After more than five years at MSDP, and a total of 17 years of working with and empowering Deaf people, I decided to step down from my role as CEO of MSDP in January to return to academic studies in leadership. It has been a privilege to serve the Merseyside Deaf Community and to lead this historic organisation through a period of positive and lasting transformation. My commitment to equality for every deaf person and the promotion of the right to access BSL will continue.
On my first day in January 2021, I closed the offices and moved all services online, adapting provision for our Support Service clients as the country entered another national Covid lockdown. Over the past five years together, we have delivered significant organisational transformation; securing project funding and contracts, implementing digital transformation, diversifying our corporate training offer to include e‑learning, and establishing robust governance structures, including recruiting a skilled and strategic Board of Trustees.
We have invested in our people; attracting apprenticeship and adult education funding, creating opportunities for internal and external secondments, and supporting development of internal staff into leadership roles. We have capacity built a team of volunteers and social clubs and strengthened our relationships with statutory sensory loss teams. This commitment to people has been central to everything we have achieved.
My ambition was to re‑establish MSDP as a partner of choice, and I was honoured when the charity was invited to become a founder member of the BDA’s BSL Alliance, asked to join the Wirral Health and Wellbeing CIC as an Executive Member and welcomed to Liverpool’s Well Placed VCFS forum. I am hugely grateful to fellow CEOs across sensory services; including DSN, Deafness Resource Centre, Deaf Active, SignHealth, SEA Recruitment, Deafblind UK, Wirral Society for the Blind and Partially Sighted, and Bradbury Fields for their willingness to collaborate and work in genuine partnership.
MSDP is one of a UK wide network of Deaf charities, so it was a real privilege to be invited to join the Deaf Chief Officers’ Group. The passion, expertise and peer support within that group has been invaluable. One of the highlights of my career in Deaf services to date was the launch of our pilot offer to support deaf children and families; a milestone that I am immensely proud of. Last year we donated our film archive to the North West Film Archives for digitisation and safekeeping, ensuring the history of MSDP and Merseyside Deaf Community is preserved and accessible for future generations.
Personally, I have been incredibly fortunate to have had two outstanding Chairs in Andy Goodwin and Elaine McDonald, both of whom have supported and challenged me. They have played a vital role in my development as both a leader and a person. I am also immensely proud of the managers and the entire MSDP team, who work tirelessly to ensure our communities feel empowered and can access equality of opportunity.
As I finish my tenure as leader of the charity, I do so with confidence in the future of MSDP, knowing the Board of Trustees is skilled, committed and unwavering in their support of our staff and beneficiaries. I can confirm that Catherine McEvilly has stepped up as Interim CEO while the search progresses for the charity’s next CEO.
Finally, I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to all of our funders, Local Authority partners, NHS colleagues, voluntary sector friends and our social clubs for their continued support of MSDP and of deaf people across our region. Your trust and collaboration enables the charity to deliver vital services, innovate in response to need and strengthen its impact for the communities we serve.
Elaine McDonald, Chair of Trustees, said:
“On behalf of the Board of Trustees, I would like to thank Jo for her leadership of MSDP over the past five years. Jo joined the organisation at a uniquely challenging time and led it with clarity, integrity and determination through a period of significant change and growth. Under her leadership, MSDP has strengthened its governance, diversified its income, invested in its people and re‑established itself as a respected partner locally and nationally. Jo leaves the charity in a strong position, with a committed team and a clear strategic direction, and we are enormously grateful for the legacy she leaves behind. We wish her every success in the next chapter and know she will always remain a champion for Deaf people and a friend of MSDP.”
Joanne Parr
Chief Executive Officer (outgoing)
MSDP
