Introducing BDP’s new CEO… Lydia Plant

Following the departure of our previous CEO Anna Smith, we’ve had an important role to fill in our organisation. We’re happy to introduce our new CEO Lydia Plant!

We spoke to Lydia about her new position at BDP…

Welcome Lydia!

Thank you!

You were given the position of BDP’s interim CEO upon Anna’s departure [BDP’s previous CEO], and of course were appointed the permanent position just before our new service Horizons launched, how have you been finding the role so far?

It’s been really great to get my teeth stuck into it. I’m really excited to start developing our next steps as an organisation and to keep driving BDP forward. On a personal level, the board of trustees, staff, volunteers and service users have been really supportive as I’ve moved into this new role. I’ve also been blown away by the support and advice offered to me by other leaders across Bristol- I feel lucky to have so many people to call on and to get new perspectives from.  

It’s funny to reflect on because I’ve worked at BDP, on and off, for a really long time and it doesn’t feel quite real to think I’m the CEO!

Plus, it’s a really exciting time for BDP, we’ve just launched our new service Horizons, and we have some new roles in B&NES (Bath and North East Somerset) as part of a new partnership there. But it’s always an exciting time at BDP, we’re always getting involved in new things and there’s always a couple of different projects on the go that are really interesting, so I’m just overall grateful to be in this position and get to develop BDP further.

It’s safe to say you’re no stranger to BDP, and you’ve been working in drug and alcohol services over 15 years, talk me through your background working in services, how will your experience be an asset to BDP moving forward?

Where do I start!? I’ve been working in drug and alcohol services for over 15 years now… which is kind of wild! I started off at One25 which is an amazing charity who work with women in street sex work, and that role [mum & baby residential treatment worker] really shaped me a lot in terms of how I operate now. It was a really empowering place to work, they saw each woman and their child in a holistic, whole-person way. I learnt so much there.

Then I did an addiction counselling degree where I first came to BDP on placement. The degree was a real eye opener for me, that’s where my real passion for understanding the evidence base around drugs and alcohol treatment came to fruition; digging into what actually works. This is something that BDP represents through and through, and something I’ve carried with me my whole career.

It was at this time I got introduced to Harm Reduction as a philosophy and an approach. When I started learning about it, it just completely fit with the way I view the world, and the way it feels right to work with people. BDP has a really proud history of engaging in academic research, building the evidence base and taking a harm reduction approach to working with the people we support. Whether that be every day in our Advice Centre or doing outreach at clubs and festivals. So I like to think the way I navigate and the things I believe in, align really closely with what BDP has always been about – respecting people and their choices, recognising that people are the experts in their own life, but also that workers can have a positive effect on whether someone makes a change or not.

But yeah… I guess over the years I’ve done various bits of work – I was a detox worker, a group worker, I was involved in PRISM, BDP’s LGBTQ+ service, another one of my passions. I was a service manager at BDP and in another service outside of Bristol where I got to see the different parts of treatment, so I’ve got a good few years of experience that has led me to this role.

But crucially, wherever I’ve worked, there’s something about BDP that is really special to me, it aligns with my values and has also challenged me to think about whether what I was doing was effective and in the best interest of the people we are trying to support.

That’s a value I really feel passionate about carrying forward with BDP.

It sounds like being CEO at BDP means a lot to you?

It does. I get really emotional about it. Maggie Telfer [BDP’s late founder] had a huge influence on me, I have never met anyone so passionate, value-led and formidable. She always, always ensured that the service users were the most important people in the room. She was just so harm reduction focused in the widest sense, even when it was unpopular politically, she just really stood for the values of treating people with dignity and advocating for their rights. But also standing back and giving people room to speak for themselves.

Something that’s really special that I felt from Maggie was that everyone had something to bring, no matter their background. I probably wouldn’t have got anywhere near where I am today if people like Maggie hadn’t believed in me and supported me to feel like my life experience – whatever that looks like – was really valuable to bring to work.

When I first came to BDP, it was the first time I felt I could bring my whole self to the job and didn’t have to be someone that I wasn’t. This is something I really treasure at BDP, I hope that all staff can feel they can bring their whole self to work, and hopefully that creates a space where people that use our services can do so as well.

I have always felt immensely privileged and humbled that I get to work somewhere that holds these values, and I hope as CEO I get to continue this legacy and create a welcoming and inclusive environment for both our staff and service users.

We’ve just been through a huge recommissioning process that you played a key part in, how was that process for you and what are you excited about for both the future of BDP and the future of Horizons?

I played a role in writing our bid alongside colleagues from Turning Point. It was really exciting to work with an organisation where our values were aligned, even if we are comparatively quite different organisations. It was about thinking about what already works well in drug and alcohol treatment and where there were areas for improvement to see how we could develop an amazing, responsive system in Bristol. To have contributed to this is a huge privilege.

I feel really excited about Horizons, having a really integrated, easy to navigate system is something we really need. Having the other partner organisations involved really feels like it’s rooted in Bristol as well, they have expertise in supporting people from different communities and neighbourhoods, so hopefully we can provide holistic support from anywhere in the city.

It’s also really great to be at something from the start – to be able to take learning and put it into something new and build something together is an amazing opportunity. While there were lots of late nights and early mornings, it’s incredibly exciting to see something unfold in real time that is tangible and real for people and will provide the best support we can for people who currently use, and will use, our service.

Thank you Lydia, is there anything else you’d like to say?

Yeah, I think it’s important to acknowledge what the future holds for BDP. We’ve always worked in partnerships and been part of a system; collaborating and knowing we can’t do everything on our own is a really key value for us.

I’m looking forward to building BDP in terms of what we stand for, and working with staff, partners and service users to create something together. You know… really see what areas of need there are in our city and try step into that together.