New Executive Director of Housing
Advance has appointed Lucy Sivasundram as its new Executive Director of Housing.
We are happy to welcome Lucy to the Executive Leadership Team where she will lead the provision of housing for people with disabilities and mental health conditions.
Lucy joins Advance from Ability Housing, where she was Director of Operations for four years. Previous to that position she held senior housing roles at Paradigm Housing Group, managing the supported housing provision for the organisation.
On joining Advance, Lucy said: “I am extremely pleased to be joining such a well regarded and forward-thinking organisation. Throughout my career in housing and support, Advance has had a fantastic reputation in the sector, and I’m looking forward to contributing to the continuation of that.”
Lucy began her career in the NHS, as a speech and language therapist, joining housing later with a position at Anchor Housing. It was here that Lucy began to see the alignment between her earlier speech therapy work in the community, and the importance of good housing and support services to enable people to live settled and fulfilling lives.
Roles at the Hyde Group followed, before her move to Paradigm where she spent six years, followed by a full transition to supported housing with her position at Ability Housing, which she says had a similar vision to Advance: to enable people to live thriving and independent lives.
Lucy adds: “With consumer regulation being embedded into the sector, we’ll be investing in ensuring Advance is best placed to meet and exceed those regulations, continuing to improve and future-proof our services to make a positive difference. Customer engagement will also be a key area; making sure that for customers, it is accessible and meaningful and leads to positive change.”
Julie Layton, Advance’s Chief Executive, added: “Lucy joins us at a pivotal time, as we reflect on our successes over the 50 years since Advance was established, as well as looking ahead at how we adapt and continue to provide life-enhancing services to enable people to live the lives they wish. Lucy has the perfect mix of experience and will be an asset to the organisation. We are extremely happy to welcome her to the team.”
As part of the Executive Director of Housing role, Lucy also plans to continue her work with the Learning Disability and Autism Housing Network, which recently highlighted that 75 per cent of people with a learning disability or autism do not live in supported accommodation. She added: “There is clearly a lot of work to be done in supporting those individuals, and I believe we’re well placed at Advance to contribute significantly to that.”