Our East Devon VCSE Support Service works across the district to build capacity in voluntary, community and social enterprise organisations.
Exmouth Healing Centre (EHC) is an early-stage limited company aiming to provide affordable treatment spaces and a supportive environment for practitioners and residents in Exmouth. At first contact with our team, the directors were thought they wanted to remain a Ltd company (not a charity) to retain flexibility on renting out space for profit. This changed through conversation, but they needed help to tighten governance, clarify roles, and shape a finance plan, including addressing a loan provided by the landlord (a director’s husband) and plans to involve volunteers.
To progress, EHC booked into our East Devon VCSE Support Surgery in Exmouth (11 Dec 2025) to access 1-to-1 business and funding advice.
DCT supported them through some initial scoping before the appointment. We explored EHC’s legal form, business/finance planning, and readiness for growth; and signposted them to Heart of SW Growth Hub for complementary start-up support. Whilst at our support surgery, DCT and EHC agreed concrete steps to build organisational resilience and investment-readiness:
- Draft a Managing Director job description to clarify leadership scope and
expectations. - Board structure and skills audit, then recruit to fill capability gaps.
- Accountant handover between EHC and the landlord’s company (MGPF Holdings)
to formalise financial processes and simplify reporting. - Fix the booking system via a local provider (Cosmic) to remove friction in customer
acquisition. - Turn the existing business plan into a work plan (who does what, by when), with permission to use AI to speed up task structuring.
- Local data and networks: use Census 2021 mapping for demand insights; consider
rejoining the WEB Health & Well-Being Alliance; keep tapping Devon Community
DCT’s combined governance, finance, and operational support gave EHC a clear, staged path from aspiration to delivery, an actionable workplan, and role clarity, reducing operational risk and shortening the path to investment-readiness.
The accountant handover and booking-system fix address two critical bottlenecks: cashflow visibility and client acquisition, both essential to balance income and expenditure and to service the existing loan responsibly. Helping them to form a skills-based board and MD role provides governance capacity to oversee growth, volunteers, and compliance, strengthening funder and partner confidence as the centre scales up.
