Over the past six month we’ve had a period of dramatic change. In May we were pleased to announce that the Midlands Training Centre is the charity’s new registered Head Office – an important milestone as we enter the final phase of the transition to a single site this month.

In our latest vlog, CEO Alex Lochrane, reflects on the last six months at Canine Partners, including the difficult decision to close of Southern Training Centre, and shares his future aspirations for the charity.

“What a first six months this has been. It’s gone by in pretty much of a blur and it has been pretty fast and furious, both getting to know people and getting to grips with the job at hand. My main goals for the first six months have been mainly to get to know as many people as I can, to learn everyone’s name, what they do, and importantly, to find out what the charity means to them, what their hopes, what their anxieties are, what gets them out of bed in the morning.

“For me, that’s a fundamental part of leadership – understanding your people and what drives your people, because then you can absolutely get the best out of everyone in the organisation. The decision to close the Southern Training Center was made last November after working for a long period of time to understand the financial stability and the financial position of the charity, and also to look at how much work was going to be required to bring the Southern Training Center up to the standard that we enjoy at the amazing training center in the Midlands. The Southern Training Center is closing in preference to the Midlands Training Center because the Midlands Training Center has been purpose built.

“Some of it is only a few years old. It’s been built with all the lessons that we’ve learned from all the many years that we’ve operated at the Southern Training Centre, and it’s absolutely the best site for the charity to move forward. The timeline for closing the Southern Training Center is moving along really well. It’ll stop being a site of access for staff from the 8 June. We’ve transferred all our operations and fundraising and admin up here to the Midlands already. The project to safely, respectfully, sensitively and responsibly close shop has gone brilliantly.

“The project team within the within the staff have managed it absolutely fantastically. And I’m really optimistic that from 8 June we’ll have a site that’s closed and clean, safe and ready to do what we do with it next. So does this mean that the charity is not operating in the South at all? Absolutely not. We have had the most fantastic history down in the South – the Southern Training Centre has become a real emotional centre of gravity for the charity. We’ve developed and grown a fantastic bunch of volunteers who have supported the charity and donors who’ve supported the charity down there, and I want us to recreate that all across the country, as well as keeping that wonderful band of volunteers and that sense of community and support to to Canine Partners in the South as well today and going forward.

“So what does this mean for Canine Partners? Well, it’s a really exciting time. Yes, it’s sad to have closed the Southern Training Centre, but it is also an opportunity to look at how we take the charity forward, no longer trying to divide our loyalties between two sites in the Midlands and the South, but focusing purely on creating a hub of real power and energy and vibrancy and a single identity out of our Midlands Training Centre, as well as being able to look at how we develop and support our puppies and our dogs and our partnerships in different ways all around the country in a really mobile and flexible and agile way.

“The wonderful skill of Canine Partners is not in bricks and mortar, but it’s in our amazing staff, our Puppy Development Coordinators, our Advanced Training and our Aftercare Training Instructors. And I want them to be delivering their amazing ability all around the country. So will we be creating new partnerships? Absolutely. We’ve got to regain the ground that we’ve lost through Covid, through all the factors that really hit us hard as a result of lockdowns and stopping breeding and stopping the development of puppies in communities. We’ve got to recover that lost ground.

“We’ve got to look at new ways of doing things out of our Midlands Training Centre. We’ve got to recruit new Advanced Trainers and then we will not only be creating the partnerships we are now, we will be creating more. So what about those living with a disability who are on our waiting list? You are my biggest priority. Besides the team. The team will deliver the most amazing partnerships for you those living with a disability. My overriding aim is to make sure that this charity continues to change the lives of those with disability to allow you to live the lives you want to live with an amazing canine partner beside you and not necessarily to live the life that society thinks you ought to live because the doors are too narrow. There are only stairs or there are no lifts or the kerbs are too high. I want us to be able to create the most amazing partnerships to give disabled people the most amazing partners that they can. They can walk alongside and they can have alongside them to have the most fulfilling life possible.

“So what about my visions and aspirations for the charity going forward? Well, it’s simple to grow. We need to recover the ground that we’ve lost during Covid. We need to rebuild a fantastic team at the Midlands Training Centre in the same way that we had a fantastic community and team at the Southern training in Heyshott Southern Training Centre, in short. And then to grow that around the country, to develop more satellites, to do more of what we do today and do it more and better well into the future.”

Alex Lochrane, CEO of Canine Partners, June 2023