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Dear Derian House Colleagues,

It is really hard to think that March will be here next week but at least that is closer to Spring, lighter evenings and hopefully better weather. Hopefully it sees the beginning of the journey out of the pandemic and although we have a little way to go at least there is a light at the end of what feels like a very long and unforgiving tunnel.

The work at Derian House has continued with the hospice getting busier and increasing amounts of respite care which is helping families cope at these unusual times. Alongside this our day care work is getting much busier and again this is providing the support and relief families need. The Derian at Home community team is growing as we increase our work to support more CYPs across a wider patch and especially in to Greater Manchester. We also said goodbye to our two long term children who we have successfully transferred to their permanent place of care, the feedback from everyone about the care and professionalism received from Derian House was overwhelming – thank you to everyone.

Exciting news that our ACPs qualified this month and we are continuing our focus on developing our people Charlotte our Assistant Practitioner has been awarded the Julie Atherton Scholarship this year to start her Nurse Associate course.

Our recent IPC audit was thorough and the feedback has been generally positive so thanks to everyone involved across the Care and Housekeeping team.

We have a lot happening with our buildings and gardens, some things you see and others are more discreet but I would like to thank everyone involved for their hard work.

As we plan for the coming months we are working on returning our furloughed colleagues when appropriate back to either the office or retail and this will happen in line with the government roadmap. In the meantime colleagues working from home  continue to focus on driving the Derian message either through Fundraising or Marketing, and please remember that every function of our charity has operated fully (with adaptations) throughout the pandemic. It has taken much effort to make this happen and thanks to everyone for their understanding and patience. It is a real team effort with Finance, Fundraising, Marketing & Comms and HR all supporting the wider hospice operations.

We have much to look forward to in 2021, not only a return to some normality whatever that may be but also new and innovative plans to continue our journey of improvement. I know you have seen these before but it is always worth remembering what is coming so below is a reminder ……….

• We will be working with CCG’s across Lancashire, South Cumbria and Greater Manchester to develop and increase our services to reach more families. We will use our recent Needs Assessment study to ensure we provide what families need and ensure we receive the financial support from statutory funding where needed – we have great plans and I am excited you will all be part of it.
• Vinten Place refurbishment is COMPLETE and looks great, hopefully later in the year everyone can take a look.
• Greenhouse works has started and we plan to have this completed by mid-June.
• Garden Pod to be used for counselling or other meetings, this will be built within the wooded area, we will have a date for this shortly.
• Sensory Garden, we will be adding a permanent sail canopy to provide shade on either hot or rainy days and we plan to add an art and craft table underneath making another brilliant area for our CYP.
• Memorial Fountain, bereaved family consultation has now happened and we have now added their ideas to the list which has been sent to the designer – more to come on this soon.
• New Laptop rollout in late March
• New Minibus arriving hopefully for early Spring
• EMIS project will be delivered.
• Coffee and Chat and Keeping in Touch meeting returning (safely) hopefully after 12^th April.
• Culture and Values journey continues, hopefully after the 12^th April.
• Strategic Aims are now in discussion with the Trustees to road map our next 3 years of developments.

We have the results of the January staff temperature check and Ben will be releasing the details out shortly after the Trustees Board Meeting which takes place on the 1^st March.

Finally, we should all start getting our second vaccine throughout March, I have I mine on the 22^nd and I believe everyone has a date given by LTH.

As always, a lot going on and I hope this information is useful, if you have any questions please contact me or any of the senior team directly or speak to your line manager.

Thank You to everyone for all your commitment and support – keep safe

David