently working through, and the ambitions for the future, which were extremely well received.  CQC are very impressed with our strategic plan and the innovative way we want to grow our services and develop our workforce across integrated care.  We all acknowledged that change is difficult for all staff (Karen herself referred to how the culture at CQC had been impacted recently as they are undergoing lots of change which impacts on the workforce).  We also took the opportunity to share with Karen our move to Care Database, our work on the say my child’s name campaign and the little things documentary and a whole host of other things from across the organisation.  Catherine explained how we were looking to launch a huge recruitment campaign in the new year, including binging a wider nursing experience to the team, again Karen was very impressed.  I guess the main point of reflection here for me is to remember that we are all on this journey together, and I’d like to encourage all staff to talk to the leadership team if you have any concerns about our direction of travel, we are here to listen.
3. Josie Hauxwell had her interview with UCLAN this week as part of her application for the for the Nurse Associate Apprenticeship course that will start in March 2024.  I am delighted to share that Josie passed with flying colours. The course tutor was very impressed said that the 6 C’s were flowing out of Josie.  She further commented that Josie is an asset to Derian House and that she will do really well as a Nurse Associate and beyond.  Great news and absolutely well done Josie!
4. Catherine, the ACPs and I met with the GPs on Wednesday.  The GPs are a key part of our medical model and it’s important that they are fully involved in the co-design of what that looks like in the future.  We’re looking forward to building on the relationship with them and making them feel part of the Derian team.
5. Finally, I’d like to say an early HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the following member of our team who celebrates (or commiseratesJ) her birthday next week…… Lynn Taylor !

As always, have a wonderful weekend and keep being brilliant !

Happy Friday everyone, here’s your weekly round-up….

1. This week we’ve well and truly welcomed in the festive spirit, hosting our Volunteer Xmas Thankyou event on Wednesday, and seeing everyone in their Xmas Jumpers on Thursday for Xmas Jumper Day.   The photos on social media look great.
2. Over the weekend the party theme continues as we host the children’s party on Saturday afternoon at Worden Academy in Leyland and in the evening it’s the lodgers’ turn. They will be partying at TCs sports bar.  The siblings will have their own party for the first time this year at the hospice, with a visit from the Santa Limo.
3. The Lights of Love event last Friday evening was a wonderful evening, thanks to everyone to was involved in the planning and organising.
4. We’ve had a busy week across the hospice, which has needed all teams to pull together to ensure we provide the very best for our families, thank you everyone.
5. As a reminder, in addition to planned stays (respite) we have two children staying with us for end of life care currently, and today have a baby resting in a sunflower suite, and three families on site, please bear this in mind when making your way through the hospice or if you have visitors.
6. The Care Database has gone live for bookings and referrals.  Fingers crossed it’s all gone well, no news is good news as they say…..
7. Thank you to staff who have been working through the open incidents on Vantage.  In the background we are resolving issues with closures and also looking at how we can make much better use of the system.
8. Today I am heading to London to represent Derian House at HRH The Princess of Wales Carol Service at Westminster Abbey.  Also representing the hospice is our mini explorer Oscar Burrows, who was nominated by the Lord Lieutenant for his amazing fundraising efforts this year.
9. The final Trustee meeting of 2023 will take place next Thursday evening.  Trustees will be on site from the afternoon, please do say hello and have a chat with them if possible, they don’t bite….
10. We’re meeting with our CQC Relationship Manager on Monday, she is very keen to hear all about our developments, and is very supportive.   Catherine also has the final stage of her Registered Manager application process on Friday.

Have a great weekend

Hello everyone, I hope that you’re all well and getting into the festive spirit now that December has arrived.

Here’s my weekly update to keep all looped in….

1. We’re looking more festive each and every day! The Trees of Love are looking wonderful in the gardens, thanks to Micks team – especially Ellie – for ensuring they look fabulously flocked.
2. The Lights of Love service is this evening at Blackburn Cathedral and is a sell out.  Im looking forward to welcoming guests and reminding everyone about the amazing work we do.
3. I know that good news spreads quickly…. so most of you already know….but here’s your official news about the return of the legendary cheese pie King…. Jeff the Chef…. who I am delighted to confirm will re-join Team Derian on Monday 11^th
4. Anthony Mohammed joins us also on Monday 11^th as our new Head of Quality, Governance & Compliance.  Anthony has significant experience in governance and risk, and CQC compliance.
5. Staying with new starters, we look forward to welcoming Sarah to the Chorley shop as our new retail assistant next week.
6. In terms of leavers, Kev will be moving on from Derian in the new year, having secured a great opportunity much closer to home.  We wish Kev well for the future.  At this point in the development of our Integrated Care Offer we will not be recruiting to the role of Lead ACP, and will continue to review our medical model requirements going forward.
7. Next week is national grief awareness week, and Together For Short Lives will be sharing our Say My Childs Name campaign across their social media platforms.
8. Big thanks to the Directors and their direct reports/managers for developing the delivery plans for the coming year, which include key milestones and KPIs across the charity.  These will be shared at the trustee meeting later this month and go live from January.
9. The Strategic HR sub group have approved our recommendations for improved Terms & Conditions for staff.  This will now be presented to the trustee board for final sign off.  We look forward to sharing the detail later this month.
10. It’s been wonderful to see the hospice a little busier, and increased use of the sunflower rooms, this is a step towards our ambitions for next year.
11. And finally, we’ll be launching a HUGE recruitment campaign aligned with our strategic plan, to attract and appoint a large number of nurses and CSWs to work across our Integrated Care Team.  We’re excited about this new campaign as it will be much different to anything we have done before.

Hello Team Derian, hope that you’re all well and looking forward to the weekend (even if you’re working it!)

So here it is…. The 2^nd edition of “Catch up with Karen”, and I’ve even got my own Derian branding!

Here’s just a few bits of information to keep you all looped it…. Happy reading 🙂

1. This week we’ve had a great deal of media attention following the release of our #Saymychildsname campaign.  Global Radio interviewed Kiki and myself, and this is expected to be broadcast across Heart, Smooth and Capital radio today (24^th).  ITV were on site yesterday filming Johnathon and Kirsty, Iris’s Mum and Dad, and Jake, Lily-Mai’s Dad, and the campaign was the main news feature on Granada Reports yesterday, reaching in to 250,000 homes across the North West.  Kiki, Dexter’s Mum, was live in the studios and represented Derian, and all bereaved families beautifully.  If you missed it, here’s the link… https://www.itv.com/news/granada/2023-11-23/bereaved-parents-back-campaign-about-child-loss-stigma

2. On Tuesday we have the quarterly meeting of the Strategic HR Sub Group (Sub-committee from the Trustee Board), meeting at the hospice.  During this meeting Kim will be presenting a proposal on a full review of terms and conditions, and benefits for all staff.  Recommendations will then go to the wider Trustee Board in December.  We’re hoping to be able to share the outcome with everyone soon.

3. I’m looking forward to receiving the draft annual plans (objectives and KPIs) from each of the Directors early next week.  These will align directly with the strategic plan and will outline our key activity across all areas of the charity in achieving aspects of the vision in 2024.  The plans will be measurable and time bound.

4. We have managed to appoint a new Head of Quality, Governance and Compliance.  Anthony Mohammed has significant strategic experience in governance roles across various health sectors and will join us over the coming weeks, likely to be mid-December.

5. Catherine has been out and about this week and had a successful meetings at both the Antenatal ward at East Lancs hospital Trust in Burnley, and the SUDC team at L&SC Foundation Trust.  Partnership work is key to creating the pathways needed to deliver against our ambition plans going forward.

6. The data migration phase of the transition to Care Database has now been completed.  HURRAH I hear from Care Database towers in Vinten Place.  We go LIVE with the system for bookings and new referral only from the 4^th Huge thanks to everyone who has supported this transition, especially Kelly, Kirsty and Verity.

7. On Tuesday Lynn is popping in for a couple of hours in the afternoon, please do drop in to the Seaside room from 2pm onwards, as we wish Lynn well in her retirement.

8. Finally, the most important news for you all is that your December pay date will be the 20^th (slightly earlier than usual)

Any feedback – good bad or indifferent – please share, let’s keep the conversation going…..

Hello Team Derian

Welcome to the 1^st edition of my weekly e-update….. a brief email which I’ll send out personally each Friday to keep everyone up to date on relevant hospice wide matters.  You’ll be pleased to know that it won’t be war and peace, just a few paragraphs of useful information to keep you in the loop.

So…here’s this week’s news….

1. I’ve completed three staff briefings over the last week – they’ve been really well attended and very participative, so thank you to everyone who has managed to get along to one of the dates.  Thanks also for everyone’s honest contribution – that’s really welcome and appreciated.  For those of you who have managed to escape the briefing so far, fear not, I’ll be sending a brief video version of the presentation so that everyone receives the same message.
2. As you all know, Luke will be leaving us in a couple of months, progressing to a great opportunity in Facilities Management.  We have been busy behind the scenes searching for his successor and I am delighted to share that John Boe will join us on Monday 20^th November, enabling a really great handover between Luke and John.
3. We are currently advertising for a Catering Manager, we’re looking for someone who can be really flexible, working a varied shift pattern and who can help shape our catering offer going forward to align with our plans for increased activity across the hospice.
4. Christmas has arrived at the hospice, it’s been lovely to see the daily additions of decorations, lights, snowmen etc etc…. Christmas is absolutely welcome at Derian in November!  My tree at home is going up next week…. Am I the first ????
5. Kim and I are currently interviewing for the new Head of Governance and Compliance role – fingers crossed we find the right fit for Derian and get them in post quickly.  This is probably are biggest risk area at the moment.
6. Catherine has the final part of her application process for Registered Manager status with the CQC in December, and so hopefully we’ll complete that then.  It’s been a fairly long process so far, but with myself as Responsible Individual we are fully covered until the application process concludes.
7. The Say My Child’s Name has to be one of most significant campaigns that we have ever run.  Congratulations to everyone involved.  70 bereaved families have taken part in the research which is just amazing.  If you haven’t had the opportunity to have a look at this please see the attached research document, or here’s the practical “how to speak to bereaved parents” guide for friends and family: derianhouse.co.uk/bereavement and here’s a link to the video: Say My Child’s Name – YouTube.

That’s about it for now, have a great weekend everyone whatever you are doing…

Hello Team Derian, hope that you’re all well.

Following on from our away day at Brockholes earlier this month, I have now had a chance to digest all of the wonderful feedback you came up with and have proposed some next steps which SMT chatted about yesterday and I’ll be sharing with the Trustee Board next week.

Our first task is to really nail down our purpose – our WHY – who we are as an organisation and what do we want to provide and to who!? The SOAP (not that type……the Strategy On A Page) will be tweaked following this and then we’d want to agree what are the organisational values, behaviours and attitudes needed to deliver on purpose and strategy.  This will be key to delivering our new strategy that you had input into in the afternoon session of the away day.  We want all of this tied down over the next couple of months.

It’s really important that we keep the momentum up and I am keen to keep staff fully involved in the process going forward, which is why we will be looking at formulating teams of staff “champions” to lead areas of change.  They’ll lead what I am now referring to as our “Big Convo”.  Keeping the conversation going is crucial.

As I mentioned in a previous email, a new Strategic Leadership Team (SLT) has been formed. This small group of directors will represent the three key work stream areas of our new strategy:

1. Excellence in Care & Services: Clinical Director (Lynn Grayson and then Catherine Randall)

1. Be an Employer of Choice: Director of People & Organisational Development, Kim Owen

1. Be Financially Sustainable:  Director of Income and Engagement, Caroline Taylor.

There are also plans to open up the Senior Management Team meetings to encourage greater input from more service areas. This monthly meeting will focus on the key operational ways we can really deliver our strategy through everything we do.

From November, the current team will expand to include:

• Ruth Islip – Head of Integrated Care
• Dawn Andrews – Head of Family & Wellbeing Services
• Lee Seymour – Head of Quality, Governance & Compliance (starts October 9)
• Cameron Murray – Communications and Marketing Manager
• Mick Croskery – Head of Income Generation

They will join Colin Taylor, Head of Finance and Luke Bateson, Head of Facilities & Infrastructure.

Developing a strong robust structure is key to achieving our ambitions in delivering the very best care for our children and young people and their families, and I am confident that everyone will excel in their new roles and we can continue to build the culture we want at Derian.

I am also pleased to announce that we have appointed to the role of Executive Assistant to Chief Executive and SLT. Rebecca Shivji will join us on October 9th and will be a great addition to the team.

Thank you again for your honesty, openness and commitment to our improvement journey.

My door is always open, feel free to pop your head in at any time……

Hello Team Derian,

Thank you for a great staff away day on Monday at Brockholes, it was wonderful to see everyone together from across all areas of the charity, and lovely to see people meet who had not met before despite working at Derian for years!

The power of communication ad conversation resulted in a huge amount of feedback (which is exactly as I had hoped) but it will take a week or so for me to run through it, reflect and then come back to you all with some next steps action.

Thanks again for your openness and honesty.

One of the key messages that I heard loud and clear was the need for clarity on leadership and management, and as you know this is something that I have been working on over recent weeks.  Whilst a full new structure is not yet in place I did want to share with you the developments so far.

A new SLT (Strategic Leadership Team) has been formed, this small group of Directors will support me in the delivery of our strategic aims.  Joining me on the new SLT are:

Director of Clinical Services                                                   Lynn and then Catherine

Director of People & Organisational Development           Kim Owen

Director of Income and Engagement                                   Caroline Taylor

The new SLT above enables a wider management team to begin to be formed to lead the day to day operations of our organisation.  This SMT initially looks like:

Head of Finance                                                                        Colin Taylor

Head of Facilities & Infrastructure                                       Luke Bateson

Head of Quality, Governance & Compliance                      Lee Seymour (starts in October)

Head of Integrated Care                                                          Ruth Islip

Head of Family & Wellbeing Services                                  Dawn Andrews

It is likely that over the coming months other roles will join the new SMT as we develop the new structure.

In addition, we have created a new Marketing & Communications Manager position which Cameron Murray has been promoted in to, and a Lead ACP role, which Kevin Urdhin has been appointed to.

I can also confirm that Andrew Upton Ford has now left Derian House, and Mick Croskery will lead our new Retail Strategy alongside managing our Fundraising activity, in the new role of Head of Income Generation.

Developing a structure for the future is key to achieving our ambitions, both in relation to culture and strategy, this is the start and I wish everyone well in their given roles.

As the development work on the structure concludes over the coming weeks we will then produce an organisation chart and set up the new meeting structures and terms of reference etc

Any questions please ask….

Hello everyone….

Following the last Board of Trustees Meeting which was held on 27^th June, I thought I’d share an update with you all.

The Board Meeting began with Helen Fogg sharing a case study of the life of Leo, who first came to Derian House in 2021 and sadly passed away earlier this year.  Dawn provided details of the review process following Leo’s death and the recognition Derian received for the sensitive and personal way staff focused on Leo and his unique personality.  The Board welcomed the insights Helen and Dawn brought, which triggered conversations around the benefits of early referral and engagement with our families.

In my update to the Board I shared news of the kick-off workshop with The Care Database and the Board shared my enthusiasm in terms of having a system in place that is user friendly and will enable us to report efficiently and easily.  We are hoping the system will be operational in November with a full go-live in the early new year.

News hot off the press that I was able to share with the Board is that we have been successful in appointing a new Head of Quality, Governance and Compliance. Lee Seymour will join us in October following his notice period with his current employer.

I presented the Trustees with a proposal for a new senior leadership structure for the organisation which will enable a more strategic approach, alongside a more encompassing operational management team.  These proposals were approved and I will be able to start to share the details of this over the coming weeks.   Lynn and I are also exploring changes to the delivery model, structure and staffing model within Care –  but be assured, any changes will be made with full consultation with members of the team which will take place over summer.

Each of the Trustee Chairs of the various Sub-Committees, shared updates from their most recent meetings.  The most significant news from the Finance and Income Sub-Committee was the Board’s approval of our proposal to bring the Lottery in-house, and run operations ourselves (rather than using a third party).  This will create significant savings meaning that the Lottery is in a position to make a substantial contribution to our income.  We expect these changes to take place in 2024.

The Hospice income as a whole is ahead of budget currently. The budget for the year was set at a £1m deficit position, which we wish to improve on, so we all need to keep tight reins on our spend to ensure we work towards a break-even point for the year.  One source of concern remains The Retail model and this was a key focus and point of discussion in the meeting.  Our shops as a whole are not performing as we would like and the Board have agreed a proposal for change, which we are now consulting with the team about, in order for us to try and turn things around.  By making some changes we are confident that Retail can become a financial contributor to our income strategy in the future.

It was a great meeting, the new trustees are settling in well, and I’m sure you’ll see them around the hospice more regularly as we are really keen to see the trustee board more connected with the team. They are looking forward to our ALL STAFF away day in September.

As always, any questions, thoughts, comments etc please do give me a shout.

Have a great day

Hi Team Derian, I hope that you are all well.

A huge Thank You to everyone who has taken the time to meet with either myself or Kim over the last few weeks/months.  Staff engagement is the heart of providing our excellent services and care, and we have welcomed the opportunity to get to know you and understand your thoughts and views.

I hope that you feel that you have been listened to.  But more than that I hope that you have felt heard.  We have captured everything that you have told us, and have done so confidentially.  It is important that you know that you can trust the new HR lead and your new CEO.

We have briefed the Trustees and SMT regarding the key outcomes from the feedback and are now sharing them directly with you.  This is a summary of the key themes that came up during the discussion, and more importantly what we are doing to improve things.  There will be some quick wins – which is great – but other things may take some time so please bear with us.

Remember, this is a summary and we have tried to group feedback under key themes.

I am extremely keen to bring together as many staff and our trustees for a Derian House Away Day, which we hope will take place in June or early July.  We are looking at how we can ensure that as many staff as possible can attend.

This will be off site and will be externally facilitated, and we will explore:

• Employee Engagement – listening and capturing more views and ideas on the current services we provide, are we meeting needs ?
• Establishing a baseline for next steps/strategic planning – where do we want Derian to be in 1, 3, 5 years, time ?
• The Derian Experience – how do we make Derian House a great place to work for everyone ?

This will be a really productive day and the start of planning for the future, and you all have a vital role to play in that, therefore anyone that can’t attend will be asked to feed in through other methods so that we capture your views.

And finally, just as a reminder, the next We Are Derian meeting is planned for the 24^th May, and I look forward to seeing you there, it was record breaking attendance last time, and so I am expecting the same !! J

If you have any questions or feedback about the process so far, the feedback and actions, or any other points please do let me know.

Team Managers/Leaders, please can you ensure that staff who may not access email regularly have sight of this email.

Thanks everyone – and keep up the amazing work that you are all doing !

Hi everyone,

I wanted to say a big Thank You to everyone who made time in their day to attend the We Are Derian Forum recently, I understand that the attendance was the highest ever, which is brilliant, and I am grateful for your time.  I hope it was an hour well spent for everyone.

I have been reflecting on the discussion and reviewing the format of the meetings.  I should let you all know that your feedback, thoughts and views shared on the day were captured with me, and I’ll be working through these over the coming weeks, and hopefully, were we can, you’ll see change.

Going forward I’d like to use forum in the following way….

1. Firstly, an open invite to anyone who wants to attend. (work demands allowing), rather than one representative per team.  This is a chance for me to speak to staff from across all areas so please come along
2. CEO Update.  I’ll spend the first 15 minutes communicating and sharing what’s going on, all things Derian.  This will be an update on our financial position, developments to the strategic plan, current challenges, achievements, trustee meetings etc etc etc
3. We’ll then have 15 mins of sharing information.  This seems to have been really useful previously so you’ll get the chance to share information from your team or area of work, and hear from others about what’s going on or what’s coming up.
4. The final section of the meeting will be where we debate a topic or an idea which impacts across the organisation.  This can be suggested by anyone in advance or could be something that I bring.  Examples for this could be the current appraisal system, a review of our values, a discussion on employee benefits, discussing our IT and technology, reviewing facilities, equipment and resources, etc etc.  The idea here is that by chatting organisation wide themes we can collectively make decisions or come up with ideas that should improve The Derian Experience for all.

I will remain the Chair, I think it’s important for me to be able to have time with staff in an open forum setting regularly.

The above isn’t set in stone though, so please drop me a line back and let me know your thoughts….. positive and constructive J

Thanks everyone

Hi everyone, hope that you are all well J

I wanted to update you all on a couple of additions to the SMT and the Trustee Board.

Some of you may have already met Colin Taylor, who has very recently joined us as Head of Finance, Colin is already settling in very well, please do pop in to say hi to him and the team.  Following interviews at the end of last week we have appointed to the Head of People & Culture position, Kim Owen joins us on the 20^th March.  Kim has both corporate and charity HR experience.

Three new Trustees are currently in the appointment process and will join the Board at our June meeting:

1. Rick Bolton is a Safeguarding specialist, and also a parent of a children that benefits from services at Derian.
2. Davina Hanlon has significant leadership experience in Public Health and has held a number of Non Exec/Trustee roles.
3. Arshad Rafiq has significant corporate experience having been the MD and owner for chain of dental practices, and now McDonalds Restaurants, and has a personal connection to Derian.

And finally, we will be saying Au Revoir to Vanessa Spinks, who will leave Derian at the end of April to start a new position as Head of Governance at Manchester Met University.  I am sure you will all join me in wishing Vanessa the very best of luck in her new role.  I am currently reviewing the JD/role and our future requirements and will hopefully advertise the post next week.

If you have any questions please do give me a shout…

Hello Team Derian !

I thought I should say an e-hello to everyone as getting round to personally say hi would literally take weeks.  I’m now in Week 2 and have had the most wonderful warm welcome from everyone which has helped me really settle in, so thank you for that, I really appreciate it.

My first few weeks are fairly jam packed and so I might not get the chance initially to meet or chat with you directly, but be assured that once my formal induction process concludes I will absolutely be coming out and about, across offices and the hospice site, across our community services and across our retail sites, I’m very much a believer in getting under the skin of an organisation through its people and so I’m looking forward to seeing, hearing, experiencing and learning about everything that we do.

A little bit about me, we I’m 51 (crikey!), married to Peter, and have two adopted children, Mason and Dylan.  I absolutely love dogs, and have four of them, Angel, Moose, Barney and Amber.  I live in Westhoughton, and was the CEO at Bolton Lads & Girls Club, a charity supporting children, young people and their families across Bolton, before joining Derian.  I may as well it get out there…. I’m a Man Utd supporter, don’t judge me, and quite like a glass of wine or two at the weekend.  Things that are important to me are integrity, compassion, respect and doing the right thing.

So what am I going to be doing ?

1. My first three months will really be about understanding all aspects of the charity, across all departments, and this will include talking to families and key stakeholders.  I’ll be building a picture of who we are, what we do, what our strengths are and where our areas for development are, and I’ll need each and every one of you to help complete that picture.  From this I’ll be pulling together my recommendations and thoughts going forward.
2. Many of you will know that the SMT and the Trustees had commissioned a scoping exercise to look at how we might develop the site, this was known as an option appraisal or a Fit for the Future report, this was paused when David left awaiting my arrival.  I’ll be getting up to speed on this and will share an update on the current position for all staff on this very soon.
3. I will revisit our Strategic Plan to make sure that its fit for purpose and relevant, and clearly outlines what our aims and objectives are, and we will do this through a series of focus groups, sessions and consultation to ensure that everyone’s voice can be included and heard.  It’s important for me that everyone owns the plan and is committed to playing their part in its success.

Please do drop me an email, or give me a shout to say hello or send some feedback or even share some good news. Feel free to arrange to have a chat with me if you have ideas or concerns, I operate an open door policy and will always make time for our workforce.  I’ll also be chairing the We Are Derian group so please do come along.

I’m looking forward to working with all of you over the coming weeks, months and years, and together taking Derian House to its next exciting phase of development.

Keep being brilliant…..

Dear Derian House Colleagues and Friends,

I would like to thank everyone for their kind words over the past few weeks about me leaving Derian House.

It has been a privilege to lead this Outstanding charity for the past five years and prior to that being a member of the Board of Trustees for three years. Over the total of eight years I have met some amazing people, learned a huge amount and hopefully contributed to the future success of Derian House.

I feel I leave Derian fit for the future with great care for the children, young people and their families, amazing facilities, great holiday opportunities and of course leading the way in children’s hospice care in the UK.

Our Outstanding CQC rating is a source of pride for me and I am sure for everyone who works or volunteers for the charity and I am confident you will all continue that outstanding work.

I wish everyone all the very best and thank you for your support, trust and professionalism over the years.

With best wishes for Christmas and the New Year to everyone.

Dear Derian House Colleagues,

Welcome to November and my latest CEO Message.

It has been a busy couple of months across the Hospice for every department as we continue to welcome more families in-house or visit in the community. It is vital that we continue to reach more new families as well as ensure those already using the service receive the care they need. We are working closely with a range of services to ensure Derian is at the front of mind across Lancashire, South Cumbria and Greater Manchester, we continue to share the great work you all do with senior colleagues at NHS England and the more regional commissioning bodies. We are also sharing our work with both Hospice UK and Together for Short Lives along with our friends at other children’s hospices.

Fundraising, Marketing and Communications are always extremely busy in the last few months of the year. We have a range of activities within the community and business world to raise valuable funds for Derian and alongside this we have our winter campaign with Holly and her families story. As well as the usual mailings we will be showing our first ever Derian TV advert which will expand our audience and raise more money, here is the link for those who have not seen it : https://youtu.be/2mj-VkYtx_Y  (open in Chrome). In 2022 our team across Fundraising, Marketing and Communications have to date raised more money than any other year since the hospice opened – well done to all.

I regularly walk around the hospice and commend our Housekeeping and Estates team for ensuring everywhere looks great, I have recently received several comments from visitors saying how clean and fresh everywhere looks at Derian. I Would also like to welcome Jack as our new Catering Manager who joins Kath and Andrea at Danni’s Diner.

Around and About the Hospice (and beyond) – things to know …..

• Sensory Garden, Works are well underway and we look forward to seeing the finished area in a short number of weeks.
• Great Big House Giveaway, ended in the middle of September and in October the family received the keys and are now living in the house with their new baby.
• Derian Voices – our choir are looking for additional staff or volunteers to join and perform at the Lights of Love service in Blackburn Cathedral.
• Family Survey, was received has been overwhelmingly positive with lovely comments about many of our team and activities.
• Budgets, we are now setting the budgets for 2023, our Finance colleagues are working hard and supporting the Christmas orders and other donations at this extremely busy time.
• Shops, are currently BOOMING with amazing sales across all of our stores, thanks to the store teams and our trusty drivers and warehouse colleagues.
• Recruitment, we have many new colleagues who have already or are due to join, please welcome them if you see them around the hospice.

As you can see, lots going, if I have missed your area then sorry (and please let me know).

Thank you all for your continued support and commitment and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me, any member of the senior team or your line manager.

David

Dear Derian House Colleagues,

I am sorry for not sending my monthly updates for a couple of months but here is the August CEO Message.

It is hard to believe we have said goodbye to August, schools will be returning after the summer break very soon and we will now look forward to all the Autumn activities across Derian House. I do hope you all had a great summertime with family and friends and enjoyed some of the lovely weather we have enjoyed or have managed to get away on a holiday either in the UK or overseas.

As we enter the new month we now have the lowest level of restrictions we have seem for nearly two and a half years, it feels rather strange to cease testing and although we still have masks for direct patient care or when you’re a little unwell it is great otherwise to be free of them at all other times. We need to be mindful as we approach the Autumn/Winter period of keeping each other safe so please wear the mask when you feel you need to protect others.

The hospice continues to be busy with a range of increased respite, day care and many other activities and it is great to see so much activity everywhere. It has also been busy with lots of fundraising and other events keeping Derian at the front of everyone’s minds across our region. Well done to EVERYONE for their continued dedication, commitment and hard work which is much appreciated.

Here are a few updates on August and the activities and developments :-

• Use of all our care services continues to increase as we reach more families across the North West and I am sure we will see this continue to grow over the coming months.
• Our gardens have been looking lovely throughout the Summer and have been enjoyed by everyone who has visited.
• We continue to refresh areas of the Hospice with additional works and licks of paint where needed.
• There have been lots of fundraising activities with one of the most notable being ‘Diving for Derian’
• Please make sure you check the Intranet for the latest news and information.

Around and About the Hospice (and beyond) – things to know for September …..

• Sensory Garden, Works will start on the refurbishment of this garden on the 12^th September and will take around 6 weeks, we will pop images of what is coming in the link corridor shortly.
• Painting, Ongoing painting will be happening across the Hospice to freshen up corridors and rooms, these will not impact any operations and the Estates team will coordinate with the care team.
• Together for Short Lives,Conference commences on the 7^th/8^th September in Manchester, Lynn will be presenting on day one and KiKi (our Patron) is also presenting the Keepsake Circle project on day 2 so great profile for Derian.
• Great Big House Giveaway, ticket sales finish at 11.59pm on the 13^th September with the winner being announced at the Kingswood Gala Ball on the 17^th This promotion has been a huge success with over 500,000 individual tickets in the draw and currently raising lots of money for Derian.
• Final ‘Dive for Derian’, the last of the year will take place on the 25^th
• Bail me Out, The activity where company bosses get arrested and have to raise a minimum of £999 to be released happens on the 23^rd
• Derian Voices – our choir are looking for additional staff or volunteers to join and perform at the Lights of Love service in Blackburn Cathedral.
• Options Appraisal, The assessment of the options is ongoing and once we have any updates we will share them with you ll.

As you can see, lots going on.

Thank you all for your continued support and commitment and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me, any member of the senior team or your line manager.

David

Hello Derian House Colleagues,

I am writing to let you know that I will be retiring from Derian House at the end of this year and leaving my post as Chief Executive of our amazing hospice at that time.

It has been an absolute privilege to lead Derian House for what will be, by December, nearly 5 years. We have together made many changes and here are a few highlights which I will always look back on fondly. Taking Derian from CQC Requires Improvement to Outstanding in just 2 years has, and always will be our biggest achievement.  It could only have been possible with the collaborative working with our amazing staff and volunteers on our culture and values; alongside refurbishing Derian to have the amazing buildings and gardens we see today, introducing Derian on Holiday giving over 180 families the opportunity for a free weeks holiday and many other brilliant advancements in all areas.

I am proud of the strides we have made in ensuring Derian is embedded in the health economy and recognised as a key provider in children’s and young people’s palliative and end of life care across the region and by NHS England. Last but not least working with you, the people who work for Derian in developing a strong Culture and Values has been an absolute honour.

There are so many other things we have achieved and all of this could not have been done without all of the amazing staff and volunteers I have had the pleasure of working with.

I am around until the end of the year and will continue to focus on the job in hand and will support our Trustees in finding my successor.

Thanks and I look forward to seeing you around the Hospice.

David

Dear Derian House Colleagues,

Another month has passed very quickly and firstly, sorry for the delay in sending this out, the Jubilee seemed to suddenly be upon us and June arrived. The Jubilee was an opportunity for many to gather with friends or family and I hope everyone had chance to reflect on the long reign of Queen Elizabeth II and whether a follower of the Royal Family or not, such an achievement is quite outstanding.

Although things across the country seem to be almost back to normality, we are continuing to follow the guidance given to us which is in line with hospital settings. We review this at our monthly Senior Management Team meetings, the next review will be the 14^th June unless guidance changes before that date.

It is really uplifting to see Derian as a busy and vibrant children’s Hospice when so many others are not yet fully open and I am proud that we have never closed our services to anyone throughout. It is great to speak to children’s hospices across the UK who seek our advice and guidance and it makes me very proud of the work you all do every day – thank you.

Here are a few updates on May and the activities and developments :-

• Although we had some challenges with COVID absence through the last month we have managed occupancy well and are hoping to see this increase over the coming months.
• We have seen a number of Sunflowers pass through the Hospice as well are across the community, thank you to all those involved with the families at those difficult times and beyond.
• Culture and Values video filming has taken place and thanks to those who agreed to get involved, this together with other information will be released at the end of June.
• May saw the new Amelie fundraising campaign launch, if you have not seen the mailings then please let someone in Marketing or Fundraising know and we will pop copies on the wellbeing boards.
• Accrington shop opened on the 27^th May, located opposite the Town Hall and Market, why not pop down and say hello.
• Please make sure you check the Intranet for the latest news and information.

Around and About the Hospice (and beyond) – things to know for June …..

• Birdsong Survey, your opportunity to share the great work you do and how you contribute to Derian and how we support you.
• Supercar Showtime, fundraising event on the 12^th June at Hoghton Towers.
• Morecambe Bay Walk,25^th June walkers will take this picturesque trek to raise money for Derian – limited places available.
• Dive for Derian, 26^th June the first of this year’s skydives take place with brave participants raising money for us.

Finally, in the second half of June I plan to give face to face updates on our future plans for the Hospice in line with the needs assessment and options appraisal work, dates will be shared very soon and I will also record this so it is accessible to all online.

Thank you all for your continued support and commitment and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me, any member of the senior team or your line manager.

David

Dear Derian House Colleagues,

It seems like days since I wrote my last update to everyone at Derian House. It has been a challenging month with COVID impacting greatly on our staffing however, it remains vital that we continue to operate for the safety and wellbeing of the children and young people who use our service. I hope that all those who have been affected by COVID this month are feeling well again or are on the road to recovery.

We are continuing to review at the monthly Senior Management Team meetings our approach to COVID following the guidance given to us which is in line with hospital guidance.

Even with restrictions we continue to operate a busy and vibrant Hospice and I am proud every day to see the work you do to make Derian what it is. Here are a few headlines:-

• I have noticed in the past few days more children and families visiting and receiving the outstanding care we give at Derian House – long may it continue.
• We have lots of activities by the Family Support and Wellbeing Teams in-house and across the communities we serve.
• It is really great to see the Woodland Suite now in regular use by John and Fazila – as we enter Spring and Summer this is a really special place for our families.
• Our Derian at Home Team and ACP colleagues continue to offer their amazing support in Hospitals and across our wider community.
• The Hospice is looking great thanks to Housekeeping and Facilities and it was really special to see a family has commented on the quality and cleanliness of our Hospice on the Friends and Family Survey – well done team.
• Culture and Values sessions – we now have AMAZING word clouds for each of our values and Ben is working on sharing these very soon. Thank you to the 90 staff who attended the sessions and shared your thoughts and values with us.
• We have had a brilliant first quarter financially with income from our Fundraising colleagues being well ahead of the budget also well done to Mick on the hugely successful Stars and Cars event – great work by the team.
• Our Finance colleagues continue to be very busy supporting our year end audit as well as the very busy day jobs and also preparing for our next campaign.
• It is really important we get our message out across the region and we are seeing massive increases in our social media, database and donor numbers with thousands more online and database Derian follows than ever before.
• Our shops continue to be the face of the charity on the high street, thanks to all the shop, warehouse and driver colleagues for their hard work.

Around and About the Hospice (and beyond) – things to know …..

• Reflection Garden, is now completed and final planting will be carried out shortly.
• Forget me Not Service, will be held on the 8^th May 2022 for bereaved families.
• Accrington Shop, opening in the middle of May.
• Amelie Campaign, Later in May we will be sending our campaign newsletter to our donor base and wider region with nearly 140,000 households receiving this uplifting story.

I also wish Eid Mubarak to all colleagues who have been observing Ramadan for Monday the 2^nd May.

Thank you all for your support and commitment and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me, any member of the senior team or your line manager.

David

Dear Derian House Colleagues,

It is great to see the lighter evenings and hopefully better weather as we leave March behind and head into April and Spring.

As I enter my fifth year as Chief Executive of this amazing charity I thought it would be worthwhile reflecting on the past 4 years and the significant achievements and changes we have made together.

The first two years were very much about reshaping and redesigning everything from our Culture and Values through to our buildings and services. It was not without challenges as change can be very difficult, and I together with the rest of the senior team were very grateful for all the support and understand throughout that period.  Here are the reflections on years one and two …

• Requires Improvement to Outstanding with our regulator the CQC recognising the amazing care we give to the children, young people and families who need us.
• Refurbished buildings full of colour, brighter, larger spaces and great new facilities such as the Cinema and Sensory Room.
• Culture and Values – written by the staff at Derian House.
• Strategic Aims which were clear and delivered meaningful change.
• Change to a new sustainable income approach to balance the books.
• Introduction of our amazing Derian on Holiday lodges.
• Increasing our shop network.

Ultimately, these two years set the foundations for our future and in hindsight strengthened us and made us resilient for what was to come in 2019.

The years since the start of the COVID pandemic have been challenging for everyone both at Derian House and at home and I admire everyone’s resilience – Thank You.

Even with these challenges we have remained open and able to provide our Outstanding care and support throughout. We have embedded ourselves within the wider health care sector ensuring Derian is seen as an equal partner and provider. It is so important to have achieved this recognition for the future sustainability of our Hospice. It has also been a time of significant change within fundraising with new approaches in donor engagement as well as new marketing and digital driven activity, we really are leading the way. Our finances continue to strengthen with robust budgets and more diverse income streams ensuring our future. Overall, through the difficult times and with your support we have remain focused and delivered to our charitable aims and ambitions and supported those who need us.

I intend to do the Keeping in Touch sessions face to face after I return from holiday at the end of April but of course as always if you have any questions then please do ask me, any member of the senior team or your line manager.

Finally, for those who are observing Ramadan which starts this weekend I wish you Ramadan Mubarak.

Thank you.

David

Dear Derian House Colleagues,

I am mindful that we have all been through a challenging 24 months where our normal world was turn upside down as we see the world opening up we are all still mindful that COVID is still around.

Alongside pandemic we now have the dreadful events in Ukraine with images in the press and on TV and the concerns about where this will lead. Another impact of this situation is the demands on the cost of living and managing with the ever changing prices and demands.

I have discussed these challenges with Lynn, the Senior Management Team and, working with Dawn, next week we will be starting weekly Wellbeing Sessions hosted by our Family Counsellors Fazila and John. These will not be counselling sessions but an opportunity for colleagues from across Derian to come together and share their concerns, issues and generally chat. John and Fazila will be sharing their expertise in areas such as personal coping methods and they will be sending an email shortly to share a little more information.

We plan hold these weekly in the Seaside Room from the 24^th March until the end of May when we will see how it is going.

As I said, Fazila and John will send an email soon to confirm everything and I hope you will find this supportive and beneficial.

Many thanks

David