Driving Change with Purpose: A Conversation with Our New Director of Central Services and Transformation

As SIG continues to evolve and strengthen its impact, strong leadership and clear vision are key. We recently welcomed our new Director of Central Services and Transformation, Naomi Atkinson, who brings a deep commitment to values-led practice, partnership working, and continuous improvement.

In this interview, Naomi shares her first impressions of SIG, her perspective on collaboration with commissioners and partners, and what “transformation” really means in practice. From strengthening quality and assurance to building meaningful relationships across systems, her focus is clear: supporting frontline delivery while ensuring the organisation continues to grow, adapt, and deliver the best possible outcomes for the people we serve.

Trust and credibility are fundamental for our commissioners and partners. At this stage in our organisational journey, what gave you the confidence that SIG was the right organisation to join?

The most important thing for me about an organisation is its values and how these are demonstrated in its everyday work. SIG’s values absolutely resonate with me from my early training as a social worker, focusing on how we empower our residents, participants and staff and embrace people’s uniqueness.

Having spent your initial weeks getting to know SIG, how would you assess our approach working within local systems and partnerships, and where do you see the greatest opportunity for further strengthening?

So I have spent my time visiting operational services because, for me, that’s critical to understanding how our support services can offer collaboration and partnership working. During these visits, I have seen exceptional frontline staff working through complex situations while demonstrating enthusiasm and care. This is the charity’s greatest strength and will help us grow and thrive.

“Transformation” can feel abstract from the outside. In real, practical terms, what will it mean for commissioners and partners working with SIG over the next 12–24 months?

Transformation is a strange word for me because, actually, we are all on a journey to provide the best services for the people we work for. I would definitely want to consider how we can continually improve our services and relationships with our key partners, both at a local level in the community and at a strategic level with policymakers and MPs, which can impact wider societal issues.

As pressures across the housing, care and support sector continue to intensify, what, in your view, must commissioners and providers do differently to achieve sustainable outcomes?

The constant social care and housing sector has always worked under intense pressure; it’s very similar to when the Supporting People grant was removed, and the Community Act came into force. As a provider, it is being much more creative around how we deliver services and how we attract different funding streams, which is within our gift to do. I have come across some incredibly talented people since I’ve been here, and they have some amazing ideas, so the challenge is how we turn those ideas into action.

How do you see SIG evolving its approach to working with commissioners, local authorities, and partners, especially in terms of collaboration, flexibility, and shared outcomes?

I think we have to continue building really positive relationships with all those key stakeholders while demonstrating that we are delivering outstanding services. By developing a new quality assurance framework that focuses on outcomes, which we are currently doing, I believe this will really enable us to evolve and grow.

Central services play a big role in governance, data, and assurance. How does that help build commissioners’ confidence that services are safe, effective, and good value?

I’m sure most people will have heard me talk about repositioning central services as support services, because that’s exactly what I think they are here to do. Reviewing and evaluating our quality function, business development and marketing/fundraising enables our operational colleagues to do the jobs. For me, one of the key areas of work I’m keen to do is understand organisational risk, and I’m making sure we have the right training in place to enable our frontline staff to deliver the amazing services they do.

Is there a moment in your career, perhaps working with a commissioner or in a complex partnership, that really shaped how you think about balancing ambition, accountability and impact?

I’ve worked in a number of roles across a number of organisations and the focus for me is always how we listen and respond to the people we are providing the support for, so actually I would say some of the highlights in my career have been supporting people from leaving institutional hospitals and getting their own homes and wrap around support, also creating community hubs that enable people to continue to live independently and I think we should advocating for all the people we support and be ambitious for them so people have a safe place to live and the right care and support. I appreciate that it’s not always easy, but that’s our purpose, and as we develop our shadow board, it will enable our residents and participants to influence the organisation at both local and strategic levels.