Hearing what isn't said

We are all different (I told you that would be a recurring theme this year!) and the last week has only served to reinforce this message to me as I've once again juggled the many different elements that make up my job as CEO of a national charity.

In almost every meeting, interview, telephone call or email I've been a part of recently it has occurred to me that the information I'm sharing will be received and processed differently by everyone.

For some, that processing time and the way in which they respond maybe completely different to me and, ultimately, different to what society expects.

As I've said before, in many ways I feel extremely fortunate to have been made aware of these differences through my upbringing and more acutely by my work over the past 23 years here at Caudwell Children .

I believe I've always seen beyond first impressions and whatever subconscious prejudices come with how people look or sound, but that has been magnified as I've constantly seen beyond the disabilities that children live with to learn more about their personalities, strengths and achievements.

I unashamedly take this approach to recruitment, which recently has been taking a significant part of my time as we continue to strengthen the leadership team here at the charity. At the point of an interview with me, I know my HR team and Directors will have done the due diligence on qualifications and experience, so I use this time to understand who people are and help them to understand how their unique personality will fit in and complement our diverse team.

Last week we also had our first 'Circle Meeting' of the year, this is a morning when the whole charity team come together for a couple of hours of information sharing, updates and internal networking.

In the first one of 2023 we shared the exciting plans for the Butterfly Ball, London (tickets on sale now) and our 'We Are All Different, Be You' theme for the event. Members of the team from right across the charity volunteer to help at our flagship event and support the fundraising and events team in delivering a very special experience for our guests.

There was also a powerful presentation from our Training & Development Co-ordinator about the Oliver McGowan Training, which has been implemented to ensure staff in the health and care sector understand how autistic people and people with learning disabilities experience the world to ensure they get the same level of care and support as everyone else.

And on the same theme of ensuring people get the appropriate levels of care we had two groups of visitors to the CICC this week, all of whom joined us to discuss the practical ways we can change society and take learnings from Caudwell Children's work and other examples of good practice.

The first was the inaugural meeting of the Design in Mental Health Network Stakeholder Engagement Committee, for which we were joined by 27 industry stakeholders from the UK and USA including architects, facility managers, clinicians, professional services.

We were also, importantly, joined by three experts by experience in our wonderful volunteers Alice Broad & Lachlan Matthews, and the fabulous artist, David Parkin.

The systematic use of meaningful stakeholder engagement as part of the effective co-production in the design of mental health facilities, and the collaborative approach of the DiMHN in addressing the most topical issues facing the industry are the ambitions driving the new DiMHN Stakeholder Engagement Committee.

Committee members from a range of professions and backgrounds offered expert insight into some of the challenges facing the industry and the potential barriers to the successful implementation of best practice in design. 

These insights will then form the basis for a 12month programme of workshops, where a wider group of stakeholders can come together and discuss the most important topics to them, the industry and the people who use the facilities they design.

Finally, on the topic of consultation and allowing everyone's voices to be heard, I was delighted to watch the BBC 2 documentary by Chris Packham. Entitled 'Inside Our Autistic Minds', this fascinating project allows four different autistic people the opportunity to express themselves through short films that they co-create with a creative team.

I was particularly pleased to see how they featured a young man called Murray, who is non-speaking. By allowing Murray to write emails to answer some questions about what it was like being autistic, and letting him choose what voice he would like to represent him in the film, Murray was given the opportunity to share his thoughts with the world.

By providing Murray with this platform it highlighted just what a relevant, insightful and important contribution he could make, despite not communicating through speech.

The inclusion of non-speaking people in our stakeholder engagement has always been a priority and I hope that Murray's film inspires other people to look beyond what people say.

The 2nd episode of this documentary is aired this week and I'm delighted to say that one of the young people featured, Ethan, was one of a group of autistic children we consulted with when designing the Caudwell International Children's Centre back in 2016.

Ethan told us that he thought we should have a music room, and using this and other feedback we created The Utley Foundation Music & Media Suite which is now used as part of our autism assessment service and for short break activities for hundreds of children every year.

I hope you will join me in watching Ethan and others tell their stories and allow it to challenge your perceptions of autism, disability and communication.

Because remember...We Are All Different, Be You

#JoinTheChange