Nugent

Reflections on Leadership during a Pandemic

Last year I came across a true story of a submarine Captain, who had studied to command one type of submarine, but at the last minute, was assigned to a different boat. The crew of that boat knew their job, and their boat, extremely well. The Captain learned quickly to trust his crew by providing intent and clarity. It was his crew that moved the boat, not him. I recently wrote to the staff and volunteers in Nugent, reflecting on this leadership model (Intent Based Leadership).

To put the following blog into context, this was written during the pandemic when the peak of infection has passed (for the first wave at least) and lockdown was easing. Nugent has many care homes, for both older adults, adults with learning difficulties or brain injuries, those who have mental health challenges and for vulnerable children. Our special independent school continues to educate students.

At the time of writing this, despite operating in a ‘Covid hotspot’ we have not experienced Covid infections in our care homes which is in contrast to the devastation across care homes in the UK (and other countries) where so many have experienced infection and death of residents. This position could change at any time, and our thoughts and prayers go out to the families, staff, and organisations who are bravely continuing to provide care in homes that have had infections. Like many organisations, we have experienced staff shortages and

Normandie Wragg Chief Executive Nugent

re-deployed staff from across Nugent to reduce agency staff usage.

Our teams (including our volunteers) are tired and so very brave. At time when many companies, businesses and services are preparing to start back up again, we have not stopped, for over 10 weeks, 24 hours a day and we will continue until our services are no longer needed. I am so very proud of them all. It is in this context that the narrative below was written.

I am grateful that as a charity we have the intellectual resources to receive, understand disseminate and implement operational adjustments as new risks emerge or as government guidance changes. We have not only continued to help or educate those in our care - you have also helped each other and helped other charities who needed our help.

I am thankful that together, we were able to respond very quickly to the changing needs of this pandemic. We were quick to think about the people we serve, our

staff, supply chains, ICT and working remotely, communications, ensuring we had our finances in place, redeploying staff and recruiting new staff and generally keeping our services running and staff being paid.

At this point in time, I don’t think we will ever quite look the same way again and I believe that to be a positive. We are accelerating our offer, services and outlook, far more quickly than we ever have, and our beneficiaries will experience the positive benefit. I realise that across the organisation there is still much work to do, and wrinkles to iron out, but we will get there. We all share the same values and that is important. We all subscribe to the same mission and that is why we are here.

I am thankful for extremely competent people around me and across Nugent, including you, our courageous and optimistic Nugent heroes, who put their arms around the people we educate, care for, protect and inspire. As a leader, I have never been through a world pandemic before, none of us have. I sought counsel from those with the expertise in their areas, both internally and externally to our charity. Wherever I could glean information, I gathered it. I continue to do so with the intention of providing clarity as to what we may anticipate experiencing in 6 months, 12 months or 2 years from now.

Finally, I am thankful for your ongoing support. Leading through Covid has certainly been my greatest challenge. I was asked recently what was most on my mind during the pandemic, and I said ‘the wellbeing of our staff and the people we are entrusted with’. I couldn’t hold that responsibility if it was not for all our heroes.

I am not taking the submarine to where it needs to be. You are.

How you can be a hero too Nugent continues to welcome new heroes into our charity. We have both volunteer roles and paid roles, with flexible hours. Please see our website for our opportunities. https://www.wearenugent.org/careers/