It feels like so much has changed even over the last five months since I last posted.

We moved into the new offices, furnished them and got fibre-optic broadband and unlimited phone calls. We’ve got a lovely therapy room, a reception, a kitchenette, a loo, an office where most of the team sit, and my office which can be used for consultations and appointments when the other room is busy. This suits us so much better than being in a giant serviced office building as the space is ours alone. There is something quite remarkable about being able to do things immediately and autonomously when compared to how long each process would take in the NHS.

The team now consists of me, a part-time operational manager, a full time nearly-CP (just needs to get thesis corrections signed off and HCPC registration), an AP, an AP(R), a general assistant (psychology graduate), a part-time admin (the full-time one didn’t work out), and a part-time CBT therapist who contributes to one project. We are recruiting again, as demand still exceeds supply, and hope to get someone (or two) to join us from a clinical course as they qualify in September. It feels like we are on a path of steady growth, but it is actually quite tricky to ensure that we balance workforce and work. I’m learning a lot more about running a business, and also learning to delegate to my team. We have set up a social enterprise company* to split off the provision of therapy and certain other projects from the court-work focused limited company. We have a new local accountant helping us get our more complex books in order.

The research aspect has also really taken off. We have won a Health Foundation Shine award, which gives us £75k to offer and evaluate a psychological therapy service to aid treatment adherence for diabetes patients at the local hospital and a small parish council grant to run and evaluate a group for expectant mothers and a perinatal group. There is potential to expand the hospital pilot to other areas over the next year. We are also going to apply for an ESRC grant in collaboration with a local university. We’ve formed connections with lots of the voluntary and community organisations in our local area, and have put in some small grant applications for various projects. We’ve also got talks going on with various social care and health organisations about delivering consultancy, assessment and therapy services, and enquiries about many other things we have mentioned. We’ve had a few therapy referrals from various different sources, including some self-funded private clients, and are (frustratingly slowly) becoming registered as a provider for one of the major health insurers. The court work continues to flow in as our main income too, with ever more complex and interesting cases, so it feels like I need to be careful we don’t grow in too many directions at once, and focus on the interface between our passion, our expertise and what is marketable.

Meanwhile I’ve got my book coming out next month which hardly feels real! We are planning to have a launch event of the new social enterprise coupled with a book launch on 1st March and do some free talks for various groups of professionals at a local venue, which should be fun. The publishers are keen for this to be the first of a series, but I need to carefully consider what (if anything) to write next. I’m toying with the idea of writing up some papers and a book (and perhaps even a phd) on an area of research that’s been particularly interesting to me, but it rests on getting another grant and/or some paid academic sessions and deciding this is worth the time commitment compared to other projects. I’ve also joined the committee of the BPS faculty for children, young people and their families, and the FJC/BPS reference group for psychologists as expert witnesses as well as my on-going role with CPLAAC. Its probably a bit much all at once whilst running two companies, but I value each role for different reasons. It has also brought me into contact with a new peer supervisor, which is great.

Most important of all, I’m still enjoying it! I’ve built a fantastic team of people who I enjoy working with each day, and I’m working with the issues that are of most interest to me, and I’m keeping a balance of activities but all with a focus on quality. It turns out that CP skills are quite marketable, if you are creative about it and have a good reputation and network. Although I’m still weak at the financial side (invoicing, chasing late payments, keeping good records of expenses to put on tax returns, etc) I hope this will be a mountain I conquer this month, with a one-off blitz and then keep under control by devising ways to delegate aspects of this to others in the team. We still seem to be ticking over though.

My other aim for this year is to get a clearer vision of our destination, or at least our direction of travel, and then think about the company structure that will be necessary to achieve that vision. I’m quite obsessional about the business to the point of being a bit of a control freak, and so I find it hard to delegate and not to be involved with everything, but this will be necessary as we grow. I think this will get easier as the experience of the team grows and I test out what other people can do well without me. Hopefully this will allow me to have a better work life balance, where I can fit in more time for leisure, exercise, relaxation and sleep – not just work and the kids!


*A social enterprise is a company that is run for the purposes of doing good. So either it can be a normal business that donates the majority of its profits to a good cause, or it can be a business that does something worthwhile where the majority of the profit is reinvested in delivering that work.