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Changes To The Buckinghamshire Mind Management Structure.
Posted June '08.

Attached to this letter is a letter from Donna Hayward-Sussex, which announces her resignation and decision to take up an opportunity to develop her career with the NHS.

Donna’s resignation was received with sadness but she will leave with our grateful thanks for a job well done and our best wishes for the future. Donna has contributed significantly over the last 5 years, both in terms of Counselling and as a member of the senior management team. The last 5 years have posed many challenges, which she has risen to with characteristic energy and good humour – our loss is the NHS’s gain!

We are now left with the problem of how to replace Donna and I would like to bring you up to date with our thinking as to how this is to be done.

For some time now we have benefited from the close working relationship formed between Donna and Carolyn Smyth. A key outcome of this relationship has been a breaking down of barriers between services allowing us to see a greater potential for services working in conjunction with each other. Although this development is still in its infancy it is very much in line with the developing approach to mental health service provision.

This being the case, we have decided to not replace Donna on a like-for-like basis but instead to create a new role which will have responsibility for all service provision across the charity. The role will be called ‘Director of Services’ and will incorporate the services that are currently managed by Donna and Carolyn.

At the same time as making this change we have also decided to bring forward our thinking and make two other significant changes involving the role of Chief Executive. When I was appointed to my role it was my stated intention that I would step down as Chief Executive after 3/4 years and we are now approaching the end of that timescale. I had originally planned to step down at the end of this year but the need to restructure following Donna’s resignation has made me decide to bring this timescale forward to the end of July.

Leaving at this time will allow us to recruit the new Director of Services into their role knowing who their boss will be – the alternative would have been to recruit the new person and then to announce shortly afterwards that I would be leaving, which did not seem fair.

I am delighted to announce that the second change involving the role of Chief Executive is that the Board have offered the role of Chief Executive to Carolyn and she will take over from me at the end of July. Carolyn has been Assistant Chief Executive for the last 18 months and in this time has shown herself to be more than capable of taking on a broader role.

There will therefore be a period of major change ahead for the charity but, when the new roles are established, I am confident that we will have a structure that will allow us to look to the future with confidence.

It is not possible to answer in this letter all the questions that you will have about the changes that are about to take place and more details will be made available in the near future.

Finally, I would like to record my thanks for all the support that has been given to me in the time I have been Chief Executive. It has been a privilege to be Chief Executive of Bucks Mind and I am therefore delighted that the Board have offered me the opportunity to continue my relationship with the charity by asking me to return to my old role of Chair of Trustees. I shall be taking up this role later in the year after taking a short break.

I am sure you will join with me in wishing Carolyn and Donna all the best in their new roles.

Yours sincerely,

Richard Speight
Chief Executive

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