Annual Report 2005

This has been a busy and productive year for the Trust. It was the last full year of the 3 year plan, and the Trustees have worked to complete the implementation of many of the developments which were part of that. Additionally, the normal work of seeking the issues which confront our colleagues in Health, Education, and Social Work as suitable and interesting Lecture subjects continued, as well as the identification of appropriate individuals to take on that work.

The Trustees also sought to increase the membership of both Trustees and Patrons, and, in the case of Patrons, to write and agree a role description which sets out their valuable place in the Trust, and provides them with a clear means to become involved. This bore immediate fruit when we arranged a joint Trustees and Patrons meeting, which began to identify the way ahead in the need to focus on the legacy of Sutherland (and Fairbairn) whose leading roles in the development of 20th Century psychoanalysis requires positive re-assessment. The Trustees will take this forward in the coming year, with the forthcoming Edinburgh Conversations, and our first foray into the Edinburgh Book Festival, publicising Jill and David Scharff’s book, The Legacy of Fairbairn and Sutherland.

We have made a small change to the structure of this year’s report and details of the appointments and resignations among Trustees and Patrons can be found in the Hon Secretary’s section of the Annual Report.

Our web site is now open for business, and, as a dynamic production, will continue to develop in the future. It is a delight to be able to publish past lecture papers, and we are currently considering if there is a market for these which can provide revenue. We are hoping that improving the access to past papers will make the Trust more accessible.

We now have considered our historic, but incomplete data base, and have honed this down to a smaller, but accurate base of our supporters.  We are very much aware that continued attention to this will pay dividends in future years, and Sally Thomson, our Development Worker regards this as a routine, but vital area of her work.

Our mapping exercise of individuals and groups who work psychodynamically in Scotland continues to move forward, but, as we always recognised, it is a slow process, as we try to ensure its accuracy. This is an area of work which the Trustees intend to focus more on during the coming year.

The Gordon Small Trust has been of enormous benefit to our development, and has enabled much of our forward planning. Without this financial backing, we should not have been able to make the large strides we have made this year in both programme quantity and width. We are also very indebted to both the Esmee Fairnbairn Foundation, and the Swan Mountain Trust for the provision of financial support for both core funding, and for our Awards Scheme.  Despite this support, funding our Trust continues to remain a constant preoccupation.

Additionally, we continue in our efforts to provide Lectures and Seminars which  catch the attention of our audience and have the potential to create some revenue. We are clear this will not always be possible, or even totally desirable, but it is our wish that any surplus from our core work will provide some of the funds for our Awards Scheme.

On that subject, I am delighted to be able to say that the Awards Scheme has now been revamped and is back in place within our system. In rethinking this part of our work, we have moved away from the use of such terminology as Bursaries and Grants, based on need, preferring instead to judge applications on the grounds of merit. We made no awards in the summer of 2004, and expect to make our first awards in the summer of 2005.

The Sutherland Trust is a busy organisation, and we do seek to appoint Trustees who are eminent in the work of their field, and are therefore well up to date with the issues which confront their profession.

One of the resultant issues of this is that, as busy professionals, each Trustee needs to put some limit to the amount of time they can make available to the Trust. We have struggled on occasion this year to find the time and energy necessary to plan our work, and it is clear that the Trust must give some thought to a means of allocation of the duties which can spread the load.

June Nelson’s indefatigable effort continues to oversee the detail of the Trust’s work, and she is extremely important in ensuring that we do not lose sight of the legalities of our Charity, or indeed the care of both roles and personalities as we move about our work.

Similarly, without access to the energy created by Sally Thomson, our Development Worker, who undertakes the bulk of the detailed preparation work for all of our effort, we would have great difficulty in undertaking our demanding programme. 

Sally, in conjunction with Trustees, has enabled us to fulfil our remit this year by the organisation of two lectures and a seminar in our series ‘Institutions on the Edge’.  In September we once more collaborated with the Howard League for Penal Reform in Scotland, and Andrew Cooper, Professor of Social Work at the Tavistock Clinic and the University of East London, spoke about ‘The Vanishing Organisation: managing organisational anxiety in a networked world’.  This generated both considerable interest and a follow-up Seminar.  In February, Vicky Franks and Peter Griffiths, from the Tavistock Clinic, presented a lecture on ‘The Caring Professions – the role in the mind’; again well crafter and very well received, although, on this occasion, our audience figures were lower than usual.

Our plans for next year are now fitting into place and we look forward to a stimulating and influential programme.  The Sutherland Trust is in good heart.

Brian Atwell (Convenor)

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