Pat McArdle Chief Executive at Mayday Central Rugby

Today (29^th May 2013) at Mayday Central Office Rugby I interviewed Pat CEO of Mayday Trust. The aim of my interview was to find out about the most recent changes to Mayday.

Pat has been working for Mayday Trust for just under 2 years and previous to this she volunteered at a soup kitchen and supported  homeless people and people who suffer from mental health illnesses in Birmingham, she said that she is very passionate about her work and this has helped her to get her job title now. At the start of the interview I expressed my own personal opinions of the changes to Mayday, when questioned about her best experience while working at Mayday Pat said hearing positive feedback from residents and knowing that they as a Trust are helping people and it is very much appreciated.

Pat is very positive about the changes at Mayday Trust and said that the decisions that have been made were influenced by research into who the trust supports and what residents need from them. Pat stated that she noticed that everyone who comes to Mayday Trust has individual needs, aspirations and abilities and so decided that changes needed to happen in order to support everyone effectively. Ultimately, Mayday aims to help residents not only live their day to day life but to also encourage them to set goals and ambitions for the future and to help them fulfil their dreams and live the life they want. Mayday is now providing different support to residents which are adapted to their individual needs and aspirations with the intention to offer opportunities and experience relevant to them.

The recent government funding cuts have affected Mayday Trust and Pat hopes that the changes will help to expand the charity and encourage funders to support them to continue running the projects they have set up for residents. She also said that the staff structure changes mean that each member of staff can specialise in their specific field (learning asset mentors, personal asset mentors and housing officers) and use their own talents and interests in these areas meaning that the staff are more enthusiastic about their job and happier, subsequently reflected on the quality of service that they offer. The changes are going to be beneficial to service users of Mayday because now each resident will have the opportunity to work with the relevant people to fulfil their ambitions maintain a healthy lifestyle and get support in areas that they feel will benefit them. Pat explained that she could empathise with residents who are here purely for housing support who may feel they do not want or need any other support and before the changes they may have felt patronised by some of the tasks they were being asked to take part in to show what their level of skills are. This new system allows those people who need very little support to continue with their day to day life without feeling patronised by or obliged to take part in certain task such as living skills and those who need extra support to access it and get specific support from whichever team is relevant.

I asked Pat about how residents felt initially about the changes and whether she had received any feedback now that these had happened. She told me that to start with people were very nervous and in some cases angry about the changes as they felt having less staff onsite would make the place unsafe and there was many personal concerns raised too, however, some residents believed that the changes meant that they could have more independence. Now that the changes have happened Pat and her team plan to go and visit all of the Mayday sites to meet with residents and get feedback on how they feel now and to listen to any suggestions that residents may make.

To conclude my interview with Pat I asked her what does she hope to achieve within Mayday and has she got any plans for the future of Mayday? Pat hopes that by getting people from different supported accommodations and members of the public involved with the trust it will become more widely recognised and has already expanded further in Daventry and Bedford. The Bedford changes include a new building consisting of 19 rooms that is specifically for people with mental health illnesses and another new building that will be specifically aimed at people who are offenders. She hopes that residents will settle well with the new structure and support approaches.

Interview by Fiona McCance - Mayday Reporter - 29^th May 2013