We hope you all had a nice Bank Holiday!
We’re going through a combination of the half term holidays and our own ones with, it is safe to say, both champions and staff going to some interesting locations.
Don’t forget that we’re also calling for professionals in local government to write some resources for the campaign to help develop more social value and more opportunities for young people with disabilities and health conditions to gain employment. So look at our previous appeal and contact Philip Connolly our Policy and Development Manager at philip.connolly@disabilityrightsuk.org if you are interested.
Gearing up to the General Election, being mindful of Purdah, elements are being put in place for the campaign to achieve future success. We’ll be sending a letter to the FTSE 350 companies. Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester and Andy Street the West Midlands Mayor (an area which includes Birmingham) have agreed to meetings along with Steve Rotherham Liverpool City Region. We’ve also got some exciting progress towards new job opportunities being made. Philip Connolly our Policy and Development Manager met with David Gigg and Francesca Livesey of the Crown Commercial Service on the 25th of May and they are considering inserting contract clauses for social value regarding people with disabilities.
Meetings are also being sought with the procurement staff in the Greater London Authority and Transport for London who report to Sadiq Kahn the Mayor of London. Transport for London are responsible for sixty thousand job opportunities through their supply chains, some of these opportunities could align with the skills of people with disabilities.
Also, being sought is a meeting with Tony Meggs, the CEO of the Infrastructure and Projects Authority. This unit is sponsored by the Cabinet Office and the Treasury and is responsible for government spending on roads, rail, airports, broadband, flood defences etc. All this expenditure could be linked to employment opportunities for people with disabilities and health conditions.
Our Champions are working hard too. Also occurring on 25th May, our Champion for the East Midlands Amir Pathan met with Jasminder Obhi Team Leader at the Employment Service (Enablement Service) for Leicester City Council to discuss how we could work together to create new job opportunities in Leicester. We gained a lot of useful information and look forward to corresponding and co-operating with them further particularly regarding bypassing obstacles to employment.
Fittingly enough in Volunteers Week we’re also preparing for another induction day to formally welcome our newest champions, including Bethany Young, our I Can Make It Champion for Hertfordshire. And Poppy Macleod our most recent Champion to join our Greater Manchester squad. Both of whom we’re looking forward to creating new opportunities with. On that note and to finish off this update we’d like to salute the progress undertaken by our champions past and present that has got us to this point. With their efforts, we will go onwards to a brighter future.