Skills for Growth – SME Support helps Anthony Seddon Fund navigate pandemic and prepare for emotional handover

Mental health charity The Anthony Seddon Fund faced several major challenges during the pandemic, but with the support of the Skills for Growth – SME Support, it has been able to emerge in a better position with a plan for an emotional transition at the top.

Founded in 2014 by Donna Thomas and her husband Brian after the death of their son Anthony, the Fund supports those with mental health issues in Tameside. During the pandemic, the demand for its services increased while the charity was facing issues of its own staying afloat. Last year it received The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a group can receive in the UK.

It became one of the first organisations to sign up for Skills for Growth – SME Support, a fully funded business support programme designed to help Greater Manchester SMEs achieve their growth ambitions through workforce development, commissioned by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority with funding from the European Social Fund and delivered by GC Business Growth Hub in partnership with the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

CEO Donna admitted that they were struggling to cope with the increased demands for their services due to the pandemic while she was also looking to hand over the reins to her son Harry. The charity was also struggling to identify its strengths when it came to promotion for funding and claims.

“We’d never planned to start our charity,” said Donna. “We’d started to raise funds for another local charity but quickly that turned into setting up our first shop with a little corner for people to have a brew and talk to us. At that stage we didn’t even know we needed to register as a charity.

“We didn’t know what we were doing but kept growing, so eventually we reached the stage where we knew we had a responsibility to our staff to find out how to run things properly. However, paying for training when you’re a small charity is a big decision because there’s always something else you need to spend the money on, so finding free training with Skills for Growth was massive for us.

“Since we’ve done it, it’s given us a huge boost and the belief that we really can do this. We’ve learned so much and are currently in the process of creating our first ever strategy after eight years as a business. We wouldn’t be able to do any of these things if it wasn’t for the training from Skills for Growth.”

Organisations accepted onto the Skills for Growth – SME Support programme benefit from up to six months support, working alongside a dedicated Skills Coach, who provides an in-depth business diagnostic and workforce development plan tailored to achieve the business’ growth ambitions as well as being further supported to create personal employee development plans and help in finding suitable training courses.

“Having the face-to-face contact with other people who were on the same journey was really important as well as setting us a path of learning that I don’t think we’re ever going to stop doing,” said Donna. “Doing the training has also definitely helped us reflect on what we have achieved and what we’re trying to achieve in the future. We’ve got the tools now to take a step back and look at goals and how we would measure the outcomes of them to decide if it’s something we should try, or not.”

Donna and Harry took up the offer of management training which helped them to both gain the confidence and skills to achieve their goals while the Fund also received support from a Business Change Specialist who helped them to identify the strengths and impacts as well as aligning business and leadership skills to cope with the increased demand.

The Fund was also supported to obtain a grant to accommodate the need for growth to meet that demand as well as helping to protect three jobs at the charity. Now going into its 8th year, Donna and Harry are more confident than ever in terms of its future direction and the emotional transition in leadership from mother to son, while continuing to work in Anthony’s memory.

“This year has been dedicated to sorting out our own business plan and a vision for the charity, working our way through everything we need to do to be set up properly,” said Donna. “I’m working on that with Harry and that transition is in process because I’ve been able to take a step back as a trustee with him as Chief Operating Officer, taking over the day-to-day operations. I have every confidence in him taking the charity forwards and doing things the right way.”

Janine Richardson, Programme Manager, Skills for Growth said: “The pandemic proved just how important the work of mental health charities like The Anthony Seddon Fund are to our communities. Donna and Harry have been working hard behind the scenes with the help of our Skills for Growth team. Specifically, to ensure their charity could meet the increased demand and move towards an emotional handover that ensures that its future is in safe hands.”