Annual Review 2008 - Support to enjoy life

This has been a year of change and development for Avenues. We are a charity that supports people to enjoy their lives and have worked to make that clearer in the way we describe ourselves and to support that aim across all parts of the organisation. We have extended our services to include Southwark Home Care and advanced our Person-Centred Active Support training, in partnership with the Tizard Centre, to benefit more of our learning disability services.

I am proud to be able to report that we are on track to achieve many of the high standards we set ourselves. At the time of writing, we have just exceeded our target of achieving "excellent" or "good" ratings for 90% of our services by the Commission for Social Care Inspection.

This requires constant dedication and commitment from our 900 staff, who have consistently offered people the highest quality services, supported by an extensive programme of learning and development thanks to the Avenues Academy.

Throughout, inevitably, we have to manage our finances closely, ensuring that we develop enough to continue to invest in both our staff and the development of new initiatives which enhance the lives of the people we support still further. We plan to increase our income both through the development of new services and through fundraising in the future in order to support this programme of ongoing investment.

We have welcomed a number of new trustees to the Avenues board, and I am very pleased that we have attracted some very experienced and committed people to help further the charity's development. My thanks go to them - and in particular Eleanor Brazil, our former chair who leaves the board after almost 14 years - to all our commissioners, supporters and families. Together we approach the challenges ahead with enthusiasm and energy, inspired by the common purpose to support people to enjoy their lives.

Click here to read our Annual Review 2008