Canine Partners

New Chief Executive Officer appointed

Canine Partners are pleased to announce the appointment of Alex Lochrane as our new CEO. Alex joins the team from Monday 5 December and brings with him a wealth of experience and leadership from over 15 years working in the charity sector. Read Alex’s bio here.

Training Centre closure in 2023

Following months of deliberation, the extremely difficult decision to close the Southern Training Centre in Heyshott and have just one National Traning Centre head office in Leicestershire has been reached in order to reduce costs and safeguard the future of the charity in these challenging economic times.

Canine Partners has changed significantly since the pandemic hit in 2020. The economic outlook is poor and the climate for charitable fundraising remains challenging.  The last two years have seen a steady increase in costs, exacerbated by the cost of living and energy price increases in the last 12 months. The Southern Training Centre requires significant and increasing levels of investment to enable it to operate safely and effectively.  Despite the incredible generosity of all our supporters, donors and funders, our expenditure has exceeded our income growth and this is, of course, unsustainable. We now need to ensure our funds remain focused where they are needed, to deliver as many of our amazing partnerships as possible, now and into the future.

The priority of our new CEO Alex, will be to lead the organisation in the planning and implementation of the closure and transition to a single centre organisation. He will collaborate closely across the charity in the coming weeks, to determine how best to implement the decision and the timeframe to do so.  We understand the closure of Heyshott brings uncertainty and concern; it has been the centre for our operations for many years and carries an enormous legacy of goodwill in the area.

Following this announcement, there is no immediate change to any activity. Both our Centres continue to remain open and operational as usual and we continue to raise awareness and funds to create and support our life-changing partnerships. Keeping our community up to date with decisions about the closure plans is our priority and further updates will be shared in due course. If you have any queries in the meantime, please speak with your Canine Partners contact, or get in touch at news@caninepartners.org.uk.

Date: 5 December 2022