CEO Message – May 2021
Dear Derian House Colleagues,
I hope my message finds everyone well, it really has been so nice to have some freedoms returned as we can start to meet friends and family and live a little more of a normal life. Clearly, we still have more hurdles to negotiate but hopefully we can continue to progress out of lockdowns, welcome more families to Derian House and re-introduce more services. It has been really nice to see the hospice getting busier and as we entered the next phase allowed staff from across the two building to visit each other whilst still meeting the COVID-Secure requirements.
We have been working on our new Strategic Aims which we hope will be signed off and approved at the next Board meeting with the Trustees on the 14th June. Our Aims set the agenda for what we do across the hospice and how we develop and grow our services, the needs assessment I shared with you in my last update has influenced many aspects of the planning. We have very exciting times ahead as we continue to progress the work Derian House does across our geographical reach for those families who need us.
Our Open Garden event was a huge success with many people visiting our lovely grounds, the feedback was brilliant and thanks to Gareth and the Facilities Team alongside staff and volunteers for making it so successful. We have another event in early August when we will showcase the new greenhouse and garden pod, hopefully this will be a more open event allowing more people to learn about Derian House.
Work is well underway with the greenhouse and we expect full installation to be around the 14th June, the works have also now commenced on the new garden pod in the wooded area. I am sure you will all agree these will be great additions to our gardens and will allow for more outdoor activities for everyone.
Our review of Culture and Values sessions concluded in May although Ben and I still need to present to our retail colleagues and we hope to get this in the diary very soon. We will be re-commencing sessions in late Summer or early Autumn to talk about the D.E.R.I.A.N as we enter year four of the culture and values, in the year four sessions we will visit the meaning of each value and how we continue to embed these in to Derian House.
Income Generation will set a lot of changes over the coming weeks as Kevin Bedford’s retirement has prompt changes to our senior management structure and also the team structures. I will be sending out an update to everyone very soon sharing what we have planned and how things will work. The world of fundraising has changed dramatically through the pandemic and we need to lead the way to drive the all-important income we need as a charity.
We have a lot of other things happening around commissioning, statutory funding, joint working and all of these raise our profile and allow us to reach more families, when I have more information to share I will add this to my monthly update.
Can I please remind everyone that data protection is vitally important and everyone’s responsibility no matter which area you work, please protect Derian House by ensuring you are up to date with all policies in this area and keep data secure
Hopefully after the 21st June I can recommence my coffee and chat sessions where colleagues from across the hospice can meet with me and ask me anything – Jacquie will send invitations out when we can.
I hope you have fund this message useful, thank you to everyone for your continued hard work and keep safe,
David