Double century!
The past six months have been so busy for all of us at Sycamore Trust, and it’s easy to forget dates and anniversaries. One such date that slipped by almost unnoticed was the first 200 days since Cheryl Kearney took over as Sycamore Chief Executive. In itself, that may not be the most notable anniversary, but so much has happened since Cheryl was appointed last October that it felt a good point to reflect on the events of the last six months.
And it will come as no surprise that one event above all others springs to mind when discussion those first two hundred days. As everyone knows, we tragically lost our friend and colleague Debbie Gadbury, in April, and this was uppermost in Cheryl’s mind when she looked back on her first few months as CEO. “Since I have started there have been plenty of personal and professional challenges but losing a friend and a respected colleague both inside and outside Sycamore has been very difficult.” Cheryl continued; “Her knowledge, skills and expertise apart, the kindness that she showed everyone was a very big part of what Sycamore stands for and even reading the comments on social media and going to meetings and talking about Debbie has been very difficult. However, I know that Debbie would want us to carry on supporting our families with kindness and care because she understood just how difficult it can be to raise a family member with autism. If anything, it makes me more determined that the Trust will go forward and continue to provide services and, in many ways, we will be doing it in Debbie’s name because she personified so much of what the Trust is about.”
Apart from the death of our beloved colleague, the future of the Havering Autism Hub in Romford has been the most challenging element of the role. Cheryl explained, “When I was offered the post, I felt the charity was in a good position, with the Hub in Romford and several projects running. However, it became clear that the Hub was at risk because of funding cuts in the council so one of the first things I did, which was a massive learning curve, was to reach out to the council and meet with commissioning officers and start to build a relationship with them and find out what they wanted. She continued; “it was really upsetting seeing all of the Clients so angry and upset thinking that the service that they valued and needed might be cut, but when we found out that the service was being extended for another six months it made me realise that partnership working would be an extremely important for the charity moving forward. It was a very stressful and worrying time, but it taught me a great deal and made re-evaluate how we deliver our services and how we ensure that we maximise every opportunity for the benefit of our clients.
Despite the uncertain future of the Hub and our services in Havering, this part of the job is something that Cheryl looks back on with pride. “I really enjoyed working on the Hub. It sounds bizarre as I had only just started, and I felt that I’d been dropped into a different world, and everyone was looking to me to ensure that the service continued. Cheryl went onto say “I enjoy most days – it’s different and it’s busy and it’s challenging and rewarding at the same time. A big part of my role is to ensure we continue to create new funding opportunities and services for clients, this is really rewarding when we are successful and, on the occasions, we are not, we learn from it and move forward.
Cheryl was interviewed by ITV news last November
With a bid for the Havering Autism tender now completed and some important new funding in place, Cheryl is looking forward to the future with genuine optimism, although she recognises that there is a great deal of hard work still to do. And she hinted that Sycamore may need to diversify in future, whilst sticking close to those core values that make the charity such an important part of the local community. “We need to stay as close as we can to our beliefs and values – we are a charity that wants to support individuals and their families on the Autism pathway, or those that already have a diagnosis – that’s where our expertise is - but we do have staff that have the ability to adapt and deliver different programmes and because of the expertise we have supporting families in a vulnerable position and individuals that need a lot of help and support, that can be transferred into services that are not specifically for autistic people. We have to be very open – the most important thing for me is that the charity moves forward and continues to provide a fantastic service and to do that we have to adapt and change with the times. That will involve being flexible and offering services and activities for autistic people as well as services and activities for non-autistic people, given that we have staff with the skills necessary to deliver those services. This will allow us to run our autistic services, because that will always be our main aim.”
In the short term, Cheryl is keen to build on the relationships that have been developed recently and she is excited about the new projects that are about to start. “It is an exciting time at the trust, we are just commencing a project with NELFT to support adults who have just been diagnosed with autism, we are awaiting a decision on the new Havering All Age Service to deliver the service across Havering. Barking & Dagenham local authority are just starting their Autism Strategy and we are part of consultation team for this piece of work. We will be working with c2c Rail to develop a video to raise autism awareness on transport and look forward to this first corporate relationship allowing us to promote understanding and acceptance across a wider range of industries. We are continuously looking for new funding opportunities and partnerships to allow us to keep running our existing services and develop new services in line with our clients’ needs. I would like our client’s voice to be at the forefront of what we do and hope to get an adult with lived experience to join our management committee.
Finally, Cheryl was keen to praise the efforts of the committee, staff and volunteers. She said. “I would like to thank all of the staff, committee and Clients for all their support over the past 200 days. It has been challenging time, but we have come together has a team and I feel that the organisation is moving forward positively and that we all value each other’s skills and voices and that is how I want to go forward. We have to be open and honest and flexible and deliver an excellent service to our clients and funders. It’s been an interesting six months and long may it continue! I am extremely proud to be leading the Sycamore Trust.”