CEO News

The last month has seen us heading into 2023 with some new people: I’d like to warmly welcome Kirsty, Sara, Richard, Lisa and Heidi to their roles!

As you read on, you’ll get to meet them. I’m very excited to see our team grow as we’ve been operating at reduced capacity for some time.

With some new faces, we’ve been helping people settle in, making plans so that our current work continues.

This is particularly relevant for our team of Co-ordinators – they’re the team who make the Locality Meetings happen, supporting local members, reach out to community groups, developing connections, and supporting our hospital based CAPITAL Peer teams.

I’d also like to thank our team of Peers who have helped and continue to help us out covering some of the work.

We’re still recruiting! We’ve a vacancy for a new Business Development Manager. This role will focus on expanding our work and bringing in funding. More details about this are on our website: https://www.capitalproject.org/business-development-manager

While talking about everything recruitment, I am really pleased to say that this month we restored our Mindful Employer status. This is a public statement and commitment to supporting and valuing mental health in the workplace. As part of this we are also introducing new policies to support staff wellbeing. If you want to find out more about what the Mindful Employer pledge means, visit: https://www.mindfulemployer.dpt.nhs.uk/

My work this month has concentrated on working on plans, inducting new staff, working with, and attending different Pathfinder meetings, attended one of our trustee meetings, and attended meetings with the Participation Team at SPFT. I’ve also been working with others to continue our coproduction work - there’s more about coproduction below

Co-production Lead

We’re still operating at reduced capacity with our Co-production work and the SCALE (Sussex Coproduction and Lived Experience) network.

The network is continuing to meet but with Catherine McGill, our Coproduction Lead away for a while, we are in the process of making temporary arrangements to continue the work – thanks to Possability People and Changing Futures for this.

The SCALE meetings are monthly. Please visit our website if you would like to join the SCALE network. As CAPITAL Project Trust hosts the work, you will need to join the network – it is separate from CAPITAL membership.

If you need any immediate support with accessing the coproduction team please get in touch via a new dedicated email: coproduction@capitalproject.org.

For more information about coproduction and to become a SCALE member, see: https://www.capitalproject.org/scale-network

Membership News

University Work

We will again this year support assessment and reviews for student social workers, working with Brighton University.

If you want to be involved in this or want to find out more, please email: Duncan.marshall@capitalproject.org

Recruitment panels @ CAPITAL

Each time we recruit to the team we strive to always include a CAPITAL member as part of the interview and selection process.

We hope to build a bank of Members who would like to be part of this. If you’re interested, please get in touch with duncan.marshall@capitalproject.org We’ll support and offer training.

Peer Support in Mental Health Course

We are just starting early planning discussions to bring back our Level 4 course, accredited by Middlesex University.

Much more to follow soon! If you want to put your name down for early information when its ready, please email: Kirsty.potter@capitalproject.org