March 2011

We are glad to see the back of the winter weather and are looking forward to spring and warmer weather. It has been a busy period for Assist with a lot of time being spent on our conference. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the exhibitors, many showed latest equipment and what's new in the market. We were fortunate enough to display a converted vehicle from Gowrings, great interest was shown in the new Dignity Commode from Gordon Ellis (Assist had some input into it's design), Accessible Travel showcased their new cruise service which can accommodate 10 wheelchair users to enjoy holidays exploring the river Rhine and waterways in Holland. All exhibitors promoted interest with lots of questions by attendees. The conference had a real buzz to the day.

Keynote Speaker, Stephen Thrower from DWP was well received and gave us an updated position on human rights. The highlight of the day with the audience was a presentation by an assistance dog at work especially the pictures of her at work emptying the washing machine!

The AGM gave a good opportunity for members to network and to be brought up to date with the affairs of Assist UK. The conference was a great success as we attracted 80 people on the day.

I am glad to inform you that we will be having a stand at Naidex on 5th, 6th and 7th April - if you are able to please come and have a chat with us on any of those days. At the exhibition Assist UK will be launching a new commercial website called Assist Direct.

We have now concluded the Malta contract and I gave a presentation at their conference watch out for the forthcoming newsletter for a full report and pictures.

On 26th January I attended the grand opening of the DLF new demonstration centre. They are showing some new exciting equipment and if you are in London it's really worth a visit.

Assist has had some recent success in obtaining some transition funding from the DOH to keep us a float until we change our financial footprint.

We are shortly going into our final year of the Mystery Shopping Project. Year two's report is being viewed by the Department of Health. We hope to be able to release it to you in the near future.

Thank you all for filling in the questionnaire. We are revisiting our Business Plan to take in your comments and wishes and we are aiming to get our next newsletter out April / early May. We will be staying in our Manchester offices for the foreseeable future which is Number 1, Portland Street, Manchester, M1 3BE - if you are ever in Manchester please call in and see us!!

We were contacted by some centres that had unspent budgets at the end of this financial year and asked for their subscription invoices to be sent early, we have adhered to their request and obviously early payment will help our cash flow problems.

Don't forget if you have any problems you can reach our team at the office on 0161 238 8776. Do not hesitate to call if we can help in anyway.

Alan Norton

Does Assist & it's member centres have a future?

First of all, I would like to wish you all a very happy new year. As we move through January and brave the elements there is a picture emerging of challenges for Assist and its members. We have already had notification that 7 of our member centres are set to close by the end of the financial year due to loss of funding and support from their local councils. Others have advised us they are having to change their financial make-up, ie moving to retail, if they are to survive. When challenged the 'powers that be' give us the standard answer that funding and decision making is being devolved to Local Communities. Assist is lobbying the Government, but we need hard facts and as much information as we can get from our centres to give evidence based facts to portray the reality and consequences to disabled people.

With the move to personalisation and the reduction of statutory services there will be more reliance on local retailers. Assist is concerned whether they are 'fit for purpose' and we are working with the OFT (Office of Fair Trading) and undertaking mystery shopping to test the market.

I would like to say a big 'thank you' to those of you who have responded to our recent survey, and to those who haven't I would urge you to contact us via telephone or e-mail with your views and experiences.

On a more positive note we have 3 new members in Cheshire and several new Corporate members. I would like to take this opportunity of congratulating Bexley who have moved from Associate to Full membership. Their range of services and inclusion of disabled people into everyday activities is exemplary.

We still have places available at our forthcoming conference on 21st January at Gaydon Motor Museum, titled 'Human Rights/Disability Rights - Spot the Difference'. It is essentially a 'not to be missed' event, at a fascinating venue. Apart from our formal speakers there will be an opportunity to debate the issues surrounding the move to retail.

Even though there have been several cuts within the Department for Transport, we have been asked to continue our advice and support to the DPTAC Committee for another year. Unfortunately CABE has sufered major cutbacks but the work will carry on based from the Centre of Environmental Excellence.

I know it's difficult to take time away, but Assist needs you to support Regional Meetings. These are an essential networking opportunity and a means of closing ranks to address the critical situation we find ourselves in.

If you find you have 5 minutes I would love a 'phone call' to catch up. I look forward to hearing from you, and remember we always need articles for our magazine.

WIth best wishes for 2011.

Alan

My quote for the month is extracted from the recent 'White Paper' (Page 7 - 1.2) - "we are committed to an NHS that is available to all, free at the point of use, and based on need, not the ability to pay. We will increase health spending in real terms in each year of this parliament".

Festive Greetings

Here we are again rapidly approaching the Festive Season. For most of my shopping I have taken the easy way out and used the internet, and on occasions taken the even easier option of leaving it to my wife!

One pre-Christmas present was a new electric shaver. It is a Philips Arcitec with a revolutionary design of multi-directional head which follows the contours of your face with the minimum amount of arm movement. A real benefit to those with limited upper body strength. Well done Phillips!

Life has been busy for all at Assist HQ, especially with our Conference at the beginning of November. The Team worked really hard and we have had very positive feedback.

Our connection with the Department of Transport led to a meeting at the DVLA in Swansea when we had discussions on the needs of driving instructors when training disabled customers. There appears to be a general lack of knowledge on hand controls and adaptions, and the requirements of disabled drivers. It appears it is often difficult to obtain driving tuition for people who need to use hand controlled vehicles. I am due to meet with the Driving Standards Agency in January 2009 to take this forward.

We are also working with one of the major airlines and a seating/hoist manufacturer on developing a new project to assist in transferring onto aircraft seats. Many disabled people have difficulty in this area. The prototype worked for me and I am no lightweight.

I was made very welcome at Swindon DLC AGM when I spoke on Transforming Community Equipment Services. I also met with colleagues at Exeter to discuss new ways of working with commissioners and retailers.

We are currently busy finishing off our applications for project funding from DoH Section 64 (now renamed Third Sector Investment Fund). We have made it through to the second round on two applications, one is called “Becoming Fit to Equip” where we are teaming up with Ricability to mystery shop the experiences of disabled people when changing prescriptions for assistive technology products through retailers. The second is called “Effective Consumerism in Assistive Technology” where we wish to arm the prospective disabled customer with knowledge before they are exposed to the High Street. I will keep you informed of progress.

These activities are just a snapshot of our current work at Assist UK.

The weeks leading into Christmas are busy with meetings to progress our work; these are Devices for Dignity, update meeting on Transforming Community Equipment Services with the DoH, meetings with OFT, the Department of Transport and Assistive Technology Information Network.

If you have any news, drop us an e-mail or give us a ring and we will feed it back into the network and share the information with our other members.

From myself and the Team at Assist UK, have a great Christmas and a happy, prosperous and healthy New Year.

Alan Norton
Chief Executive Officer

December 2008

Welcome to Guideposts in Witney

Welcome to you all,

I am extremely pleased to announce the recent opening of our newest member centre, the Guideposts Independent Living Centre in Witney, Oxfordshire. The centre opened last Friday, 18th July with a chance to meet the staff and view the centre. Guideposts was officially opened by The Right Honourable David Cameron MP in the afternoon. Here at Assist UK we are hugely proud of the hard work and dedication that has gone into the opening, and wish to extend our sincere congratulations to the whole team and wish them well in all their current and future endeavours. We will be present to provide all support needed to ensure Guideposts can go from strength to strength. Guideposts will be our 60th member in the Assist UK network, and expands us to the largest we have been since our conception.

Once again, well done all those involved.

All the best,

Alan

NAEP Conference 2008 and the Norbreck Castle Hotel

Welcome all,

Once again, the NAEP conference – this year entitled ‘Equipment to the People - A Prescription Revolution? – was held at the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool. In the course of the two day event, Blackpool managed to offer us a moment of sunshine before the rain came cascading down!

There is a certain irony for me as a wheelchair user, for such an event to take place in a venue with unfortunately poor accessibility. Without staff members to accompany me, getting through parts of the hotel where doors were barely big enough for me to pass through would have been nigh on impossible. My accessible room proved relatively painless although I could well imagine the potential retail profit to be made from someone access auditing the place to encourage the hotel to install spy holes at an accessible level, and coat hooks at a reachable height!

The subject under debate at the conference was the TCES programme and the retail model, which proved a topic able to in part to enflame opinion and to provoke discussion. Presentations abounded from retailers, community equipment service members and the Department of Health, all eager to play a part in the ongoing dialogue regarding the provision of equipment. The DoH is aware that retailers are not ready to provide the essential service needed for the retail model to work, and are in search of current retailers to take on the model. They have also created a financial structure which individual equipment service teams may use to foresee the positive benefits to be had from taking the model onboard; the National Catalogue is set to appear in the coming months.

Congratulations to all at NAEP for putting on such an engaging event and I look forward to the continued debate currently underway.

All the best,

Alan Norton

Naidex 2008

Welcome all,

At the end of April, Assist UK was proud to participate in Naidex, the disability and rehabilitation exhibition at the NEC, Birmingham. On the opening day, I was invited to speak and take part in a panel discussion on the Retail Model alongside BHTA, College of Occupational Therapists and the Department of Health. Not only was this a prime opportunity for Assist UK to release its position statement on the model, but also for us to engage in the debate with our own distinct and unparalleled voice.The discussion was vigorous and animated with more than a few charged thoughts vocalised towards the panel members. Of course I am extraordinarily pleased that debates of this significance are beginning to take shape and influence the changing nature of the sector.

Wednesday saw the media launch of our Trusted Technician course created in partnership with Foundations, the home improvement agency.The course is designed to benefit all technical staff who recommend or carry out small repairs and adaptations within assistive technology designed to support older and disabled people in leading independent lives at home. It follows closely on from Assist UK's partnership with York St John University in creating the Training the Trainer course prior to the onset of Assist UK's Trusted Assessor courses rolling out at disabled living centres across the country.

With the advent of the Retail Model upon us and its inevitable impact upon all aspects of the disability world, we are faced with a challenge in which healthcare professionals, manufacturers, dealers and charitable institutions could all benefit from collectively uniting to guarantee older and disabled members of the public remain our focus whilst encouraging and supporting independent choice and living for all.

Until the next time,

Alan Norton

Virgin Trains meeting

Welcome,

Transport and the inclusion of disabled passengers (or lack of) is one of the current topics of discussion here at Assist UK, and an area we hope to focus upon in upcoming articles in our next newsletter.

Following our meeting on 22nd April with Chris Hagyard, Franchise Manager for Virgin Trains – he is tasked with ensuring suitable arrangements are in place for disabled travellers - many positive responses were forthcoming. Virgin is excited to work with Assist UK to address problems regarding disabled customer service and assistance. The following is a list of priorities Virgin envisages should be implemented to ensure disabled access and assistance achieves the standard it should.

Virgin Trains are looking at marking platforms at major stations which will line up disabled coaches with marked areas at the station. Raised platforms would then be built-in at stations creating no need for manual ramps to be attached to the carriage.

• In their next generation of trains, Virgin Trains is considering level access to ensure disabled passengers can board without ramp assistance.
• Virgin is keen to retrain staff to be able to handle conflicts frequently arising from disabled spaces being utilised for luggage / prams etc. They are keen to put this in place by employing new signage next to disabled spacing emphasising the legal nature of this. Virgin is also keen to ensure staff are cognoscente with all needs disabled customers require while travelling.
• Assist UK are also keen to review Virgin Trains’ internal training to see if we are able to contribute anything to enable their training to be more acutely aware of the differing needs of disabled passengers.

There was also discussion of Manchester Piccadilly Train Station’s disabled car parking bays being used by staff once their overflow car park is full. Although it doesn’t full under Virgin’s remit – Network Rail must hold their hands up here - they are devoted to ensuring stations work to the same standards of service that they do.

Of course, it isn’t only the privilege of Network Rail and its cohorts in proving hard to pin down to commitments regarding disabled people. The gamut of black taxis in the capital is proving resilient to respond to disabled travellers’ needs, as I witnessed last month on a number of occasions. Flagging down a taxi might well be easy, but getting one to stay still once the driver’s seen my wheelchair is somewhat harder! Leaving an event at Admiralty House and catching a taxi proved tricky, when the driver, cornered by my PA into taking us, opened up his boot to reveal more personal debris than the average charity shop. Hidden underneath the ruins lay his assistance ramp, obviously rarely considered as a necessity to be used. How we tackle a change of mentality to get taxi drivers to view wheelchair users, not as an inconvenience but in the same light as they do any other paying customer is another challenge we have for the future.

As a final note, I would like to pass on my thanks to all the Making the Links members who have emailed feedback to us to offer their own valuable feedback into this debate.

All the best,

Alan Norton