Graham Faulkner has announced he will retire at the end of September after 13 years at the helm of the Epilepsy Society.

In his time there the charity has expanded from a specialist residential care centre to a national provider of services and a centre for research. Its latest accounts show an income of £17m and expenditure of £16m for the year-end March 2012.

Announcing his retirement Faulkner said: “I would like to think that Epilepsy Society is now an organisation fit for the 21st century.”

He will continue to be a trustee for the Daisy Garland epilepsy charity as well as the Roald Dahl Marvellous Children’s Charity. Before joining the Epilepsy Society he was chief executive of Rehab UK.

Faulkner said: “Changes to the health and welfare system are proving challenging to people with epilepsy. Even in this day and age people don’t really understand epilepsy – the complexity and the unpredictability of the condition. Throughout our 120-year history, Epilepsy Society has been a driver of innovation.”

He added: “We’re rising to today’s challenges and responding by collaborating with other organisations to ensure the voice of people with epilepsy is represented in a world where many are clamouring for the same the same attention and best services.”

The charity is yet to find a replacement for Faulkner.

In its latest accounts the charity noted that it was working towards greater collaboration with other epilepsy charities and had already formed a strategic alliance with one and was in talks with four others.

Ten years ago the National Society for Epilepsy (the charity’s name before it rebranded in 2011) was highly commended in the education and training category at the Charity Awards. This year’s shortlisted charities will be announced on civilsociety.co.uk on 7 May.

 

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