News

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…

 

Kind regards,   Karen   Karen D Edwards OBE, CMgr Chief Executive Officer CQC Nominated Individual & SIRO