We have recruited four excellent new trustees at Headway Cambridgeshire and I look forward to working with them to strengthen the board and take forward our exciting new plans  in the pipeline, including opening centres in Peterborough and Fenland.

I am strongly urging them to attend an excellent training course for new trustees to fully understand their roles and responsibilities, and four of them yesterday – two new ones and two more long standing trustees – went to London to do so, and have all said it was excellent.

The course I strongly recommend is run by Dorothy Dalton, editor of Governance magazine, and I closely follow her model the best I can. It cannot be praised highly enough in helping boards to work more effectively.

We are now in need of a facilitator to lead an Away Day which I would like to arrange, and if anyone could help us on a pro bono basis, please let me know as we would be most grateful.

Today I am spending time at Headway Cambridgeshire, sitting in on one of the sessions with service users and having lunch there as I am encouraging trustees to spend time within the premises and talk to staff and those who use our services to get a good understanding of how it really works. I have to lead by example, of course, but it is also hugely rewarding for me. I have introduced a regular item on our agenda called Your Headway Experience so trustees can report back on their visit and share their experiences.

I also have a meeting with our Chief Executive and a solicitor to review our governance documents, including our Memorandum of Articles, which is something I  have never done before. I’m learning all the time in my role as chair of trustees, and I’m really enjoying it.

We are all looking forward to our gala ball on 27th February, and tickets are still available. Full details can be found at this link, and with an Abba tribute band topping the bill (my idea), I am sure it will be a fun evening.

*I took this photo of our excellent CEO Andrew Gardener with one of the many items which will be auctioned at the ball. It is a stunning acrylic painting of Madonna and similar works of pop art have sold for £700. I am hoping some of our guests will have deep pockets on the night 😉

What is particularly amazing about this is that it was painted by one of our service users who has an acquired brain injury. His name is Barry-John Nevill and he has kindly donated this fabulous painting to boost funds for Headway Cambridgeshire. You can see more of his pop art on his website. Thank you Barry!!