Founded in 2011, Just Psychology is a community interest company providing direct therapeutic interventions to improve emotional health and wellbeing of children & families. The organisation addresses the psychological and mental health needs of children, families and communities with a specific emphasis on cultural diversity, cultural competence and social justice.
Why Inclusive Leadership?
Demand for Just Psychology’s work has increased significantly, partly due to the impact of the pandemic on children and families, and partly due to the Black Lives Matter movement. Company Director Dr Iyabo Fatimilehin came to Inclusive Leadership, a programme we run in partnership with Barclays, for support on how to create a sustainable business plan for growth.
Results
The Pilotlighter team helped Iyabo take a bird’s eye view of the organisation to ensure their recommendations would be right. The team then focused their work on creating recommendations around service delivery, income diversity, staffing and the board. By the end of the programme the team provided detailed recommendations for Iyabo to take forward.
The recommendation deck is a resource I can keep going back to.
Dr Iyabo Fatimilehin, Company Director, Just Psychology
Six months on and a lot has changed
Iyabo has taken a wider view on the diversity of the organisation’s income and alongside tendering for public sector contracts, is now looking at grant funding, as well as well as social investment as a source of long-term income. Just Psychology is continuing to deliver it’s essential training to health and social care sector as a trading activity.
The organisation has also recruited for a new Operations Manager to better support Iyabo’s work, enabling her to delegate and have more time to lead. Freeing up Iyabo’s time has enabled her to do more networking, which has led to a collaboration with a larger social enterprise Six Degrees Social Enterprise, to deliver work with culturally diverse communities, and a potential a collaboration with a larger charity in Greater Manchester, Talk, Listen, Change.
She also followed the recommendation to run a staff survey to increase employee engagement, and is looking at how the organisation recruits and onboards new hires. She is also looking into upskilling staff to ensure they are as resilient as possible for their roles.
The programme also gave Iyabo the confidence to make changes to the trustee board, and after some changes to the trustee mix, has a far more supportive board, all pulling together for the future.
We’re clearer about the direction we want to go in. I’m taking control and it feels good. I enjoyed the programme immensely, and I’m on firmer ground now. I have a better understanding of where to place our resources, both staff time and what contracts to go for. I learnt a lot and would like to thank the Pilotlighters for their time and expertise.
Dr Iyabo Fatimilehin, Company Director, Just Psychology