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The Editor |
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Managing Director,
Mrs Susan Pattrick |
| My Featured Charity | |
The Essex Air Ambulance is a vital life-saving Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) for your County.
Accidents and illnesses happen and when they do, patients, whatever their age, circumstances or location need vital treatment fast. The speed with which our Air Ambulance Doctors and Paramedics can reach a patient, identify and administer processes to slow, halt or even reverse the effects of life-threatening injury, is crucial in helping to save the patient and return them to full health.
A large proportion of Essex Air Ambulance missions are trauma victims. Trauma is a leading cause of death among children and young adults and a major cause of disability. Our highly skilled teams of Doctors and Paramedics play an integral role in reducing disability and death from Trauma.
We hope you or your loved ones never need us but thanks to the generous support of the people of the County our service remains operational.
Facts of Flight...
- The Essex Air Ambulance is operational 7 days a week.
- It costs in the region of £250,000 per month to cover all charitable costs and aircraft operations.
- The MD902 Explorer flies at around 150mph (138 knots).
Click here to visit their website... |
| Nomitations | |
Please feel free to nominate a future charity of the month here...
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Greetings!
Firstly a special thank you to those who made donations to Colchester Carers Centre, and I believe there was also a contribution to Nick Athorne my inspirational person. Very much appreciated.
So we didn't win the world cup then! Would goal line technology have helped the cause? Possibly, but we'll never know. It did strike me though that using appropriate tools in everyday life is something for today, not something for the future. Have you got the right tools for your job? Do you know your responsibilities regarding discrimination?
I am delighted to support the Essex Air Ambulance as my charity for the month. It seems barely a day goes by without us all seeing it hovering overhead nearby. It's such a worthwhile cause and has made a huge difference to a great number of people.
My inspirational person for this month is Julie Darlow, who suffers with a very rare disease...Wegener's Granulomatosis. I would encourage you to read her story below. |
| Help for Heroes | |
I am delighted to have been supporting the Help for Heroes charity. Pictured here is the cheque presentation.
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| The Equality Act 2010 | |
In last months issue there was an introductory article on The Equality Act. In brief the Act covers the following areas of discrimination: Age; Disability; Gender reassignment; Pregnancy and maternity; Race, religion or belief; Sex, and sexual orientation.
Over the next few months I will address each of these aspects in a little more detail, to encourage you to think about how well you / your organisation is placed in understanding your obligations.
This month is Age... |
| Equality Act 2010 - Age Discrimination | |
Were you aware that it is unlawful to deny someone a job, stop them gaining a promotion, or deny them training because of their age?
So who is protected under Age Discrimination? It covers all employees and workers of any age, including partners of firms, contract workers and anyone who is in vocational training.
Every aspect of employment or prospective employment is protected from age discrimination. This includes recruitment, employment terms and conditions including service related benefits, promotions and transfers, training, retirement rights and dismissals including unfair dismissals and redundancy procedures.
A good example of service related benefits might be that an employer provides such benefits to motivate staff, reward loyalty and recognise experience. If length of service is used as a criterion that aims to increase pay or benefits, an employer may only continue to do this so long as any period of service is not more than 5 years. If the length of service is more than 5 years, justification for a business need may have to be proven by the employer by producing information that shows recruitment and retention levels.
SMP Consultancy can provide advice and guidance on all aspects of the Equality Act. If you're in any doubt about your responsibilities then please call me or email me... Next month we will examine Disability. |
| Disability claimants face stricter testing | |
More than 3m disability benefit claimants are to be retested under an ambitious and contentious cost-saving drive that is intended to strip 600,000 beneficiaries of about £70 a week.
George Osborne said the new round of stricter medical assessments for disability living allowance (DLA) - which will save £1bn by 2014 - was essential to bear down on costs that have quadrupled to £11bn since the universal benefit was introduced in 1992.
Click here to read the full article in the Financial Times. Unfortunately you now have to register (don't worry it is free!) to view FT articles online but it is worth reading. |
| Inspirational People - Julie Darlow | |
 Julie Darlow is 45 years young, has 4 lovely children, Natasha 26, Victoria 25, Charlotte 22, Elliott 20 as well as 2 beautiful grandsons Jamie 7 and Jude 2. Her main support is Phil who drives her to and from hospital, and puts up with her moods and frustration. On the 17th December 2007 after having flu like symptoms and being admitted to EAU twice and 3 other separate hospitalisations, Julie was finally diagnosed with Wegener's Granulomatosis (WG) a very rare incurable auto immune disease. Like everyone else, she had never heard of this before but was given information on what it was, some of the treatment that she would experience and the likely outcomes including death. Julie wasn't told she would go from a size 10 to 16/18 in a matter of months. She wasn't told she would lose her hair. She wasn't really told much only that she needed treatment as soon as possible to enable her to survive. Read Julie's full story here in her own words... And if you need to be inspired, in Julie's own words... "Live life the best you can, socialise as much as you can, in or out of the house, find an interest that has always been a burning desire but you have never got round to doing anything about. Just never give up!"
Sound advice indeed! |
| Contrast - Accessibility & Environments | |
Last month I attended a seminar and workshop at Kingston University, Surrey. The title of the seminar was:
Contrast: Accessibility and Environments
During the morning, we were treated to a talk on contrast by Professor Hilary Dalke, who is Professor of Design at the Design Research Centre at Kingston University and her colleague, Alessio Corso, Research Fellow at the same university. The talk included her research over many years with visually impaired people to define what can be seen in colour and contrast, what colours are seen first and how visually impaired people move about in the environment.
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| And Finally - Go Grab a Coffee... | | |
Just when you think the football fever is over...
From 14th to 22nd August England plays host to the ISBA World Blind Football Championship. It's no great surprise that Argentina and Brazil are strong favourites, but we have won it in the past and home advantage might just help England bring home the world cup after all.
Check out full details on the website. Come on you boys!
Photo courtesy of the ISBA 2010 website. |
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