Telling CCP’s Story Through the Eyes of One Individual.

In his own words…

 

As some of you may have seen, I recently passed a significant milestone of 20 years with CCP. I spent my work anniversary in Devon at Teignbridge District Council's Housing Stakeholder event, the drive down gave me time to reflect on my time with CCP. So much has changed, for me, CCP and social care over the past 2 decades, but many things are still the same...

 

I started my time with CCP as part of the Accommodation Based Services, working at Winchcombe House in Cheltenham. Some of my first duties were a sunflower growing competition and an inventory of the food that was in the freezers in the basement of the house. I moved to the then newly opened Bramah House before the end of 2004, with the challenge of working at a direct access assessment unit feeling like an exciting progression.

At the time CCP was Gloucestershire based, with around 30 staff. I think the first staff meeting I attended had everyone in one room at the head office and most people had just finished a cigarette in the CEO's office. CCP now operates in 7 counties across the south-west, with 280 staff, 89 volunteers and our staff meetings are done via Teams. The growth and development of CCP is a testament to the hard work and dedication of all of the staff (past and present) that have helped grow the services, many of which were started by volunteers and recognising an unmet need. That relentless commitment to helping people and making a difference has not changed, the work has always presented challenges and the reduction in funding in some areas, as well as the wider economic situation has added not only to our daily endeavour to improve lives but increased the number of people seeking support/interventions.

 

However, I feel that we're making more of a difference than ever before. You only need to speak to colleagues to hear inspirational stories on a daily basis, housing secured for those that had been deemed 'unhousable,'. There's also nothing more powerful than getting direct feedback from people that are accessing our services, I was able to attend the Walking Football group held at GL1 recently and a number of people shared the difference that the group has been making to them. Many talked about well-being, social aspects, and friendships that blossomed outside of the session, and one person succinctly stated impact by saying 'I'd be dead without this group...' going on to explain his reasons why afterward. A statement I've heard several times over the years, which always has the same raw impact on me, as well as conflicting emotions of pride in the work that we do and immense sadness of how bad things can get for some people before they find the help they need (it's often the simplest of things that can put people back on the path towards a better life). 

 

CCP has made massive steps forward in developing its offer and still staying true to its 'roots.' The diverse range of services complement and support each other, with staff calling on colleagues to add to the work that they are doing and many moving departments to continue their development. Our size means that we've been able to improve our offer to staff and strive to give them the same level of care and attention as those that we work with, including aligning CCP pay with the Real Living Wage Foundation, developing our Workplace Welfare offer and making wholesale investments in our learning and development strategy.

 

Like a lot of us, I have felt a duty to develop my knowledge and skills, partly due to always wanting to do better and also to keep current with the ever-changing demands of the role. CCP took on a number of services in 2020, just as the country was going into lockdown, we were preparing to nearly double in size. This was almost all-consuming, and most days were 12 hours (or more) in those first few months of lockdown, so no weekend Zoom parties were attended, or sourdoughs made! At the time, after several random conversations with Cordell about 'carrot munching,' 'whacks on the back of the head' and 'first followers,' I had signed up on Lead and started my Quolux journey (clearly inspired by the curious anecdotes that Cordell had shared).  CCP's partnership with Quolux continues to bloom, and now nearly 100 CCP staff have benefitted from taking part in one of their leadership programmes, but for me it was a personal opportunity to focus intensely on my own leadership over a period of ten months. I've since gone on to graduate from their GOLD course, working alongside other board members from different organisations in the pursuit of best practice.  

 

Cordell and I often share an antidote from my interview. I was somewhat nervous and had to give a presentation on the pros and cons of a rota system, something that still gets some debate, I thought I'd made it through the presentation and the subsequent grilling from 3 Senior CCP staff, with the conversation turning to any questions from me and next steps. Cordell, fresh out of interview training with Zurich, had other ideas and picked up on the fact that I had a number of short-term roles on my CV and an extended period of travelling. He asked me to convince him that I was going to stick around... 20 years is a significant investment to prove someone wrong, but I've finally convinced him!