WELCOME NOTE

Welcome Letter

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

Looking back over our last financial year, we are proud of the impact we have achieved in changing and shaping the futures of vulnerable children and adults living in Aberdeen and beyond.

Ever since VSA was established in 1870, we have continually evolved our services to meet the local needs of the community, always with one ambition: to give vulnerable people living in the North East of Scotland the best of care to enable them to live the best of lives.

During the year we had to make some extremely difficult service decisions that included saying a fond farewell to our Richmondhill residential service and our private nursery provision at Maisie’s. These decisions were not taken lightly but, as a result of evolving methods of social care for vulnerable children, it was time to follow the same principles as our predecessors and evolve our services to meet current and future needs of vulnerable people in Aberdeen. We remain fully committed to supporting vulnerable children and our team is working hard to ensure the voices of these young people are heard locally within Aberdeen City Council and nationally at the Scottish Government, with the aim of influencing and shaping future children services provision to help drive better outcomes for children and their families.

Over the year we introduced and developed two new services within our organisation: Care at Home and Delayed Discharge Service, both designed to support vulnerable adults in their later years. In addition to these new services, we were also delighted to formally begin construction on our new mental wellbeing facility being built in the heart of Aberdeen City.

Mental health continues to be a core strategic area for VSA, and as we look to the future we hope to expand and develop more of these services to reach and support more people living with a mental health condition.

Across all of our services, our staff have once again gone above and beyond to provide life-changing support and experiences for vulnerable people. 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 the Board of Trustees and all the vulnerable people who use our services we wish to extend our gratitude and thanks. Our team’s hard work, dedication and commitment to delivering outstanding care can be evidenced through our independent regular audits which are undertaken by the Care Inspectorate.

Over the course of 2019, we had been preparing to mark the official start of our 150th anniversary on the 10th March 2020. Never would we have envisaged that we would end our financial year in the midst of a global pandemic.

We were actively monitoring the evolving situation regarding the COVID-19 outbreak from mid-January with full pandemic planning meetings commencing in February. At VSA the welfare of the vulnerable people we support and our staff is our utmost priority. VSA has been caring for the people of Aberdeen for 150 years, and during this time we have supported generations of Aberdonians through some very dark times, including two World Wars, the Spanish Influenza global pandemic, and the Aberdeen Typhoid Outbreak. Our team’s commitment and response to COVID-19 has been nothing short of remarkable and never have we been prouder to be part of the VSA family.

Over the year our partners, supporters, and volunteers have been amazing. We are - and always will be - truly humbled by the love and support VSA receives each year. As we journey through 2020 we, like many other charities, businesses, and individuals, will face many challenges along the way resulting in us having to make some difficult decisions to ensure that we are still here to support people for generations to come.

We are confident that with support from the people of Aberdeen we can get through this. Now more than ever we need that support. Vulnerable children and adults are relying on us, and we are determined we won’t let them down.

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

Maggie Wilson

Chair of the Board of Trustees

Kenneth Simpson

Chief Executive