Extract
from the Rowan Organisation’s 12th Annual Report October 2004
Chairman’s
Foreword
Not many of us can remember the wooden hut in
I can remember being a volunteer mini-bus driver collecting people from their homes and taking them back afterwards in the 1970’s.
Little did we know then what lay ahead.
Even when we moved to the refurbished school that is now the Rowan Centre and the Warwickshire County Council handed over the running of the service to a volunteer committee, there were only two staff and the first year’s budget was about £30,000.
The budget for the current year is over £2 million and we now have over 100 staff.
I doubt if many other local voluntary organisations can claim such success. From little acorns etc.
The number of contracts that we now have, all over the country, particularly in Direct Payments, has meant that we are already running out of office space at the Ratcliffe Culey headquarters and we are looking to expand on the same site.
We have also, this year, restructured the senior management of the organisation. Rob now has the exalted title of Chief Executive, Lindsey is Director of Human Resurces and Communications and Debbie is Director of Service Delivery. We have also created two new senior posts of Service Managers to which Emma and Lesley have been appointed and which, hopefully, will ease the pressure on top level management.
I would like to record my sincere thanks to all involved, the staff, the Board of Directors, and, particularly this year, to Ann Forwood and the members of the Personnel Committee for their excellent, if sometimes difficult, work.
There is still a lot to be done but there is no reason to believe that we cannot continue to mine that vein of success that we discovered so long ago.
Chairman
September 2004
Chief Executive’s Report
2004
Towards the end of the 2002-2003 year we had long discussions about taking on new office accommodation at Ratcliffe Culey. Much of the debate was about the size of office accommodation that was needed and whether we could afford the move. Our Administrator, as always, was erring on the side of caution whilst others, more rash and wasteful, wanted to commit to a long-term vision of what might be necessary in the future if the organisation continued to expand. On that occasion caution lost out and we took on the double office suite at Lime Tree Courtyard instead of limiting our options to half the building. Never being one to resort to “I told you so” I can only point out that the predicted growth has occurred and that we will shortly looking for further accommodation to meet our ever-increasing needs.
This is an indication of how rapidly the organisation has
continued to grow and much of the growth during this year has been an expansion
of our existing services. New services,
however, have come on line in the form of Day Services in
Throughout the year there has been an emphasis on developing the infrastructure within the organisation in order to ensure stability as it grows. In particular the post of Deputy Director was created and a new Assistant Director appointed. This both increased the management capacity of the organisation and gave the opportunity for a regional management structure to be introduced. However, by the end of the year this structure had already been reviewed and an additional layer of Service Managers introduced to operate on a regional basis with the Directorate being given new areas of responsibility. In the new financial year there will now be a Chief Executive post to oversee strategic planning and finance, a Director of Service Delivery (Debbie Bowen) with responsibility for overall delivery of services and a Director of Human Resources and Communications (Lindsey Fowler) to ensure that staff and resources are available where needed.
The IT resources of the organisation have similarly increased to the point where it was felt that it was essential to have our own in-house IT Support Worker. This post now supports over 60 PCs and Laptops together with the networks at Rowan House, Fordsfield and the Rowan Centre. It is difficult to imagine how we managed before Jonathon was appointed and his expertise has proved invaluable in keeping the systems operating. He has also had substantial input into meeting our strategic target of providing all outreach staff with remote access to our servers so that all their information can be backed up and protected.
Quality IT provision is also part of our strategy of delivery of information and the Information Service remains at the centre of delivery of information to all parts of the organisation and in particular to service users. It is central to our belief that the provision of high quality accurate information is essential to ensuring that disabled people can make properly informed choices. Thanks to a substantial grant from the Department of Health we have been able to expand the information service so that it is able to meet the ever-increasing demands on its services and to present information in a range of languages and formats.
The organisation has introduced an annual planning day into its planning cycle involving all its managers and the members of the Board. This is a major contribution to our strategic planning and it enables us to set priorities for the both the staff group and the Board to which everyone is then committed. Holding this event well before the start of the new financial year has enabled us to consider the budgetary implications and to make proper resource commitments to the priorities that have been set. Given that the majority of our Board are service users, this also contributes to ensuring that the organisation sets priorities that are meaningful to the people that we support.
The Rowan Organisation now works with fourteen Local Authorities and directly provides services to over two thousand people at any one time. This does not include people who access the information service for one-off support and advice. We now employ over one hundred staff and with the introduction of Direct Payments for all potential service users of the Local Authorities, we have expanded the diversity of our services to include people with a physical or sensory impairment, people with a learning difficulty, people with mental ill-health, older people, disabled children and young people and carers. The services we provide now include:
Outreach Services
Supporting individuals to set and achieve personal objectives and to live independently.
Direct Payments Support Schemes
Providing information, advice and support to people using Direct Payments to manage their own support packages.
Information Service
Providing information and advice so that disabled people can make properly informed choices about their future. This includes researching information not already available and providing newsletters and factsheets to keep people informed.
Salary Service
Dealing with all aspects of payroll and salaries for people using Direct Payments including pay, tax national insurance and the annual returns.
Recruitment Line
Supporting people using Direct Payments in recruiting staff. This includes processing job descriptions, person specifications and applications in addition to placing advertisements and acting as a contact point.
Day Services
Providing support so that disabled people can access a range of opportunities and activities that would not otherwise be available to them. All activities are developed in response to what service users ask for.
Accessible Transport
Mainly provided to the Day Services so that the full range of community resources are accessible.
Training Programmes
This includes not only training for our own staff but also for disabled people using our services particularly in relation to their use of Directions and their responsibilities to the staff they employ. In addition training is provided to staff of the Local Authorities with which we work particularly in relation to Direct Payments.
Conclusion
The Rowan Organisation has continued to move forward in a professional and meaningful manner in partnership with the Local Authorities with which we work but more importantly in response to the expectations of our service users. The annual quality reviews continue to show a very high level of user satisfaction and our reputation is enhanced by the quality of the services that we provide. That reputation will enable us to carry on developing new services in the future and to consolidate the work that we are already involved in. Whilst it is nice to be able to highlight new developments it is also important to recognise that the foundations of the organisation have been built up over a very long period by the sustained efforts of the services that we have provided for over twenty six years.
Financially, the organisation remains stable and we are able to plan for the future and make proper provision for all our commitments. Local Authorities are increasingly concerned to ensure that organisations with which they contract will remain financially viable throughout the contract period. Our strong financial situation and ability to make prudent financial decisions has put us in a strong position within this ever-increasingly competitive environment.
Our greatest resource, however, remains the people involved with the organisation. As always I am grateful to our staff and volunteers for their dedication and commitment, often above and beyond the call of duty. It is their hard work that creates and enhances our reputation and enables the organisation to continue to provide high quality services. In addition I would also thank our Board of Management who act in a voluntary capacity with little recognition for their contribution besides the occasional cup of tea and a biscuit. My thanks to you all and I look forward to your continued support in the future.
Rob Wilson
Chief Executive