BRIGHT FUTURE AS ST. AIDAN’S SERVICES FINANCES ARE BACK ON TRACK [ PAGE 13 ]
THE St Aidan’s Services AGM was told that despite how challenges remain, the future for the organisation looks bright, with finances stable following a prolonged period of uncertainty last year.
The AGM also saw a changing of the guard on the board as the outgoing chairperson Pat McGrath stepped down and CEO Maura Kelly announced retirement from her role after 15 years.
Cllr Diarmuid Devereux will take over as chairperson, with a new CEO likely to be appointed within the next month.
About 30 people came together at the AGM at the canteen at St Aidan’s, Millands to lend their support for the service which provides day, residential, respite, pre-school, elderly and training services to over 250 people.
St Aidan’s is operating on location at Millands as well as in Gorey Business Park with the Saoirse Centre, and in private living quarters across nort h Wexford.
The busy, colourful and packed service also provides meals on wheels to the local community four days a week and the garden centre also runs on site, with 130 staff employed throughout the totality of the services.
Those in attendance at the AGM were mainly made up of parents, service users as well as the board of directors and Brendan Howlin TD.
Looking back to this time last year, attendees at an AGM heard that St Aidan’s could be on the brink of closure due to funding pressures and deficits, and this sparked a large reaction to the crisis.
Taking up a new role of Chairperson of the board for the next term, Cllr Diarmuid Devereux said that although some challenges remain, the crisis is behind them.
‘The demands of the service are growing but now there are no room for overruns or getting it wrong.
‘We are looking at a spend of over five million euro per annum and as Chairperson I will be running this like any business, not as a charity’.
During the AGM, the outgoing Chairperson Pat McGrath stepped down and CEO Maura Kelly announced retirement from her role after 15 years in the position.
Cllr Devereux said a new CEO would be appointed within the next month in time for the new year and he suspects they will make a good team.
‘During the auditors report we were shown the 2018 crisis period but thankfully we have moved on from that now and stabilised the finances.
‘We have settled the ship but it’s about keeping it steady on a week to week basis, which is a massive challenge for a voluntary board.
‘But it’s going to be 365 for us for the next couple of years, and we are also going to see huge changes in terms of how service users are integrated in the community in relation to HIQA instructions’.
Cllr Devereux explained that HIQA has been pushing to move away from congregation, in which each service user is allowed their own individual space to live in and at the moment in Millands, living quarters are shared.
‘It’s a wonderful idea and a great concept, but it’s going to cost a lot of money and it won’t be easy as it’s a big step forward.
‘HIQA for me are like a trade union for people with intellectual disabilities because they make sure that our service users get the best possible care and put pressure on us to provide that care.
‘So the challenge now is to provide a higher level of service and see how we are going to orchestrate the funding to make that happen’.
When asked about fundraising, Cllr Devereux said that it a huge part of how the service is run.
‘We need to raise as much as we can all the time and that insure that we show it is transparent, in terms of what we will spend the money on. Fundraising is going to become a standard activity for us.
‘But because of the Oscarz, in the next couple of weeks and months, the people of Gorey will see at least two new mini buses going around the town that have been paid for by the people.
Cllr Devereux said that although there are challenges, the future is bright.
‘The service we can provide is not matched by the volume of money that’s there in terms of what we can achieve with it, but we are working on it.
‘The relationship with the HSE is absolutely vital in that we have a solid working relationship because we provide the service and they pay for it, most of it. They cant be doing things that we don’t know about and vice versa,’ he said.