Lorraine Eivers began working as the Mungo Foundation Director of HR in March 2009 and then became Director of Corporate Services in October 2015. Lorraine is a Chartered Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD), the association for HR professionals which was founded in 1913. She began working at the charity around three years before current CEO Tricia Donnelly.
In June 2020, the organisation became fully independent of the Catholic Diocese of Glasgow. They worked with recruitment company Aspen People - (Only Ever Leaders) to recruit a whole new board of eight trustees, they were on the threshold of a “very interesting and momentous time.” Along with Finance, IT, & Marketing; HR was one of the “core” skills that they required on the new board. You also had to have operated within “Senior Management.” The new chairperson was Cathy Fallon, her employment as a Managing Director within the Wheatley Group had ended in March 2020. The new chair of the Workforce & Organisational Committee was Sarah Bickerstaff, Director of HR at Erskines Veterans Charity.
At the beginning of January 2021 Lorraine suffered from burnout, one of the pressures she cited as a potential factor was building relationships with the new board. She has also claimed that her employer had reneged on an agreement for her to work flexibly in light of issues with close family members. Lorraine has also talked about suffering under bad, bullying bosses although she hasn't specified any individuals or organisations. (This is fully documented on her own coaching website.) Lorraine resigned on 29th October 2021 - she had never returned to work since becoming unwell in January.
The Mungo Foundation board did not opt to appoint an interim Director as they would do when other key positions were unfilled, i.e. the Operation and Finance Director positions. They turned again to Aspen People - (Only Ever Leaders) not to recruit a direct replacement Director of Corporate Services but a Director of People, a change in name and role. When Debbie Shields, a Director at Aspen People - (Only Ever Leaders), announced the awesome role she first wanted to let potential applicants know what they didn’t need; Social Care sector experience. She then went on to explain that what they did need was a forward thinking people specialist with exceptional strategic experience at a senior level.
On 19th April 2022, Tamsin Burns, a “CIPD qualified” senior HR professional, as per linkedin, joined The Mungo Foundation as the new Director of People. She immediately let it be known that her core value was fairness (via her biography.) Tamsin Burns last role in Scotland was almost ten years previously. She had spent the vast majority of that period working for London based housing associations and she had no social care sector experience at all. She was however no doubt warmly welcomed by an old colleague, Carole Mason (Interim Senior HR Business Partner) who was the most senior member of her new team. She had been appointed in June 2021 after being in between jobs for three months. They had worked together at the Herald & Times Group, Tamsin Burns had been the Head of HR and Carole Mason was a HR Advisor. In less than three months Tamsin Burns had confirmed her old colleague as the new and permanent “People Manager.”
Only a matter of days after the new Director of People took up the post, trustee Sarah Bickerstaff resigned on 29th April. She actually became the third trustee to resign in recent months but whereas vice chairperson, Clinton Hanney was returning to his native Australia and Joe Mulholland had taken on a new role, the reason for her resignation is unknown. It came after less than two years, the average length of the “lay” members tenure of the previous board was well over five years. No trustee with the “core” required skillset of senior HR management has been added to the board in the almost two years which have passed.
The CEO did herald five new trustees on 26th January 2023 via Facebook and their biographies were posted on the company website. Amongst the intake was another old colleague of Tamsin Burns, Donald Martin was an ex newspaper editor. They had also worked together at the Herald & Times Group. The daughter of Tamsin Burns began working at The Herald in January 2020 whilst Mr Martin was still the editor.
It is not unusual for a new appointment to seek out a former report to join them at a new venture. There are examples at the Mungo Foundation. The chairperson, Cathy Fallon, appointed Martin Glackin as (interim) Head of Quality & Compliance just months after her own appointment. (This was a newly created role that somehow the charity had managed to exist without under the Diocese.) They'd been colleagues for over twenty five years before he retired. He actually became the permanent Director of Quality, Assurance & Compliance in March 2022 in a recruitment campaign ran by good friends, Aspen People - (Only Ever Leaders.) He is now the Deputy CEO. It is however unusual for a former report to be already waiting for a former line manager at an organisation. Is this what happened with Tamsin Burns? It raises a number of important questions...
Did the CEO and / or the chairperson want their own person in this key role?
Was the exit of Lorraine Eivers engineered to create a vacancy?
Was she already known to the CEO Tricia Donnelly and / or chairperson Cathy Fallon?
Therefore was the recruitment campaign by Aspen People - (Only Ever Leaders) a sham as the outcome was pre-determined months earlier?
Was it discussed at board meetings with all trustees involved?
Was the sudden exit of the chair of the Workforce & Organisational Committee connected?
If Tamsin Burns was not previously known to the leadership, would a trustee with whom she has links to, be invited to join the board?
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