Headway Surrey, the brain injury support charity, is looking for a new chairperson, can you help?

Beccy Bowden became Chair of Headway Surrey, the brain injury support charity, in 2019 and now would like to step down as she should have retired in October 2023. It is a 4-year term of office.

Headway Surrey provides cognitive rehabilitation, support and services for those affected by brain injury in Surrey. Set up in 1985 by families with brain injury and legally established as a charity in 1994.

We are looking for a Chairperson who can help us lead the Board of Trustees and the charity to ensure that people living with brain injury in Surrey reach their maximum potential and recovery.

For further information about the role please download our PDF file here.

Someone in the UK will be admitted to hospital every 90 seconds with a brain injury.

Brain injury is indiscriminate, it is sudden and devastating for an individual and those around them. There are no ‘typical’ clients – we support people over the age of 18 in Surrey who have brain injuries. If we have space we will accept some people from outside the borders of Surrey. Brain injury can happen to anyone, from any background, ethnicity, religion, gender etc.

Brain injury can be traumatic or acquired brain injury, more commonly known as TBI or ABI (ABI tends to incorporate TBI as well). Some examples of brain injury cause are stroke, road traffic incident (as pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes, cars, vans, lorries etc), trips, falls, sports injury (eg. cycling, skateboarding, jogging, boxing, rugby, horse riding, skiing, climbing), assault, combat, domestic violence, work accidents, falling objects (high winds, construction industry), hypoxia (lack of oxygen), brain tumour, aneurysm, encephalitis, meningitis and other viruses that attack the brain.

Headway Surrey provides a comprehensive range of bespoke cognitive rehabilitation sessions at Headway Surrey, Centre Workshops, art, communications, creative writing, guest speakers, 1:1 sessions, group sessions, helpline, Drop In Friday Friends, Family and Carers Survival Toolkit Course, Understanding Brain Injury Course, counselling, online coffee morning, individual or family brain injury education sessions, walking and talking group, young person group and hospital link worker support. Our services can be offered online or face to face.

Specialist Rehabilitation Coordinators with Accredited Certificates in Brain Injury Studies from Northampton University and Brain Tree Training provide a range of services to enable us to deliver sessions to aid the development of new neural pathways to enable those with brain injury to live well, re-learn skills, live independently and to their best ability.

We encourage students studying speech and language, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, psychiatry and neurology to volunteer with us. Which offers a 2-way learning opportunity. We offer holiday work experience to a limited number of 6 form students who are interest in the brain injury area of work. We offer a full range of volunteering opportunities for adults from all walks of life.

Background about Headway Surrey

Operating from a ground floor custom built, fully accessible Centre, called Headway House, at 21 North Road, Stoughton, Guildford, GU2 9PU we provide a comprehensive range of services.

We support adults with acquired and traumatic brain injury (ABI & TBI (more commonly combined as ABI)) to live well with their brain injury and optimise their cognitive rehabilitation recovery. We support ABI survivors to become independent, re-skill and re-enable them to their maximum level.

We support families, carers, employers and others connected with the survivor with education, advice and support. We raise awareness of brain injury and our services with the general public.

Headway Surrey is an independent registered charity and company limited by guarantee established in 1985, becoming a registered charity in 1995. It is an independent charity with an affiliation to Headway UK, the national brain injury association, which enables us to use the Headway Logo and to tap into the resources of the other groups and branches throughout the UK and Ireland.

Headway Surrey currently employs 10 members of staff (F/T equivalent 6) and is supported by a team of about 20-30 volunteers, including Trustees. We hold the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

At the end of the financial year 1/4/2023 income = £194,849 and expenditure = £241,329.

Income is mainly from:

• Adult Social Care £77,330
• Grants £45,340
• Private funders £19,555
• Sports Challenges £14,320

Our Services

Our work is based on cognitive rehabilitation and encompasses a comprehensive spread of subjects affecting brain injury survivors, their families and carers. Our current main services are:

Day Centre – Tuesdays and Thursdays 10am-2.30pm. Up to 16 individuals are offered a regular full days of cognitive strategy and skills to assist recovery/reskilling of the brain in order to maximise independent living skills. Areas covered include executive skills, memory, attention, decision making, information processing, emotional behaviour, communication and life skills, IT sessions, creative writing, art, crafts, gardening and seated Boccia.

1:1 Sessions or Family Sessions: Tailor made to support individuals or families.

Online Coffee Mornings – For survivors and their families/carers to gain peer support and discuss topics that matter to them.

Friday Friends Drop In – Third Friday of every month, breaking down isolation, offering peer interaction and support, friendship and conversation practice. This helps to add to a routine, help alleviate social isolation, reduce depression, improve cognitive skills and conversation practice.

Telephone Helpline and Website – Providing information and support to a wide range of individuals and organisations. Clients are also supported on a wide range of social welfare issues – including Adult Social Care funding, housing, employment and personal resource management in areas such as personalisation budgets, housing and disability benefits.

Family and Carers – A 6-week Family and Carers Survival Toolkit Course. Modules include: understanding brain injury, cognition, emotion and behavioural changes, communication and fatigue.

Understanding Brain Injury Course – A 6-week course for those new to the service with a brain injury, it includes goal setting and selecting further groups to transition into.

Counselling Service – Short term counselling for survivors and family members to help with their mental and emotional wellbeing.

Walking and Talking Groups – with volunteer speech and language therapists.

Young Persons Group – peer led interactive group for the 18-30 year olds.

Links to the Hospitals, Health Care and Social Care – ABI Link Workers raise awareness with those affected by brain injury in all the main hospitals, often with a regular clinic/presence in the hospitals, Adult Social Care Services, Locality Teams, Community Care Teams, NHS, GPs, Stroke Pathways, Surrey Coalition of Disabled People, Long Term Neurological