There is no doubt that these are difficult and potentially bleak economic times but we should be cautious that the ‘ credit crunch’, now a somewhat overused phrase, is not used as a reason for sloppy management or poorly thought through decision making. It would be very easy to hide behind the ‘credit crunch’ as a reason for not doing something when in essence it may not have been fully thought through in the first place. Or people may short cut the decision making process and instead of putting effort in to thinking rigorously about a particular situation and come to a rational and well considered view with well articulated reasons for a particular decision, the glib response, it’s the ‘credit crunch’.
Nor is everything all doom laden. In fact at Parkhaven we have taken two very positive steps this month. Firstly all staff were awarded a bonus to be paid in their Christmas wages to thank them for what they have done and to try and offset some of the financial pressure and constraint that some staff may be feeling at this time. This is a small recognition for all that staff have done over the first 6 months of the year, which for the Trust showed some excellent indicators. Our services continue to be in considerable demand, we are seeing more people than we have done in decades and our services are increasingly flexible and innovative. Our staff relish their training and sickness is down. It is difficult to measure the success of services such as ours but underpinning all of what we are doing should be the importance of treating all the people who use our services with the utmost dignity and respect. This does mean having a real attention to detail about what matters to a particular individual. It can often be the small things that can make a real difference.
This month we have also embarked on planting a new wood for our local community. 1600 trees (native species) are being planted over two weekends with the help of the British Trust for conservation volunteers and a grant from the English Woodland Trust. Another reason to be optimistic.
So we should not let our heads drop at this time but instead we should celebrate what is good and value what we have rather than what we have not.
Hilary Rowland
26.11.08
