About Touchstone

Touchstone was born out of an identified need for friendship and community in South Leeds in 1982. A social worker, Sylvia Landells, and CPN, John Clare, saw that large numbers of vulnerable people were left isolated and distressed out of hours and at weekends, so they set up a 'weekend club' which was to grow into Touchstone.

More than 35 years later, Touchstone provide mental health and wellbeing services to over 5000 people a year, whilst also working across communities to grow their confidence and capacity to demand the services and positive experiences they are entitled to.

Touchstone believe that their team of dedicated employees are their greatest asset, and they need to both value and support their staff to own and deliver their vision. Staff development is crucial to quality service delivery and they are committed to meeting colleagues' aspirations now and into the future.

When staff go above and beyond at work, colleagues or service users make written compliments to the CEO who writes personal letters of thanks, sends cards or flowers to the member of staff which is really valued by recipients.

All staff send compliments about their colleagues, and this is important because it reinforces that all staff are part of the success of Touchstone and it does not just take a manager to say so or to notice.

Touchstone also hold annual awards ceremonies to thank staff and where colleagues nominate each other for the highly prized awards. They had an Oscar's themed event that they called the Touchstone Oscars (TOSCARS) and TAFTAs (Touchstone Absolutely Fabulous Team Awards) and produced a hard copy booklet for all staff which contained all nominations.