Statement of purpose

                              (part 8 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006)

Contents

‘Bootcamps’, the Apricot Centre Education Service, Apricot Centre CIC, legal status, address and other contact details        2

Introduction to Apricot Centre CIC - The organisation and it’s ethos        3

Statement of Purpose for the Apricot Centre Education Service        3

Aims and Objectives of the Apricot Centre Education Service         4

Organisational Structure and Management        5

Nominated Person        6

Our full list of policies, procedures & trainings        7

Governance, Supervision and Training        8

Description of the Location        9

Directors Information        9

Apricot Centre CIC, legal status, address and other contact details

Introduction to Apricot Centre CIC - The organisation and it’s ethos

Operating Name: Apricot Centre CIC

Service Name: Apricot Centre - School of Regenerative Land Based Studies

Core Purpose: ‘To cultivate sustainability in lives, livelihoods and land’

The Apricot Centre CIC began in 2010 on an organic farm in Essex with the aim of bringing together therapeutic work with young people with a Biodynamic/Organic farm and informal educational offering. We are a not-for-profit social enterprise /Community Interest Company formed in July 2010. In 2017 the farm and administrative base were relocated to Huxhams Cross Farm in Devon.

The ethos of the Apricot Centre is very much aligned with the Permaculture ethics of

‘earth care’, ‘people care’ and ‘fair share’, which are also found in most traditional cultures which live in relative balance with their environment. In addition to these ethics is an important principle from Process Oriented Psychology to be guided by feedback and nature. Inherent in this attitude is that both farm and human systems have evolving processes and natures which can be facilitated and responded to in the work we do ‘to cultivate sustainability in lives, livelihoods and the land’.

Statement of Purpose for the Apricot Centre - School of Land Based Studies

The core purpose of the Apricot Centre is ‘to cultivate sustainability in land, lives and livelihoods’. The Apricot Centre approaches this through providing accredited and informal education courses. We use various methods to measure progress and education attainment within the education service, however we honour the most fundamental sense of holistic education and are guided by positive feedback in which an individual recognises their own progress as well as ensuring that learners are supported to strive towards high attainment and to gain expert knowledge within regenerative systems.

The Apricot Centre School of land based studies is a holistic service in that we not only support individuals learning needs but also ensure that learners  feel supported and engaged within their personalised learning..

The  School of land based studies is  rooted within the farm using the setting to enhance embodied and experiential learning from the land. We work with a number of organisations from host farm placements for trainees to larger organisations who tutor on our courses.  The Apricot Centre at Huxhams Cross Farm itself is a productive biodynamic farm producing high quality food for the local community and  the 67 acre site provides a variety of nature environments whereby we can provide rich learnings regarding land based methodologies in regenerative systems.  This interface of farm and educational setting is a unique aspect of our overall approach to sustainability, wherein we value and acknowledge the wide ranging benefits of a positive human relationship with nature.

Aims and Objectives of the Apricot Centre School of regenerative land based studies.

This aims and objectives of the Apricot Centre School of Regenerative Land Based Studies are to:-

• Train and convert existing farmers, growers and land based businesses for the regeneration of Devon
• Grow the next generation of Regenerative Agriculture/forestry and land based workers
• Develop a distributed collaborative learning network bringing together organisations with similar aims and championing  a central agenda, landowners,farms and leading practitioners in regenerative agriculture, forestry , rewilding and conservation.
• Provide Business Support through skills, business experience and design for local business within the green sector
• Conserve and restore Devon’s diverse natural habitats – via initiatives such as regenerative agriculture, agroforestry, rewilding, tree planting, and water management,
• Support projects that share learnings and best practice to replicate their successes and scale their positive impact to other areas.

More Skilled practitioners in regenerative land based  systems are needed to support a transition into regenerative models of food production and land use at all scales in Devon and beyond, this has been supported by recent news coverage on BBC Devon about a skills shortage in agriculture as well as the need to not be reliant on fertilisers, particularly in the wake of the shortages due to the Russian/Ukraine war.

We need to continue to support businesses including land owners, farmers and growers  in the need to move into regenerative methods on their farm,  build natural capital by offsetting biodiversity loss, and reduce net carbon emissions to zero in the next 10-20 years, help them to design and implement methodologies that improve and provide economic and environmental sustainability.

By developing these methods of farming it will not only support farms, food producers and land based businesses to adapt to climate change but enable them to still produce the good quality produce for which Devon is renowned without the use of fertilisers and chemicals but it also  frequently shortens the route of produce to market, and this improves economic viability, an essential must in today's society where the rise in cost of living is impacting food choices for communities,  regenerative agriculture creates circular food/ produce economy removing much of the need to import.

Organisational Structure and Management

The Apricot Centre has developed an efficient lean business model which operates with minimal hierarchy and high quality management and governance. We have 7  Directors, 5 Managers (all based at Huxhams Cross Farm), 2 FTE - project Coordinators for nature connection and education, 2 Clinical Leads, 2.5 FTE administrator/finance person, 5 FTE farm workers, 24 therapists and mentor sand a number of guest tutors for our courses. Our business structure enables us to provide responsive, resilient and flexible services during times of turbulence and change.

Our administrative and leadership processes have been streamlined, we currently work with administrative practices to meet Skills Bootcamps and Crossfields Institute requirements to  deliver, quality assurance and application processes.

Our training staff are recruited according to safer staffing recruitment procedures.

• Finance Director: Paul (Bob) Mehew
• Farm Director: Marina Brown-O’Connell
• Registered Manager & Wellbeing Director: Mark O’Connell
• Education Director: Rachel Phillips
• Non-Executive Directors: Matt Harvey, Liliane Uwimana, and Rhodri Samuel
•  Board of Directors Facilitator: Amir Qureshy

Education Staff

• Education Manager - Rachel Phillips - Full Time
• Project Coordinator - Charlie Nementh - Full Time (Interim shared deputy)
• Project Coordinator -Nature connection - Zoe Ives ( Louise Hoskins - Maternity cover) - Part Time
• Amir Qureshy- Quality Assurance - Part Time (interim shared deputy)

Farm Staff:

• Biodynamic Farmer - Dave Wright - Full-time
• Assistant Grower - Ross Perret - Full Time
• Assistant Grower - Maisie Story - Full Time
• Assistant Grower - Lucy Einbinder - Part Time
• Marina Brown-O’Connell & Paul (Bob) Mehew also work as part of the farm team
• Finance Person and Administrator: FTE 2.5 days per week

Wellbeing Staff:

• Registered Manager & Child Psychotherapist: Mark O’Connell - Full-time
• Responsible Individual: Amir Qureshy - Part-Time

• Clinical Lead: Alexandra Thomas - Full-Time
• Clinical Lead: Anna Lidzey - Contracted part-time approx 28 hours per month
• Therapeutic Practitioners:  24 contracted therapeutic practitioners - Psychologists, Psychotherapists, Art/Music/Drama Therapists, Counsellors and other registered practitioners.
• Therapeutic Mentors: 10 Therapeutic Mentors are contracted and have experience working with young people and some therapeutic background or understanding
• Farm Apprentices: 3 Farm Apprentices working 4 days per week on a rotational basis with different roles on the farm

Nominated Person

The Nominated Person is: Rachel Phillips

Qualifications:Foundation Certificate in Therapy Outdoors (Ecotherapy), Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, Diploma in Ethnobotany, Social Forester Level 3 Dip. QTS Secondary School Teaching, Level 3 Counsellor for Women and Girls, BA First Class in Art & Design, Certificate of Higher Education Psychology,

With a 10 + year background in education and training, wellbeing and nature engagement and a a passion for traditional and heritage craft Rachel has been  been researching and developing the use of ancestral, regenerative and ethnobotanical practices to design systems to support wellbeing, improve biodiversity and be resilient to climate change.

Drawing upon her  experiences of being a Qualified Teacher in Secondary Schools (Head of Year), a Children’s Counsellor/Support worker for Women's Aid, and her interest in Ethnobotany and embodied permaculture practice she now leads the education offerings at The Apricot Centre CIC.

Our full list of policies, procedures & trainings

See full list of policies, procedures and trainings (with review dates). Our latest policies can all be found on the website at apricotcentre.co.uk. A Health and Safety Review was completed by Marina O’Connell in June 2022 and the team were briefed on November 3rd 2022 onsite.

Governance, Supervision, Training and Research

As a Community Interest Company (Not for Profit Social Enterprise) the work of the Apricot Centre and service delivery is overseen by a board of Directors. Our Directors are from within the local community with experience in business, mental health and sustainable farming.

Apricot Centre staff are inducted, supervised and trained according to the level of their responsibilities within the organisation. Educators and tutors are employed according to, where appropriate,  safe-recruitment practices and their qualifications, registrations, DBS, and professional indemnity insurances

The Nominated Person and Quality Assurance Manager maintain up to date level 3 safeguarding training. Coordinators and main tutors are required to have a level 2 safeguarding training. The Nominated Person has up to date Prevent Training and Referral training.

The core tutors attend a monthly meeting minimum of 10 per year to account for holidays.

Description of the Location

The centre of our administrative support and management, as well as the core education work all take place from Huxhams Cross Farm in Devon. The Apricot Centre venue is on the farm site and specifically designed with good access and spaces for training, as well as for team / management meetings. We have recently installed additional therapeutic accommodation in the form of a Mokki to support on site work.

At The Apricot Centre venue there is good parking available and good wheelchair access. Toilet facilities are designed for disabled access and use. There is a lockable office with lockable filing cabinets for sensitive and confidential materials to run the service.

The surrounding environment is a working biodynamic farm producing high quality food for the local community.

Directors Information

For each director please provide the information below.