I am the one who takes overall responsibility for our team and our work, making sure everyone stays safe and that we work in line with our mission and our values. My main job is to help the team do great work – keeping all the back-office things running, making sure we are financially sound and well governed, removing obstacles, and cheering loudly when we succeed!

On a daily basis, I stay close to our team and our work – checking in with the Heads of Service, joining in with problem solving, sharing news and information and enjoying the camaraderie of being part of a small, enthusiastic and talented group of people. I manage our HR and IT functions – so I am often sorting out little niggles for people – as well as doing my main job of planning ahead, making sure we stay compliant with the law and regulatory requirements, making connections with our local community and organisations who share our mission and keeping in touch with our Chair and the Board.

I absolutely love my job at PHA! We are genuinely part of the community that we serve – most of us live nearby, use the shops and schools and services that our residents use – and we care about what happens here. Our residents enjoy their homes and like our local service – and we get to work in a great part of the world. Our mission is to make this a great place for everyone to live, learn, work and grow – and that means we want to get the basics done brilliantly, make sure they work for all of our residents and then use our assets and talents to help other, like minded community organisations – who also serve our customers – wherever we can.

There are so many great stories – but one of my favourite ones was the morning when an older lady arrived in our reception area, clearly upset. One of our team recognised her as a former tenant of PHA and welcomed her and asked what was wrong.   The lady told a story about how she was having a bad time in her new sheltered housing scheme – with unkind behaviour from another resident making her life unhappy. Our colleague spent some time talking through things she could do – involving her landlord, involving her family – and how to do this in a way that wouldn’t make the conflict worse. After a cup of tea and a chat, the lady left looking much happier and with things that she felt she could do. The fact that she turned to us – her ex-landlord – for help, that she trusted us to help even though we were not responsible for her any longer – that made me super happy! These moments – when we can genuinely make even a small difference – these are what we get up in the morning for!