Hospice Charity CEO Appointed

August 20, 2019 by Leigh-on-sea.com

The Chief Executive of a charity leading on the provision of hospice care across Essex has been appointed.

Steve Smith from Leigh on Sea is now CEO of Havens Hospices, which includes Fair Havens Hospice covering Southend, Castle Point and Rochford, but also Little Havens Hospice for children in Essex and The J’s, a community hospice service across the county. 

The 46 year-old has been working for the organisation since October 2015 as Director of Facilities, but also New Fair Havens Hospice Project Director as the driving force behind getting the new facility built in Prittlewell, which is due for completion next spring.

With a background in project management, Steve has strong experience of leading teams of people to deliver organisational change through construction and IT projects in both the private and public sector.

The former Vice Principle of Belfairs Academy says, “Working in the public sector led me to realise that delivering projects that had a positive impact on people's lives was my passion. My daily work at the school contributed to improving the education for over 1300 students.  Moving to the not-for-profit sector was an easy decision, and to do this in my hometown was very important.

“My involvement in the delivery of the only secondary school in Southend to be completely rebuilt led to my interest in new Fair Havens and what an expanded and modernised hospice could offer the local community. 

“Throughout my time in leadership, identifying and understanding what makes an organisation successful has been important to me. Here at Havens Hospices, I want to use my experience to make a positive impact on families across Essex that need our help and I have a great sense of duty to use our donors’ money to deliver the best quality of care we can to as many people as we can. Having recently taken part in the Southend Half Marathon that’s organised by Havens Hospices and seeing for myself the level of dedication and passion of our supporters, I take this responsibility very seriously.”

Steve officially started this role on Monday 12^th August and has already made a commitment to the staff and volunteers at Havens Hospices. “Ultimately, we should be here to give better care to more people, through our actual hospices but also in the community. I’ll be working with our external healthcare partners to remove the isolation of hospice care and finding more opportunities to expand our care and funding models, as well as looking at ways to continue attracting qualified and passionate nursing staff to work for us.

“I have promised to put the patients and families at the heart of every decision we make, listen to the ideas of our staff and volunteers and empower them to find solutions, and believe that we all have the potential to be even better at what we all do – regardless of where we work or volunteer within the organisation. We all have an important part to play.”

A total review of the care services provided by Havens Hospices is underway to ensure the charity is meeting the needs of the current patients and families, but also how it can encourage more people to access hospice care at an earlier stage of their diagnosis and attract more qualified nursing staff to help deliver this.

To find out more about the care of Havens Hospices visit www.havenshospices.org.uk or for details on nursing opportunities and to speak to Havens Hospices Director of Care Ellie Miller, visit www.havenshospices.org.uk/nurses

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