From Local Authority To The Not For Profit Sector
Published in ACEVO – Autumn 2012 – the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations
Where It All Began
After school -Trixie left school to be a doctor’s receptionist – this is where her passion for care and people began and because of this decided to train to become a nurse, qualifying and working initially as a qualified nurse at Queens Medical hospital, Nottingham.
Over time, Trixie became disillusioned with the NHS so later transferred her skills to Local Authority – Social Services
1985Trixie began working with adults with learning difficulties in Lincolnshire
1989 Cambridge training social work – whilst continuing to work for Local Authority (Lincs County Council – LCC). 1995Adult placement scheme. Employed as a social worker for scheme supporting carers in the South Holland area.
Her key focus was not to pigeonhole people into services, but to recognize them as individuals, catering services around them. This decision centred on her fundamental desire to help individuals remain as independent as possible. This became the key thread of Trixie’s career and arguably, the reason for her success.
The Pivot Point
LCC planned to restructure, splitting the six-person-team and allocating each to an area for which they would be working autonomously. Whilst there were some good reasons behind this, I strongly felt that the service provision would suffer, heavily in terms of quality and catering to individuals. There wouldn’t have been the time to focus on the ‘outcomes’ that are important to our clients; I worried about becoming a reactionary practitioner rather than being able to take opportunities to be creative.
I approached the Director of the Social Services (at the time) and proposed to take over the provision, as an external and independent entity. In fact, I think my exact words were ‘If you give me a pot of money, I’ll deliver this service and develop in a way where quality is not compromised and savings are made to plough back into the ongoing development of new services’.
Starting Out In Not For Profit
Contacts and business skills! Business Link first helped me understand how to officially set up a NFP. I subsequently set up a project group, which later became my non-executive board of Directors. The project group was made up of all sorts of experts in business (finance, retired social care professionals, housing authority, law, marketing etc…). Each week we worked together to build the project plan.This on reflection worked well – it substituted the gaps in my skill-set and supported me to feel part of a team, rather than working alone.
The support and nurture of the whole board was and is still pivotal to our success. In particular, that of Keith Phillips, whose role and input was absolutely fundamental, helping me evolve from social worker to social worker and business woman.
Keith was one of the first of the board members recruited. He is a partner at a Lincolnshire-based accountancy practice and is now chair.
I can’t stress how important it is – working with people of similar values, compassions and ambitions.
The ongoing positive relationship between myself as Chief Executive and Keith as Chair is crucial to a developing business and is just as important today as it was in the set up of the organisation.
The Challenges
In 2005 our NFP business, Adults Supporting Adults externalized completely from the LCC.
The last six years have been an absolute pleasure, yet there have been plenty of challenges and learning curves. To name those most significant;
. Don’t be distracted from the thread – remember the reason you chose to pursue this path.
. Allow yourself to indulge in ‘the vision’ – this ensures you continue to grow and trail-blaze.
. Take the time to invest in all matters ‘people’ and embrace leadership.
. Lean towards others. Don’t be afraid to ask for help or seek some support.
. Achieve balance – a NFP is not a 9-5, the purpose of that NFP is ‘who you are’ rather than ‘what you do’.
. Spot the silver lining
Why Not For Profit?
Simply – it’s about enriching peoples lives not making anyone rich!
To elaborate, my pursuit is about developing services and enriching lives. Private sector, local authority and NFP all need money to function, but how it is used distinguishes between them. For us money is used to develop and sustain client services.
Any Additional Successes To Date?
Of course I cannot name clients, so I’ll share the most holistic achievements as a NFP Chief Exec with you;
. The Care Quality Commission awarded us with a compliance rating – the
Commission have awarded their new compliance rating, and in line with new assessment a 5A rating from Supporting People has been achieved. To achieve these ratings we met and exceeded all the regulatory minimum standards set out by government for Shared Lives organisations. My NFP, Adults Supporting Adults (ASA) is one of only 51 schemes in the country to achieve such a rating from the Care Quality Commission and the only one in the East Midlands to receive 5A’s from Supporting People.
. ASA has recently been recognised in the Department of Health best practice
publication “Carers and personalisation: improving outcomes”, for services provided to older people with dementia and has a growing reputation within the third sector market place as a creative and trailblazing organisation providing bespoke resources.
. The organisation provides support to over 300 people each month
Helping Others Set Up a NFP
There are several different ways in which I intend to contribute to this sector; conference speaking, group training, consultancy and 121 mentoring.
The areas I and my team cover are exhaustive, but include;
. How to set up a NFP
. Recruiting and training staff successfully
. Change management
. Model and vision development
. Coaching to ensure the vision is being achieved
. Growth management
. Blue sky thinking
. Marketing and managing contacts
Trixie and ASA now aim to help people and organisations set up good quality community based services.
Anyone who has decided to take the leap of outsourcing their service, or has already done so, may benefit from the perfected
NFP model coined by Trixie’s organisation. She has an absolute wealth of experience and success to share; we were unable to do more than scratch the surface with this article but she would be very happy for people to get in touch.
Contact detail:
Trixie Bennett
Railton House
Sleaford Business Park
Sleaford NG34 7EQ
Tel 01529 416270 | Fax 01529
414012Email
enquiries@asaorg.co.uk
