North Northants charity service users help appoint new Teamwork Trust boss

A North Northants-based charity has appointed their chief executive with help from service users of its bases in Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough.

Charity Teamwork Trust is a social enterprise that supports autistic adults, people with learning disabilities and individuals with mental health needs.

Service users interviewed successful candidate Helen Burdett-Wright who said it was the ‘most nerve-wracking’ part of the process.

Teamwork Trust service users take an active role in everything from recruitment and planning to the education programme and employment and volunteering opportunities.

Ms Burdett-Wright said: “The most nerve-wracking part of my recruitment was the final stage, being interviewed by the service users. Donald showed me around, then Michael formally interviewed me. He really put me through my paces. I’m now a few weeks into the job and every day our service users surprise and impress me – they are so perceptive, so intuitive.”

The new CEO was officially introduced at Teamwork’s New Beginnings Celebration event, where she pledged the organisation’s commitment to meeting the county’s soaring demand for health, wellbeing and social care services.

Ms Burdett-Wright, previously head of Northampton based Workbridge, said: “What really excites me about my new role is making great service user led improvements, tailored to suit individual aspirations. This varies Teamwork’s offer even more and opens up new opportunities.

“There are so many new things our service users want to explore, and skills they want to develop. Perhaps they haven’t yet because of Covid, but now is the time to do this in order to maximise independence, health and well-being. I also want to see us working and engaging more with the community and building collaborative partnerships.”

Service user Michael said: “I really enjoyed the experience of interviewing the candidates for the CEO job. It made me feel valued. It is so good that Teamwork involves us in these important decisions and listen to our views.”

Donald added: “I love coming to Teamwork and I like it when I am given responsible jobs to do, it makes me feel happy.”

Originally from London, Ms Burdett-Wright has lived in Northampton for nearly 15 years. Her first jobs were in travel – as the branch manager of a travel company and later as cabin crew and then sales for Virgin Atlantic.

She took voluntary redundancy after 9/11, soon after moving into the charity sector. Underpinning all this has been more than 20 years working as well as volunteering for mental health organisations. She has ambitious plans for Teamwork’s wellbeing services.

She added: “Teamwork not only supports its service users but also has a strong offering for the local community link, which has arguably never been more important. As we emerge from Covid people will inevitably be struggling with their mental health and we have a counselling service to help people from all walks of life as well as a wellbeing hub.”

The organisation has three sites – in Corby, Kettering and Wellingborough – and she will be working from all three.

For more information on Teamwork Trust go to www.teamworktrust.co.uk.