I’ve known both Jo and Holly for many years and find both them and the Yorkshire & Humber Network that they facilitate a complete inspiration. They were both there when I first attended the Yorkshire & Humber Regional Involvement Strategy Group around 10 years ago – I was still in a secure service myself in another region and just starting my own involvement journey. I was blown away – a room full of service users, staff and commissioners sharing their views and experiences with the aim of improving secure services for everyone; developing CQUINs and other initiatives that really made a difference.
This experience was pivotal in my eventually working with people across the country myself to try to improve involvement in secure services and throughout that time, Jo and Holly have been a complete inspiration and source of support for my work with Recovery and Outcomes. They have continued to ensure that throughout all the services in Yorkshire & Humber as many voices as possible are heard and listened to – be it in developing and monitoring CQUINs through to organising the most amazing Yorkshire & Humber Network Conferences. The Network they facilitate has gone from strength to strength and truly leads the way in involvement in secure services across the country. They are an incredibly creative pair and their work has had enormous influence, not only on me, but on hundreds of others. I’ve learnt so much from them both in the way they and the Network operates and especially in how to make as big an impact as possible.
I’m sure there are even bigger and better things to come for the Yorkshire & Humber Network – the implementation of the Benchmarking Tool, supporting the Network to be a reference group for national initiatives, and the incredibly exciting development of an accessible website. I wish Jo and Holly and the whole Yorkshire & Humber Network the very best for the future. I’m sure there’ll be even greater things to come!