A day in the life of... HARP Chief Executive Jackie Bliss

We recently caught up with HARP's new Chief Executive Jackie Bliss and asked her a few questions about her role.

How long have you been at HARP and what does your role entail?

I joined HARP at the beginning of April this year, and took over from Gill Garwood as HARP’s Chief Executive from 16th June when Gill retired. I guess essentially, my job entails “the buck stopping here!” In law, our Trustees actually carry legal responsibility as they are the board of directors but, in practice, they delegate much of this to me and to my senior staff team. What is the first thing you do when you get in?

No two days are the same, and it depends on how busy that day is, in terms of meetings or looming deadlines. I’ll normally start by making a cup of coffee, although often find I haven’t had time to actually drink that by lunchtime! Like many people these days, I’ll often have lots of emails to catch up on when I arrive in the morning. What are the most interesting aspects of your role?

I think I’m hugely privileged to have the role of CEO, as the work I do is so varied and I’m able to get involved in every aspect of HARP’s work, whether that’s our actual service delivery, the funding side, thinking about our properties, or fundraising and publicity. I really enjoy the strategic side of my role, looking at the needs of our service users and thinking about how best HARP can meet those needs in future. What’s the best thing about working for HARP?

Since I joined HARP in April, I’ve been blown away by everybody’s passion for helping our service users. It’s also been fantastic talking to so many staff and volunteers about our services, and how we can work together to improve over the next five years.