Hello everyone,
My name is Emma Pearson, and I am the new CEO of Achieve together. It’s a great privilege to work with an organisation doing such amazing work day in, day out and with people who are committed, caring and values led.
I am going to be writing a monthly blog, updating you on what I have been doing in the past month. This first blog is going to be about my first couple of weeks at Achieve together. It has been jam-packed full of travelling up and down the country, visiting the people we support and our Achieve together services.
Firstly, a little bit about me…
I have worked in healthcare and education services for most of my career, often in much larger organisations with many staff from diverse backgrounds – from nurses and support workers to engineers and teachers. I am committed to service quality and to supporting people on their journey, whether this is our many talented employees or the people we support. I’ve already seen that at Achieve together. Whilst there is always more to do, we should be really proud of our quality and outcomes focus and at the quality of care I have seen demonstrated throughout the company. Everyone is so dedicated to helping the people we support, and each other.
Values
At Achieve together, I really want to focus on making sure everyone in the company upholds our values. As a reminder, these are:
Making things happen: We have the passion, energy and resilience to overcome challenges and achieve together.
Having fun: we get the most out of every day and celebrate our achievements and successes.
Being Brave: We are creative and confident, empowering the people we support and our teams to achieve amazing things.
Valuing everyone: We value the unique talents of every individual and work together to help everyone achieve their potential.
I would like everyone to think about how you can incorporate these into your day and ways of working, maybe picking one to discuss at the start of each team meeting.
Wales
Last week, I went on a Welsh road trip with Peter to visit our Welsh services. Everyone in our Welsh services was very welcoming and I was especially pleased to see how well-integrated our values are in many of the services. I especially enjoyed seeing Cerrig Cornel’s values coasters and ‘Helping us achieve together’ scrapbook, full of so many examples of making things happen, having fun, being brave, and valuing everyone. There were great values examples across Wales so well done to the team.
Later this month, there will be a Welsh Celebration Day, celebrating Welsh culture with activities and much more.
Regional Managers Conference.
Two weeks ago, I went to the Regional Managers Conference in Newbury
It was a lot of fun to meet all our regional managers and hear about your time at Achieve together. The room was really engaged and it was a great opportunity for networking and sharing lessons. I particularly enjoyed the session on safeguarding that Zoe Armstrong, our new Quality Director ran, in which the teams worked together to get a common understanding on when to escalate issues and to highlight opportunities for bringing consistency across our business .
Well done and thank you for all the work you do and the care you give – I look forward to more service visits in the weeks to come. In fact I must sign off here as I’m off to Dorset and Hampshire today. Have a great February!
