Evaluating the Success Factors for Establishing a Thriving - Scottish ...

1.19 During the early years, and since, DACB’s objectives have had to align closely
with the Council’s strategic objectives: alleviation of rural deprivation, improved
access to services in remote areas and decrease transport deprivation in rural
areas. DACB meets these objectives that, for a variety of reasons, statutory or
commercial services cannot meet.
1.20 From the start DACB has had a special relationship with Grampian Police and
this relationship has developed over time. DACB delivers training to the Police
cadets before providing community placements for them, while the Police offers
support to DACB in many ways and many officers volunteer for the
organisation.
1.21 DACB from the outset has also helped to increase community capacity and
community cohesion in the areas it operates in. In that it builds on the Council’s
community capacity building work and adds to it.
1.22 DACB’s Board and General Manager have also developed excellent
relationships with key people on a personal level. DACB also makes an effort to
keep in touch with people that have moved on (staff and Board), which has
created a lot of goodwill and local support. One of the Board members
described it as “an unofficial friends of DACB”.
Growing Up
1.23 2005 was an important year in the life story of DACB. It was the end of the
RCTI initiative that had funded DACB up to that point and the loss of this
funding stream emphasised the need to do forward planning and DACB began
to think about itself as a business. The main question that needed to be
answered was how can DACB exist without grant funding, or at least how can
they minimise the dependence on grant funding. The need for more efficiency
in the operations was also recognised.
1.24 During its development it became apparent that the growth and success of
DACB was due to key staff, in particular the skills, drive and enthusiasm of the
General Manager, who has been with the organisation from the outset. The
organisation at this point was still strongly driven by its manager. All ideas and
plans were in her head. Although essential for the initial success, there are also
some risks for the organisation in this dependency on one key staff member.
1.25 Changes in DACB’s Board were also crucial in this. Some of the old Board
members, who did not want to be involved in running DACB as a social
enterprise, were replaced by more ‘business-minded’ people. They instigated a
more strategic thinking within the Board and started to do strategic planning.
1.26 2005 was also the year that DACB ‘professionalised’ the way it managed its
staff and volunteers. Until then the relationship with staff and volunteers was
based on trust and local relationships, but a serious incident with a volunteer,
taught DACB that it should manage it human resources on business principles,
supported by appropriate policies and procedures.
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