Meet the Team

With more than 30 years experience, Terry Hawkins has extensive knowledge and experience working within commercial sales, marketing and general management. He has a flair for the development and implementation of creative new business initiatives. Most recently whilst with Working Families, a charity promoting flexible working, he worked to develop resources to support employers to help support carers in the workplace. He is driven and motivated to bring technological solutions together to improve infrastructure and sustainability to support carers and those they care for to live life well and to keep caring for longer.

Terry has worked within the third sector for the past nine years following a long career in the publishing industry. With senior positions at RNIB, developing & managing a business worth £18million, in which he helped develop resources and solutions to improve accessibility for those suffering from sight loss. He has also worked within the NHS, holding the position of Head of Acute Medicine, managing the difficult area of A&E, ambulatory care and the acute wards.

His career in publishing saw 12 years working within the provincial press, for newspaper groups Pearson and Express Newspapers. Then a move to Fleet Street, Wapping and Central London working for seven years at News International, during which time he worked on The Times, Sunday Times, The Sun, Today and News Of the World, before moving to The Daily Mail Group, where he held a number of general management positions, before being appointed Regional Director, responsible for managing nine publishing businesses across the South of England.

After growing up on a farm I swiftly moved into the work of finance with the earlier part of my carer being in the Financial Services sector.  I made the move into the Charity sector when I joined Crossroads back in 2012 and have not looked back.  I am passionate about the work that we do and the much-needed support that we provide Carers in Surrey.

I was extremely proud to join Crossroads in November 2020. I have worked in HR for over 15 years, previously working within the education, financial services and private sectors.  I am a true HR generalist and an Associate Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD).

My newly created role as Head of Human Resources reports directly into the CEO and is part of the Senior Management Team.  Crossroads has recently undergone a digital transformation and as part of that the HR Team launched our new HR System and Applicant Tracking System, which will enhance both our colleague’s interaction with HR, as well as our candidates.

I am passionate about Safeguarding, ensuring fair and robust processes for our people and clients.

In my spare time I enjoy spending time with family and friends, exercising with my dog and I am a fully qualified ASA Swimming Instructor!

Having spent my entire working life working in Adult Social Care, I have managed a varying range of services which provided support to individuals with Autism, Learning Disabilities, Physical Disabilities and complex behaviour. I am passionate about ensuring the highest level of care and support for all individuals regardless of need.

My role as Care Operations Manager reports directly into the CEO and is part of the Senior Management Team. I oversee the care operations and ensure that we are providing a high standard of care and support to our valued clients.

In my spare time I enjoy going to the theatre, going for long country walks with my two dogs and losing myself in a great book on my Kindle.

I returned to university to retrain as a school teacher and study towards a Masters in Pedagogy in 2009; however, five years later I decided to take a career break to care for my own small children, fully expecting to return to teaching. During this time, I took a part-time job working in the café-bar at our local golf course. A group of adults with learning disabilities came in every week for their lesson; I developed a good rapport with them and their support staff, who convinced me to try out a role as a Support Worker. Since then, I have been passionate about delivering high-quality, value-for-money services for people with wide-ranging disabilities in order to deliver person-centred, whole-family support that achieves consistently high outcomes.

Building upon my knowledge, skills and understanding gained working with SEN children and their families within schools, I quickly established good relationships with a wide variety of stakeholders and progressed initially to the role of Team Leader and then Service Coordinator within a day service for adults with learning disabilities, run by an LATC of Surrey County Council. A year later, I was managing three day services and supporting nearly 100 adults with learning disabilities/complex needs and their families every week within a day setting.

Following a three-month contract to help turn around a clinic linked to a pharmacy providing phlebotomy and health screening services which had been rated as inadequate, I wanted to develop my skillset as a Registered Manager of regulated services. Therefore, I moved to a group of Surrey County Council residential care homes for adults with learning disabilities, securing ‘Good’ across all KLOEs with CQC and working towards ‘Outstanding’, as well as securing an ‘Outstanding’ rating as part of a project team moving one of our groups of care homes over to Supported Living units. My role involved working with all stakeholders at a strategic and senior level in order to improve outcomes for adults with learning disabilities across Surrey. Following this, and to improve my knowledge of nursing care, I took a peripatetic role supporting Registered Managers of nursing homes for the elderly, adults with complex and/or mental health needs and adults with dementia across the south of England, before moving into my current role as Head of Operations for Crossroads Care Surrey.

Having always worked closely with adults and children’s safeguarding teams in schools and at Surrey County Council, my current role involves being the overall Safeguarding Lead for the organisation, as well as the Caldicott Guardian. Reporting directly to the CEO and Board of Trustees, I also work on a daily basis with senior commissioners and departmental heads at the local authority and enjoy a transparent and supportive professional relationship with our nominated CQC inspector.

I’ve worked in public sector communications and fundraising for more than 25 years because it is important to me to work for organisations that help to improve people’s lives. The charity sector for care is a special place to be. I bring my experience of working in ex-Service, family support, hospice, and learning disability support charities, along with my local government experience, to Crossroads Care Surrey.

While we are assisting people in often difficult and stressful circumstances, the focus of our work is highly positive: to give vital support through professional, consistent and compassionate care; to give people freedom; to enable them access opportunities that bring a positive change; and to more easily find the information and networks that will make a key difference to their lives.

Like so many, I have experienced caring situations in my own family. I know first-hand the huge impact these responsibilities can have on health, finances, personal relationships, work and opportunities.

Working with the Fundraising, Marketing and Communications team, I hope to engage, encourage and support unpaid carers and their families, alongside local organisations, businesses and other providers, to benefit from being a part of the Crossroads Care community in many different ways.