Dear Colleagues,

Firstly, I hope you had a good festive break and wish you a very Happy New Year.

It’s easy to feel gloomy in January now Christmas is over and it’s back to pre-sunrise alarm calls, but it’s also a great time to reflect on the past year and look ahead to the future.

2017 was a really great year for us; among the achievements included some new faces joining the team, our new website being launched, two successful evaluation papers, winning another national award and expansion into new areas.

In October, some of you may be aware that Social Sense became two companies, Social Sense Ltd and Social Sense Community. We took this decision following months of consideration, consultation and reflection – enabling Social Sense Ltd to focus on innovation, consultancy and training and Social Sense Community a greater opportunity to scale impacts through direct programme delivery within schools and communities. This decision is already having a considerable impact, with 4 new contract wins within the first 2 months enabling us to work with 10,000 more young people.

A highlight from 2017 was winning a competitive tender to deliver Mindfulness Training across 9 districts in Kent over 4 years. We are thrilled to be working in Kent and look forward to continuing our partnership with Breathworks CIC and Kent County Council in 2018.

Social Sense was also proud to announce a recommission of the Change Up (Healthy Relationships) programme in Salford for an extended larger study following a successful evaluation. Later in January we will be making a further announcement about our successful licensing of this programme in another part of the country which is very exciting for us!

We are also continuing our growth management consultation in Manchester commissioned by CMFT in partnership with the University of Salford back in March over a period of 12 months.

In November, we launched our Corporate Wellbeing programme in partnership with Spacious Place Health and Life Fit UK and – utilising France’s Masters highly acclaimed Fusion Therapeutic Life Coaching Model – we will be working with senior team leaders at Co-operative Insurance throughout 2018. The programme is developing well and we are hoping to commence work with at least 5 more companies before the Spring. Crucially, this allow us the opportunity to reinvest in new programmes that can benefit more schools and communities.

At the end of the year, Social Sense was also commissioned by Kent Police and Salford CCG to continue work through the Mindful Me Programme. In Kent, we will be starting with face to face delivery of Mindfulness awareness sessions in schools and youth settings. In Salford, we will be delivering a staff training programme for embedded support which will help achieve a ‘mental health cultural change’ within schools and other Voluntary and Community settings. Our soon-to-be launched Mindful Me App will then provide a safe online platform for young people to continue practicing their Mindfulness whilst offering local, enriching activities and support.

Early 2018 News

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Adam McCooey as our new full time Business Development Manager. His responsibility will be to forge new partnerships with likeminded Social Businesses and meet with CCGs throughout the UK to see how we can help deliver against their plans.

Social Sense Ltd has also started to use its experience in marketing, digital and social impact generation to offer marketing consultancy to charities and other social businesses, working in partnership with our talented friends at Bring Digital in Bolton. We can often help organisations to access funding for support to assist growth and/grant or investment readiness so please contact us if this is of interest.

We are also currently undertaking a full governance update across both companies in readiness for a new Board which will be in place by March. If you have skills that you think could help us within the Board or otherwise, please get in touch with Jayne Livesey – [email protected]

Finally, if you are commissioner looking for support in any of our following key core delivery areas please get in touch, we’d love to hear your plans.

Until next time, I hope you have a happy and prosperous 2018.

Sincerely,

Gary Lovatt, CEO Social Sense