Welcome to June’s Compass Points

Capturing the essence of Compass culture

Welcome to your latest edition of Compass Points. June is, of course, Pride month and it’s been a delight to see how so many staff got behind the Pride outfits competition. This follows the inspiring Pride pledges that services made at the beginning of the month.

Taken together, it really is a testament to our positive, inclusive Compass culture and the way we do things here.

We’re trying to capture the essence of the Compass culture and character right now in a paper discussed at our latest SLT meeting. Read all about it in the update below.

And the Compass culture was a topic of presentation and conversation at our recent, highly successful induction of nearly 60 new members of staff, held in Derbyshire.

As we continue to grow, really understanding and embedding a ONE Compass approach is going to be crucial in establishing ‘active’ behaviours that are aligned to our mission and values.

And finally, as we hurtle towards the end of the school year and the holiday season, I would like to wish everyone a very happy and healthy summer period. I hope you all get some well deserved time off with friends or family and down tools and recharge your batteries ready for the start of a new academic year!

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Central services staff at opening of our new head office

Central services staff enjoyed a summer and Pride themed opening event for Compass’ new head office in York.

Staff were welcomed by People Director Kim Jones and CEO Rachel Bundock.

Speaking to the staff, Rachel said of the new office: “We wanted sufficient space and the right type of environment where people felt they wanted to be. As we continue to grow, there is a lot of work for us to do in establishing an infrastructure that will set us up for long term success.

“This will require people to work collaboratively to achieve this, by using our collective skills, knowledge and experience to develop systems, processes and practices that are streamlined in a way that best supports teams to deliver local services.

“Having the right space to bring central services staff together to feel connected to the whole organisation is going to be a crucial factor in us achieving this.”

The office is in the same building as before. But is in a much bigger room with its own kitchen, informal seating area, conference room and about 12 desks. It’s accessible by stairs and lift on the second floor.

Kim said: “The head office launch event was great fun.

“It was really wonderful to see lots of our central services team together – there was a real buzz about the place as people connected and chatted in the new office space.”

Explaining the thoughts behind having a special event, Kim said: “We wanted to give some time for people to explore the new office space, to connect together as a broader team as well as have some fun together! “

She explained that the opportunity was used to update colleagues on some of the changes made in response to the local action planning session which followed the Your Voice staff survey last year. Colleagues were asked for feedback on how effective these actions had been and what else might be useful.

Kim said: “Really helpful feedback was gained from the breakout sessions which we are currently collating with a view to incorporating those ideas into the broader plan where we can.”

Rachel spoke about Central Services’ changing role in an evolving and expanding Compass.

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Grateful for the help and support you’ve received from a colleague? Tell us about it…

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Being aware of institutional abuse

Jan Smith, Compass Designated Safeguarding Officer

This month’s safeguarding feature is a focus on institutional abuse following the recent broadcast of the Panorama documentary Undercover School: Cruelty in the Classroom. In the documentary, a BBC reporter went undercover at an independent day school commissioned by the local authority to meet the needs of young people who were unable to remain in mainstream education The documentary recorded staff members making cruel jokes and offensive comments to the children and young people in their care alongside acts of aggression and physical abuse.

Watching the documentary reminded me of the numerous historical and widely publicised cases of institutional abuse; but also acted as a reminder that despite greater awareness and stronger controls these abhorrent acts continue.

Compass practitioners are in a unique position of working with children and young people in a range of settings and will need an understanding of institutional abuse, the factors which impact on risk and actions to be taken in the case of any concerns.

Institutional abuse is maltreatment of children (or vulnerable adults) within a system of power. Institutional abuse can take any form including neglect, physical or sexual abuse, emotional abuse, bullying and coercion or punitive and unfair treatment. There are many contributing factors including high-stress environments, poorly trained staff, poor working conditions or lack of governance, supervision and safeguards but the one common factor is the abuse of a power relationship over those who are vulnerable.

As in the Panorama documentary staff will be aware of the abuse but may seek to disguise, minimise or ignore the harm and visiting professionals can have a key role in identifying indicators and acting to protect. Some possible signs of institutional abuse may include:  

• Unsafe, unhygienic or overcrowded conditions.
• Strict or inflexible routines.
• Lack of privacy, dignity, and respect for people as individuals.
• No choice offered with food, drink, dress or activities.
• No respect or provisions for religion, belief, or cultural backgrounds.
• Unfair or arbitrary decision-making.

Also be on the lookout for more obvious signs of abuse, including cuts, bruises, and restraint. Another big warning sign is an organisation that discourages visits, or the involvement of friends and relatives

If you have concerns about a setting please discuss them with your local Designated Safeguarding Lead or contact Compass Designated Safeguarding Officer jan.smith@compass-uk.org.

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Compass calendar for core, mandatory and essential training is live; if you are new to Compass or it is time to book your refresher the upcoming and future training dates can be found by accessing the outlook diary.

Simply go into your outlook calendar and follow these few simple steps:

Click on File (top left) – click open and export – click other users folder – type in the word ‘Training’ and select ‘Training’.

This then opens the training diary. You can check availability and identify a date/subject. When you have identified a preferred session please e-mail your request to: training@compass-uk.org.

For more information on the Compass core, mandatory and essential training requirements the full list is available at U:/Training.

Upcoming training

• Safeguarding L3 – face to face at Changing Lives – Tues 9^th or Weds 10^th July
• Remote dates tbc once Christina returns from holiday
• Safeguarding L4 – for managers & team leaders (please note you do not need to complete L3 if you are attending L4) – Tues 23^rd July
• BLS – Weds 18^th Sept 1.30pm-3pm – spaces
• People Training – Sheffield is full but we are currently looking at firming up dates in late September in the Lancs area & Oct for the Sheffield area

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with Sue Cody, Compass Quality Assurance Lead

More staff trained in restorative supervision

Restorative Supervisor Training in Coney Green Chesterfield.

Restorative supervision (Wallbank 2007) is aimed at supporting front line staff who work with complex caseloads and aims to help them to maintain clear thinking and process information so they can make good, quick decisions.

Compass already have 12 staff members who are trained and facilitate existing restorative supervision sessions within teams. This session was aimed to train more staff across the organisation .

Staff who travelled from Derbyshire MHSTs – Julia Batchelor-Neeham, Jaydine Breadon, Ailis Carey and Tracey Carey-Meyrick. Also, Helen Butler from Warwickshire CYPDAS and Antony James from Tower Hamlets Safe East.

Shareen Akhtar, from Birmingham MHST attended with her colleague Marissa Byng.

Senior Leadership Team’s new Assistant Director of Operations Lauren Nixon and Compass Be’s Sarah Turner attended too.

Sue explained: “Restorative clinical supervision (Wallbank,2007) is a model of supervision designed to support professionals working within roles where they have a significant emotional demand.

“The aim of restorative supervision sessions within Compass is to strive to improve staff wellbeing by improving resilience in staff who are working within complex and challenging areas, providing space and time out for group discussions.

Session attendee Ailis Carey said: “I really enjoyed learning about Restorative Supervision. I felt confident and assured from the training about proceeding with delivering Restorative Supervision. It was lovely to meet other people within Compass also”

And Antony James on the course, said it was “engaging, thought-provoking training that requires you to think about how you deliver your practice and how open you are to challenging your own conflicts as well as others”.

Sue added: “ Restorative Supervision provided in the organisation supports and facilitates clinical staff to have the time and space to have group discussions about their work, I am really looking forward to continue to roll out the restorative supervision sessions further to teams where there are gaps in this provision and for our new teams in the next coming months.”

Please see a link to all named Compass Restorative Supervisors and allocated teams:

U:\Staff Directories\Staff Directory  – March 2024.docx

Task and Finish Group (Anxiety) update

Sue Cody writes

Staff from across Compass are continuing their work in the Resources Task & Finish Group (Anxiety) over the last few months.

The aim of the group is to create a repository of anxiety tools and resources that are common to all Compass services to improve consistency and maintain quality standards across services.

Staff who have been involved in the work are Sarah Wilmore, Lisa Bradley, Evalynne Charmer, Rachel Ramos, Maja Roe, Hayley Spies, Clare Daniell and Jake Patoney, Cliff Edwards, Sarah Walton, Danielle Grant and Sue Cody.

This piece of work has followed on from the roll out of the Self-Harm Resources completed earlier on in the year.

It was felt by the group and across services that there was a need to continue with this work in other areas including anxiety, which is the topic we are working on at the moment.

Traditionally Compass services have held their own local resources and interventions which they use when delivering sessions to children and young people on a variety of topics, as an organisation, we are developing a central repository of shared tools and worksheets.

We continue to have members of the group who were involved with the self-harm work, as well as additional members, who represent their service, collating and critiquing the most commonly used resources from across the organisation, aiming to have a set of evidence-based resources for services to provide good quality, appropriate, up to date, consistent interventions.

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Building the ultimate Compass

At our June meeting, SLT discussed a recently ratified Board document which centres on building the ‘Ultimate Compass’ – which includes key components that we believe are fundamental to our services becoming consistently high quality, high performing, safe and innovative. They are made up of: EDI; social value; volunteering, participation; and communications and promotion. Our discussion centred on the different ways we could share and communicate this ambition with all staff. We agreed it should be an important feature within our mission, vision and values communications so everyone understands what we are trying to create and why. Communications on building the ultimate Compass will kick off in September as part of the annual CEO presentation.

Compass culture

Another key item for discussion was a paper focused on the development of Compass’ culture by bringing to life specific behaviours aligned to our core values. Although Compass provides diverse services across a wide geography, we hold a common set of values and behaviours at the core of our work. The paper describes and demonstrates how these shared values and characteristics will allow us to foster a positive, inclusive, and purposeful culture; a culture which is visible in our everyday interactions and approaches. These characteristics are borne out of Compass’ journey and what we believe are integral to the culture that we want to embed at Compass.  SLT discussed how these behaviours and characteristics could be shared with leaders and staff teams across the organisation as part of further developing a ONE Compass approach, starting with individual and corporate induction.

Know our Senior Leadership

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Contacting your People department