WELCOME NOTE

from Kenneth Simpson, Chief Executive and Maggie Wilson, Chair of the Board of Trustees

For nearly 150 years, VSA has played a pivotal role in supporting the most vulnerable of people living in our communities across Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire. From a person’s first breath through to their last, VSA has been there offering care, support, and vital services. As times have changed, so has the way we have delivered our services, but always with one ambition: to give the people of Aberdeen the best of care to enable them to live the best of lives.

Over the past twelve months we have taken the time to reflect on how far we have come as an organisation since we were founded in 1870 and the countless lives we have changed over the many decades. It has given us time to think about our future, and the evolving models of social care and how these impact the way in which we operate.

During the year we undertook a review of the services we deliver, and engaged with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders which included people who use our services, staff, volunteers, funders, and partners. The purpose of this review was to identify where our future service priorities should be, and find out from people where we could enhance our services to deliver better outcomes for the people who need and use them now. The review has helped us lay the foundations to build a ‘bridge to the future’ for VSA to still be here providing support and care to future generations of Aberdoinans as and when they need us.

As VSA moves into the next stage of our journey we remain the largest social care provider in the city and are fully committed to supporting people from birth to end of life.

Our staff and volunteers as ever have gone above and beyond to provide life-changing support and experiences for vulnerable people and without their hard work and dedication we wouldn’t be able to provide the best of care so that people can live the best of lives. On behalf of all the Trustees and the people who use our services, THANK YOU! Our team have worked hard across all of our services and their great work can be evidenced through our care inspectorate reports where on average our services were graded ‘very good’. A key highlight across the year was our mental health team at Westerton Crescent, who with thanks to their innovative ways of inclusion using digital technology saw the service receive the highest possible grading of ‘Excellent’ and were shortlisted for an award at the Scottish Social Services Awards 2019.

It is an exiting time at VSA, earlier this year we launched our ‘Changing Lives’ mental wellbeing campaign where we aim to expand our mental wellbeing services by building a new £3.2m residential facility in the heart of Aberdeen. In addition we are busy planning and preparing to mark our 150th anniversary in 2020 and we look forward to sharing further plans with you all soon and hope the whole community will join us in our celebrations.

VSA has bold ambitions to change more peoples lives, but we can only achieve this by growing our voluntary income. Statutory funding remains challenging year on year and it is only with thanks to the voluntary income we receive that we can provide the right environments, opportunities and experiences a person needs to lead an integrated life and realise their dreams.

Our supporters have once again amazed us by their generosity. We have had people hold fundraising tea parties, people who have trekked mountains, run marathons and even people who left us money in their wills. We are, and always will be, humbled by the support we receive. We hope to inspire more people to support VSA so that we can reach and support more vulnerable people.

Together with your support we have the power to change lives.

Maggie Wilson Chair of the Board of Trustees Kenneth Simpson Chief Executive