COMMENDEE 2023-24: Nichola is Commended for the fundamental effect she has had on the culture of the establishment, for both residents and staff, as Manager of Southwood Approved Premises, including leading it to gain ‘Enabling Environment’ and ‘ADHD friendly’ status, the latter a first for any AP.

Nichola’s nomination

Nichola was nominated by: Kelly Roberts (Approved Premises Area Manager).

Nichola has worked for the Probation Service for almost 23 years. During those years she has worked in several different parts of the organisation including Offender Management, Programmes, Unpaid Work and the Court Team. Nichola is absolutely committed to making a difference wherever she goes, and she has a reputation with colleagues past and present of being somebody who always goes above and beyond.

I am nominating Nichola for this Butler Trust Award for the contribution she has made to Southwood Approved Premises and the wider Approved Premises division. In November 2020 Nichola was successful in gaining a promotion to Senior Probation Officer and was appointed as the manager at Southwood Approved Premises (AP). Southwood AP is one of the largest and most challenging APs in the North-West and historically was known for a somewhat chaotic resident group and an unsettled staff team. What Nichola has achieved there in two and a half years is incredible and cannot be overstated. Nichola is one of the hardest working, committed leaders I have ever worked with, and she gives 100% to everything she does, not just in her AP but her work has supported AP Managers in the North-West, and she has contributed to numerous national pieces of work.

THE FIRST ADHD FRIENDLY AP IN THE COUNTRY – Nichola has led her team to work with the ADHD foundation to increase their awareness and understanding of neuro-diversity issues. Nichola worked hard with her team over a period of six months accessing all available ADHD education and local events. There has been a notable impact upon bed withdrawals and in January 2023, Southwood became the first ADHD friendly AP in the country.

DEMENTIA CAFÉ – Nichola has also set up a dementia café that she operates in her local area on a Sunday. Nichola had her own experience of caring for her Mum with dementia and wanted to support others in this situation. The cafe is a safe and supportive space that people can discuss their own diagnosis or somebody else’s, and think about the future. People can also learn from others in similar situations. The cafe has been a real success so far with numbers of attendees increasing each time it is open. Although this is not specifically work related, it is further evidence of Nichola’s leadership skills and her passion to make a difference to other people.

Nichola is now going to support the other North-West AP managers to work towards achieving the ADHD friendly award. Nichola has increased personal accountability for work within her team and has devised and implemented several systems to track core tasks that has allowed her to trace responsibility for completion and allows constructive feedback and enables positive praise and supportive action where required. This has had a significant impact on the performance of the Southwood Team which in turn has created a much more safe, supportive, and enabling AP for our residents.

She has worked hard with her team to develop positive relationships amongst staff ensuring personal events and achievements are celebrated and the team is now far more cohesive, and they demonstrate a real sense of pride to be part of Southwood AP. In February 2023, Southwood received the Enabling Environment Award from the Royal College of Psychiatrists. The assessors said, ‘The environment is well maintained, and welcoming, excellent relationships are formed and maintained’.

During the pandemic, a new procedure was introduced to all staff in the AP division to manage suicide and self-harm for residents (SASP and CARE guidance). Staff raised concerns that the new guidance was rolled out via video instead of classroom-based training and did not ever feel sufficiently trained. Once Covid restrictions were lifted, Nichola utilised her previous programme experience and took the available guidance from the videos to develop a classroom-based programme for all staff.

This programme was initially piloted at Southwood AP but was then delivered to all North-West AP staff over three events at HMP Kirkham in the Summer of 2022. Using this programme, we have now trained over 130 staff to increase and support their knowledge of the processes. The feedback from the programme has been excellent from staff who now feel more competent and more confident to follow the SASP and CARE guidance

Nichola is an incredible leader and a wonderful human being! She really makes a difference to people in everything that she does. The Approved Premises Division and indeed the world are very lucky to have her!

Jan Marlow – Head of Sefton Probation Delivery Unit, Liverpool, said:
“Since Nichola has taken over as the Southwood Approved Premises Manager, I have seen a palpable difference across the physical environment, culture, and regime. Historically Southwood had a reputation of being ‘chaotic’, difficult, with a higher turnaround of residents. However, in my recent visits to Southwood, the changes have been nothing short of impressive; this is also supported by feedback from sentence management SPOs and PPs.

Nichola’s leadership style is grounded in her credibility as someone who clearly has a focus on the outcomes for People on Probation, whilst balancing the safety and H&WB of staff. I have never heard anything but positive feedback regarding the impact Nichola has across the management and staff. She has turned Southwood into one of the AP jewels in the crown and we know we are fortunate to have this resource.”

Catherine Entwistle – Head of Public Protection, said:
“I have been incredibly impressed by Nichola’s commitment to the work in Approved Premises, she is tenacious and passionate in her work and has made Southwood a great place to work and support people in their transition from custody into the community. Nichola is creative in her approach and seeks out opportunities to work with partners and develop the skill base for her team to better support the complex and challenging needs of the resident group. The work in relation to support the neuro diverse needs of people living in approved premises is highly commendable and offers a significant insight into how we better work with these challenges to support better outcomes for individuals.

Any lead role that Nichola undertakes is done to an exceptionally high standard and her work with our Facility Management colleagues has seen new systems being devised that support better management of the estates; improving the physical makeup of the buildings and supporting works to be progressed in a timely way and processes to be followed more effectively.”

Adam Colby –Deputy Head of the National Approved Premises Team, added:
“Nichola has been fabulous in supporting the national medication review and I’ve had many conversations with her outside of the Task and Finish groups. Her piloting of materials was beneficial too. She was very passionate about the subject and ensuring that what was developed was smart and fit for purpose. Her practice insight perspective and contributions to the review were significant. The review itself took over a year to complete due to the complexity of the subject so she demonstrated significant commitment to this work over the period.”

Jessica Keogh – PQIP Student (Trainee Probation Officer), said:
“Nichola was my manager whilst I worked at Southwood and is one of the reasons in myself being accepted onto PQIP. She has time for everyone regardless of who you are and she will do everything she can to help someone. A lot of people call her the dictionary for probation as she remembers everything so if your ever stuck, you know you can get an answer from her and even if she doesn’t know it at first, she will soon come back with the answer.”

In conclusion

There have been many times where she has come into work or rang up work on her days off to check in on staff or a resident as she does not want anyone to be struggling with their mental health alone. Overall, Nichola is a great manager and a very valued member of staff in probation. She has put all her energy into any role she does and will also lend a helping hand to anyone regardless of their situation.