Haven House Children’s Hospice supports children and young people in the west Essex, north and east London areas, who have life-limiting conditions, providing a range of services including day-, short-break and end-of-life care.
A few years ago, the charity ran into financial problems. The chief executive left and the chair took over the role in an unpaid capacity. By the time a new CEO, Mike Palfreman, was appointed, the Pilotlight process was in full swing. ‘They had looked at fact-finding, risk analysis and exploring Haven House’s vision and mission,’ says Mike. ‘But it became evident there were a number of obstacles that needed to be resolved before we could talk about a longer-term strategy. So the meetings became more about how to address fundamental internal problems.’
Haven House has always maintained strong relationships with statutory funders but Mike felt voluntary income – fundraising – was not meeting its full potential and this issue should be key in helping the hospice get back on its feet.
‘With imminent pressures on public expenditure, it was crucial we got fundraising delivering, to be able to move forward with confidence,’ says Mike. ‘Without that in place, there was no point trying to devise a long-term growth strategy..
‘I used my time with the Pilotlighters to talk about this and bounce options off them. This reinforced what I probably already knew and gave me a clear focus for taking decisions on the way forward.’
As a result, fundraising is now heading firmly in the right direction with a strong team and real optimism for the future. ‘We will have a small financial deficit this year and be much closer to breaking even next year,’ says Mike.
The Pilotlighters also helped push a governance review, carried out by Bayes Business School, to the top of the agenda. ‘The review was very helpful, setting out the issues and how we might tackle them. We are now in the process of changing the way we do things to ensure we are much more efficient.’
For Mike, the Pilotlighters challenged and held him to account: ‘They put me on the spot and said, “What are you going to do about this or that issue?”. It helped clarify the key issues and work out the options.’
With newly-reinforced financial foundations, Mike feels the charity can now develop a longer-term strategy. ‘Pilotlight has helped us get to this point, and quicker, than we would have done otherwise. The outlook is now hugely positive and we are looking forward to our 10th birthday year in 2013 with renewed optimism.’
