Case Study – Caledonia Housing Association

In March 2019 we were approached by Caledonia Housing Association to deliver consultancy services. Our consultancy team met with Maureen Menzies, Home Help Coordinator, and Gill Donoghue, Head of Support Services. They were looking for help to inspire and motivate their Home Help staff to become more enterprising and autonomous within their roles. The Caledonia team wanted to change the way they ran the Home Help Service, to improve it for the benefit of their clients, staff and the organisation as a whole. Maureen and Gill asked us to run a course of training sessions for some of the staff and to support them to collate their ideas on how to change their service for the better.

Over the course of a few months, The Circle ran several half-day training sessions which covered a range of topics including Growth Mindset, Finance and Sales & Selling. Kirsty Thomson and Jenny McCarthy also worked with the Home Help team to create a pitch on the changes that they hoped to implement to their current service. This pitch was then delivered by the whole Home Help team to a number of senior management staff at Caledonia Housing Association.

""Finding an organisation that had the ability to support and develop our services, and, in doing so support and develop its staff (and can source the right people to deliver this) is probably quite unique – the learning academy wasn’t just about a learning and development programme for staff, nor was it about conducting an organisational or service review; it managed to combine both! The feedback from senior colleagues, some new to the organisation, was brilliant and has given that group of staff, and the service they provide, a new focus and a spotlight within the organisation.”"

Gill Donoghue, Head of Support Services