Reflections on my time at OTR – Phil Walters
For those that don’t yet know, after nearly a decade of working at this values driven and impactful charity, I am leaving OTR in May 2025.
During the last few months I’ve been working closely with our Trustees and Management team to review what this change means for our structures going forward. My role has evolved into a blend of operational and CEO/strategic responsibilities. Together we’ve decided to distribute operational responsibilities across the Senior Management Team, developing a more focused CEO role. I am really confident that this model will best serve the organisation and our wider team.
As we’ve been doing this work and communicating to the team internally I’ve been reflecting on all the incredible things I’ve learnt and seen in my nearly decade here at OTR.
What a team – during my time at OTR I have worked with some incredible people. Volunteers, staff and trustees that deeply care about our mission, and live out our values in their work. We’ve gone through lots of changes in my time – growing to around 40 staff (less than 20 when I started), and empowering well over 2000 young people every year. Becoming a highly effective, supportive and dynamic team is something that was truly brought home to me yesterday at our all staff development day. We had our new Chair of trustees Sammy Burt supporting us all to tune in and become more self-aware, and re-assuring the team of our Trustees commitment to OTR and managing this change process with diligence and sensitivity. Seeing our brilliant Senior Management Team lead and guide staff through our interim plans with skill and clarity. Then playing, connecting and celebrating together though some fun in the sun in Queens Square.
Our Development days are always memorable, mostly because of the contributions from across our staff team. We’ve been able to use these times together to really lean towards our diversity so we can learn from one another and celebrate our differences. In my time here I’ve learnt and seen that surrounding myself with a range of people that have completely different skills, experiences and lived experiences can feel uncomfortable and challenging at times– but it is brilliant, and will bring out the best in me and others if we stay open, listen and embrace the possibilities and opportunities.
Communication – As OTR has grown, more and more of the team are working within different settings. Schools, CAMHS, Hospital etc. We’ve needed ways to quickly communicate with our team that isn’t onerous or time sapping. Meeting together as a whole staff team twice a year for Development Days has been absolutely critical to building team and good communication. As well as this, each team will meet together regularly, in a way that works best for them. But the thing that seems to work really well for more frequent information sharing is a weekly email update from me. I started doing these in the pandemic, and haven’t looked back. They’ve become a brilliant way to maintain focus on our Equity, Diversity and Inclusion commitments/work, or simply to keep increasing peoples knowledge and awareness. It’s proved as an excellent way to re-enforce our organisational values, highlighting work or plans to develop in these areas. As well as a brilliant place to share information, and celebrate achievements of young people, staff and teams across OTR. It’s pretty simple – but so effective, and so well received by our staff team. In fact, in our annual staff surveys it’s consistently rated 5/5, and something that staff feel is really valuable. One of the team shared yesterday “as someone working in a school independently it can feel quite isolating, but the Friday email makes me feel really connected to OTR and part of the team”.
Partnership and collaboration have been central to everything that makes OTR work. Internally across the different teams – trustees, staff, volunteers and our service users. Externally with our funders, commissioners and supporters – like Bath & North East Somerset Local Authority, B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire Integrated Care Board, B&NES Children’s Social Care, CAMHS (Oxford Health), RUH (Hospital), our Education partners Schools (16 local secondaries currently), Bath College, Universities (The University of Bath, and Bath Spa University), Police, GPs, and of course our fellow third sector friends – too many to name (3SG our brilliant voluntary sector membership organisation works with most of them here in B&NES). And of course our wonderful supporters, people who financially invest in OTR, or give to the organisation in other ways.
Every single person, organisation or group, each engaging with us in different ways, with different motivations. I learnt quickly how critical it is to be really clear and transparent about why we’re collaborating, and what expectations we each have. Sometimes this could be done formally like a Service Level Agreement, or a contract, and other times it could be a much more informally, through a conversation (situation dependent of course). But without it, things can become challenging – quickly.
Collective impact – I’ve had the privilege of working with and alongside so many brilliant organisations and people that have made such a huge impact. Like the B&NES Race and Equality Task Force, which emerged from a collaboration of charities (SARI, Black Families Education Project & OTR) and B&NES Local Authority. It began with our concern for young people that were experiencing hate crime and discrimination. We worked with young people to shape a survey (over 1700 young respondents) and then an event called Banter or Bullying. With young people central to the whole project it couldn’t be ignored – and today that group (which has grown to include schools and range of other partners) is leading fantastic work with our school partners through the Race Equality Charter for schools | Bath and North East Somerset Council.
More recent examples of collective impact are within the Social Prescribing space. In 2024 OTR started working with Oxford Health NHS Foundation, delivering Link Workers within B&NES, and alongside Barnados in Swindon & Wiltshire. At a similar time we also started working with the Royal United Hospital providing Youth Workers for young people within the Hospital and supporting them to engage and gain support within the wider community. Again working with Barnados (Swindon) and SMASH (Salisbury/Wiltshire Hospital). Both of these projects have provided a brilliant platform to us to collaborate, learn together and grow really impactful services for young people. We’re nearly a year into the projects now and some of the outcomes are incredible to see, and have helped OTR to establish stronger connections with our Health colleagues – which only further strengthens the quality of the support young people receive.
Another youth led milestone that is happening across the county (authority by authority) is B&NES recognising care experience as a protected characteristic. Our Care Councils (young people either in Care or Care experienced) have championed this locally for many years, and it’s been brilliant to work together with Children Social Care last year to see this be formally recognised by the Local Authority. And, then to see the Local Authority follow through to really do the work in understanding what this really means, and how Care experienced young people could benefit has been great.
Locally it’s been brilliant to see the Community Wellbeing Hub emerge from the pandemic, and continue to be a catalyst for collaboration to benefit the local community. As they start to ensure they are considering young people across their offer, OTR is now working with the Community Wellbeing Hub, and has a formal referral pathway set up.
Lived Experience - We must learn from people with lived experience – I was attracted to working at OTR because it had such a strong emphasis on empowering young people to have a voice and shape what we do. It’s not always an easy path (or a simple one to resource), but we’ve kept this front and centre at OTR. Every time I interview with young people, or meet with our Your OTR group I learn something new. Almost every time we interview with young people they notice something that no one else on our panels have, and this usually clinches the decision. Or in our Your OTR group I’ve learnt about the small differences in language that young people might be more comfortable hearing from us at OTR.
Working directly with young people was where my career started – so being at OTR, based in an office where we have young people coming and going all day, everyday has been so grounding for me, giving me a constant reminder of why we do what we do.
Person centred approach – with counselling making up a big part of our work with young people at OTR, working in a person centred way is terminology that is very familiar in the therapy world. But it’s a golden thread that runs right through the work at OTR (so much so that it’s one of our values!). Working with, alongside and empowering young people is so core to all the work we do. I’ve heard countless stories and had hundreds of conversations with staff over the years, and it is so very clear that working in this way enables staff to very quickly build rapport and trust. This in turn leads to a much more meaningful connection, one that usually supports creating a sense of change or progress in the work. I recently connected with the Kings Fund: Do With: A Call To Action | The King's Fund which is championing “do with” as something that should be taken up across all of our public sector services, and I couldn’t be more supportive of this approach.
Values - It takes time, good communication and involvement from all stakeholders to shape truly meaningful values. We’ve been doing this recently, working on our new OTR values. It’s taken 18 months (which is longer than we wanted it to take), but it’s the process that’s made it so valuable. Hearing from users, volunteers, staff and trustees has meant we’re all part of the conversation and shaping how we want to work, and what our values should be.
Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) - I’ve learnt so much from young people, colleagues and partner organisations about EDI. This is a true gift I take with me. A key learning is that it all starts with me - my knowledge and understanding of myself, my identity, heritage, privilege. I leave with a deeper appreciation of difference and what huge value this brings to our world. A greater sense of frustration and anger at the entrenched injustices and biases that exist in society and systems around us. But more motivated than ever to keep fighting for this to change, and to speak up and raise awareness wherever I can.
Local matters – I’ve worked in a wide range of charities, and leave OTR more confident than ever of the importance and value of organisations having a firm grip, understanding and experience of working locally. Every community is different and has different needs. The local presence, awareness and understanding of their local community strengthens an organisations ability to respond. More and more funders and commissioners recognise the importance of this. But I’ve also seen examples of where this hasn’t been considered or properly taken into account. Sadly, it’s the service users that loose out in these examples. Funders and commissioners get something extra from local charities often – there’s a commitment to that place and community. There’s usually a depth in understanding and a wealth of local and lived experience within the organisation that will provide much more meaningful engagement.
Third sector can unlock outcomes bigger institutions just can’t - because of all the things I’ve highlighted above. Charities can engage with, advocate for, empower and champion communities that more often than not bigger institutions struggle to do. Empowering and resourcing local charities to deliver their mission and improve outcomes for their communities is where I’m left, and that’s where I’m off to next - to help shape how the third sector can partner with our Health system colleagues to improve B&NES, Swindon and Wiltshire’s health outcomes.
Thank you to each and every one of you who has been part of this journey at OTR with me – young people, volunteers, staff, trustees, partners, commissioners, funders…I look forward to following OTR’s onward journey, and the many young people it will continue to empower, support and thrive.
Phil Walters
CEO