I have known the Director and founder member (Lynne Barton) of Entrust Care Partnership C.I.C. for nine years both in the capacity of a working colleague for Warwickshire County Council and as a vital partner to the South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust.
I was part of the recruitment process when Lynne was appointed; she was the first choice of all involved and professionally totally lived up to our expectations.
She had the responsibility of leading the establishment of an integrated health, education and social service model of working, for children with disabilities, based on a key working system; this proved to be extremely effective and was emulated by other Authorities. It is testament to the robust foundations she built that this way of engaging with families remains as popular and well respected today.
She worked with me to secure a significant change in the Child Development Service across Warwickshire and colleagues valued her input and expertise in the discussions. She has the skill of being a credible and knowledgeable individual whose contributions resonate with many professional groups and organisations as well as responsive to the aspirations and opinion of parents. She manages to assist colleagues in reaching a compromise by overcoming barriers in a sensitive and intuitive manner.
She led an amazingly successful government initiative which secured new moneys for Warwickshire’s disabled children and young people known as the Aiming High Programme. We regularly met with the appointed independent monitoring body who was consistently impressed with the relevance and quality of services, the extent of parental engagement, creativity, evaluation and financial accountability we were able to demonstrate. Lynne was able to bring together a multi agency team of professionals and parents, create a productive partnership and over a three year period and she successfully chaired the group through the challenges collaborative working can produce.
She is a person of integrity who has gained and retained the respect of families across the County and beyond, ensuring their interests were at the heart of service provision and enabling them to maximise control over their lives. She is able to resolve problems, solving them with imaginative and innovative solutions and so to secure positive outcomes for families and the staff she has managed.
She has over the years taken on new challenges with energy and vigour and I have no doubt that this experience has enabled the not for profit company to be a success.
In a short period of time, less than eighteen months, Lynne’s vision has created a range of new viable services for disabled children and families funded by a variety of sources. These services are rooted in positive partnerships with health colleagues and the wider voluntary and community sector; they provide additional choice and support both the public health agenda and contribute to an integrated, holistic approach to support. By these means, Entrust has already enhanced the quality and diversity of the market.
I look forward to future developments in the growing portfolio of Entrust Care Partnership C.I.C. a new provider who which shares my own social values.
Jane Williams
Head of Children, Young People and Family Services
