Hi All

We thought it would be useful to explain our job roles within the central DAFNE team, this newsletter edition I will give an overview of what I do in my role as the National DAFNE Operations Manager.

In a nutshell I manage the day to day running of the national programme and the central DAFNE administration, although we are a small team there is lots going on to keep us very busy.  I will summarise the three key aspects of my role:

Managing the day to day running of the national DAFNE programme

I am responsible for planning the HCP training throughout the year, ensuring that there are enough courses to meet demand for current and new DAFNE centres.  As well as planning the training I also arrange the educator network meetings, centre support meetings, the annual Collaborative meeting and various other events each year. 

Managing the central DAFNE office and administrators

Once I have arranged all the above dates and events, the DAFNE administrators within my team are responsible for carrying out all of the steps involved in each process, ensuring the training programmes and meetings run smoothly.  I ensure there are standard operating processes (SOPs), checklists, template documents and training in place for all of the team, who do a wonderful job at following the procedures once they are in place.   I meet with our 4 administrators (you may know them as your “centre buddy”) regularly via 1 to 1s, team meetings and just generally working together in the office.  I couldn’t ask for a better team to work with and feel very proud.

Development work and operationalising new processes

I also work very closely with our two national DAFNE trainers, Sally Woolgar and Liesl Richardson who many of you will be familiar with from the HCP training or webinars etc.  Sally and Liesl are continuously developing and updating HCP and participant training, particularly over the last two years, as well as other areas such as best practice and revalidation for example. 

I am responsible for project managing the development work we undertake, then operationalising new processes as they are completed.  I also work very closely with my manager Gill Thompson, DAFNE Director, providing regular updates and agreeing key priorities, Gill supports the development team and myself to meet our overall strategy.  We work together as a team to ensure everything remains on track in order to meet deadlines and demand.  This is a very rewarding part of my role, particularly when we successfully come to the end of a big development project and can see the benefits from all the hard work involved!

There are many other tasks within my role such as minuting the DAFNE Exec Board meetings, monitoring the central DAFNE finances, arranging (and on occasion delivering) webinars, creating the DAFNE newsletters, writing reports, the list goes on and there is always something new in the pipeline.. but it all keeps me busy and motivated.

To conclude, I thoroughly enjoy my role and feel lucky to work in the team that I do.  Not only to work with central DAFNE staff members and the DAFNE Executive Board, but also all of our colleagues throughout our centres.