Published on: September 1, 2021
Publishing our audited accounts
CEO message for year ending 31st March 2021
Any review of the year must start with Covid and the wonderful response of our staff, who throughout the pandemic have worked tirelessly to find innovative ways to respond to the needs of children, young people, their families and communities who are at the centre of everything we do at Compass. Staff have produced videos, run seminars, done outdoor walk and talks, drafted newsletters, become experts on MS Teams, Zoom and WhatsApp, delivered online training webinars and workshops, as well as seeing individuals face to face to face when they could. As we look forward to a better year, we must remember those that tragically have died and their families and friends who are having to live with the devastating effects of this virus. We sadly lost a hugely admired and respected colleague and member of the Compass family. They will be very much missed but will always be in the forefront of our minds as we endeavour to carry on their important and inspirational work with young people.
Away from Covid, we have seen our continued development of prevention and early intervention services to improve the mental health and emotional wellbeing of children and young people, with the expansion of the North East Lincolnshire MHST service to include a third mental health support team and the winning of the Barnsley MHST service. Both provide locality based mental health support teams, with skill mix staff working collaboratively with education and other key health and social care professionals to deliver comprehensive provision of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy informed interventions and tailored training and coaching to schools and colleges to deliver a whole school approach to mental health and wellbeing.
As pleasing as big contract gains are, it is also important to celebrate those smaller projects that have made a significant impact to the lives of children and young people in our services including:
- Equine therapy in Warwickshire where young people’s lives have been transformed by being given the opportunity to take responsibility for the care and welfare of a horse.
- Extra support in Enfield for those young people who were more adversely affected by lockdown as a result of parental substance misuse.
- A service in Harrow aimed at children, young people and their families in the Eastern European community at risk from substance misuse.
- Therapeutic baking in Warwickshire that combines bread making and talking therapy for young carers.
- A bereavement counsellor in Barnsley who works as part of our MHST service, upskilling colleagues and professionals to provide support to bereaved children and parents/carers.
- A young champions programme in Warwickshire that trains pupils to have the knowledge, understanding and skills to actively support peer mental wellbeing in their school communities.
- A peer healthy relationship service in Barnsley to tackle the adverse effects of bullying, build resilience and help young people develop positive relationships.
Next year we have new challenges and opportunities we want to explore:
- Improving the diversity and inclusion cultures within our services and central head office functions.
- Developing our models to respond to the complex challenges resulting from negative body image and the adverse impact of social media.
- Further develop our digital offer to meet the ever increasing desire of young people to receive instantly accessible services.
None of our past achievements and future goals have been or will be possible without our dedicated workforce and the incredible support of our young people, volunteers and Non-Executive Directors. Their continuing support, challenge, lived experience and ideas are what drives us to be better and do better.
Rachel Bundock
Chief Executive Officer