Alex Busch, Looking Back on Two Decades

As Alex Busch prepares to step down from his role as Executive Director at Camphill School Aberdeen (CSA) after 21 years with the charity, he says seeing the small everyday changes that add up to big transformations in the lives of the children and young people is what he’ll miss the most.

The father of four, whose wife also holds a senior role at CSA, oversaw a far-reaching restructuring of the organisation to help safeguard its future and was at the helm of the charity when most residents and staff lived and worked together during Covid.  

Alex’s connection to the Camphill movement goes back long before his own career began. In fact, he was born at a Camphill charity in Bristol where his parents were volunteering. He later moved with them to the Netherlands to live in another community setting, with a similar ethos to Camphill, where he spent the rest of his childhood before going on to study law at university.

After practicing commercial law for a short period, Alex began to question what he wanted to do long-term and decided to return to his roots. He moved back to the Camphill community in Bristol, where he focused on curative education and social care, marking a shift toward the values that had shaped his upbringing. It was this time that his interest in Camphill deepened, and he became curious about Aberdeen, where the global Camphill movement began. He decided to make the move north.

“I knew even on that first night in Aberdeen that this was somewhere that I would really enjoy being,” he says.

Alex's first role at CSA was at St Andrews House before moving to Cherrywood House as a senior care worker alongside his wife, Wiepke, who was the house coordinator. He spent the first few years at Murtle Estate gaining as much experience across the different roles as he could, from working closely with the children and young people in the houses to working on the organic farm and at the wood workshop.

With his law background, Alex gradually became more involved with the office and the contractual activities of the organisation. In 2016, he had the opportunity to put himself forward to become part of a new management team which was elected by the CSA community.

Alex became Deputy Executive Director, working closely with Laurence Alfred, who was elected as Executive Director.

“It worked really well,” recalls Alex. “It was an opportunity for me to learn before stepping up into the Executive Director role when Laurence retired in 2018.”

It was a role that saw Alex hit the ground running – and he hasn’t stopped since.

“Almost as soon as I became Executive Director, we began a period of major change at Camphill. I’ve always been a big believer in change and modernising.

“We had to make the far-reaching change from being a community where everyone was a volunteer and the structure was more horizontal, to everyone becoming a member or staff with much clearer and more stringent ways of doing things, so it was quite unsettling for some people who had been with Camphill for a long time.

“It took about 18 months to finalise the new structure. There was quite a lot of pressure to make sure we did it right and a lot of attention on us because, while other smaller communities had gone through similar change, we were by far the largest Camphill community to do that,” he said.

Covid proved to be another pivotal moment for Alex. Despite the challenges, it’s a period that he has fond memories of - the slowed pace of life providing even greater tranquillity and calmness for the young people on the estate. It also brought home to him the crisis in care that families throughout the UK are facing.

He worked with Camphill Estates to strengthen the fundraising team and worked with them to develop a major capital projects campaign, Building Futures, Transforming Lives, to increase capacity at CSA for both day and residential students.

The project has been one of his career highlights with the completion of social enterprise Murtle Market and an 11-bedroom residential house, Linden House, also on Murtle Estate. A Sensory Playpark which will be available for members of the public to use is also due to open this year.

“The Bookshop at the end of Murtle Estate’s drive became empty and an idea began to evolve for Murtle Market. I’ve always been a big believer in making Camphill much more visible. The fundraising for Linden House started that and Murtle Market is probably now the most visible part of what we do. The store has doubled its turnover in its first year and I’m really proud of that,” he said

Reflecting on his fondest memories at Camphill, Alex spoke about the connections he has made with the young people. One young person loved buses, so Alex took him on a five-day road trip to Inverness.

“In my early days at Camphill I made many connections with the children – I saw them grow and become more confident and independent.

Another favourite memory was when staff and young people would rent a house in Stonehaven and spend a few days away from their normal routine, enjoying time together by the sea.

Although Alex will no longer be overseeing CSA, his connection to the charity will continue in his new role as Chief Development Officer at Camphill Estates, where he will focus on building stronger connections and promoting Camphill’s various Aberdeen charities.

He is quick to emphasise that his journey has never been a solo effort. Alex said he would not be where he is today without the support of the teams around him, including the young people themselves.

“Without the young people, their parents and the teams around me, I wouldn’t have been anywhere. We’ve always done things together and working in partnership with all stakeholders. Maybe it was with my leadership, but it took their leadership and support to transform CSA to where it is now. We’re doing something really exciting here, and while it’s not without its challenges, I’m positive about the future,” he said.

After 21 years, Alex says the sense of warmth and community at CSA remains as strong as ever. He hopes more people will come to see and understand the unique environment that helps transform the lives of young people with complex additional support needs.

“If you come on site and see the work that’s going on, you’ll see that it’s very unique. It’s like a cozy blanket, and we need to share that with many people,” he says.

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