AN IRISH organisation serving some of London’s most vulnerable residents has been deemed a “well run charity” by a national body.
Ashford Place in Cricklewood, north London, is a social inclusion charity which offers services to residents in the London Borough of Brent.
This week it revealed it has received confirmation from Digi-Board - one of the UK’s leading providers of governance reviews for third sector organisations - that they are a “well run charity”.
Following their recent compliance review, Digib-Board commented: “Ashford Place’s ratings are generally strong both in absolute terms and when compared to Digi-Board’s “All Charities Benchmark (ACB)”.
“This is a creditable result given the pressures that charitable organisations have been under in the last two years.
“This may be a reflection on Ashford Place’s strong focus on governance, which is reflected in the strong ratings.”
This rating coincided with the launch of Ashford Place’s in house diabetes prevention and management programme - where they are focusing on the underserved communities of Brent including mental health, disabilities, BAME groups and others.
The charity recently hosted a diabetes event in partnership with Brent Health Matters which saw 130 local residents access a range of services - including eye clinic, chiropody, body mass index, blood and urine testing, access to a dietician, pharmacy and information on mental and physical health.
“This was an excellent example of the partnership between services such as Brent NHS, Brent Council, Ashford Place, and the community,” a spokesperson for the charity said.
“With our focus on Health and Well Being, Ashford Place will continue these events throughout the year complementing our work within the community on dementia, mental health, homelessness, and welfare,” they added.
Ashford Place CEO Danny Maher said of their latest achievement: “We were delighted to have scored so well with the governance review, which is not that surprising to us as we have focused energy and time to get this right over the years.”
He added: “We recognise the value of strong governance in these unpredictable times."
