Warwickshire Vision
Christmas 2017
Front Cover Image: John Davis
Headline: Thank you. Farewell
Warwickshire Vision is distributed FREE to all members of WarwickshireVision Support
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Warwickshire Vision Support is the operating name of Warwickshire Association for the Blind
A company limited byguarantee
Registered in England and Wales Number 6511954 CharityRegistration Number 1123220
Editorial
News from Warwickshire Vision Support
Community Update
Barbara Main
Board of Trustees/Directors
General Meeting -12th October
Staff Changes
New Structure
John Davis retiring after 15years
Board of Trustees appoints Chief Executive
The New Data Protection Law
Safety and Security
Home Security
Stop Nuisance Calls
Personal Resilience
Features
Honorary Degrees forFredand Etta
The Challenge
Danièle’s Story
Robert Keeps on Swimming
Fright or Flight
Our Pride of Warwick District
The New £10 Note
Learning from History
Winters Remembered
Travel and Leisure
A Visit to the National Memorial Arboretum
Rail Travel Assistance Scheme
Cheaper Rail Travel
Discounted Rail Fares
My Calvert Trip 2017
A VIP Holiday
Para Cheer
Keeping Healthy
Ten Tips for VIPs
Acknowledgements
Editorial
Season’s Greetings from your Editorial Team at Warwickshire Vision
Welcome to a bumper Christmas edition of your magazine. There are a lot of changes taking place at Warwickshire Vision Support and we keep you up to date in this magazine.
In this issue there is a Safety and Security section. We hear what members have been doing - their experiences and advice. The new Data Protection Law is explained - it has implications for everyone.
A new Certificate of Visual Impairment form was available from August. This new CVI is supposed to be simpler than the old one, but is in fact longer. Although Eye Clinic staff can ensure the forms are fully completed and processed, only a Consultant Ophthalmologist can sign them off.
For someone who is not yet registered as visually impaired but their poor sight means that they are eligible to be certified, it is important that they should have a CVI form completed for them. It is needed if they are to obtain any help they need.
Our Queen celebrated another milestone anniversary this year on 20th November. It was the 70th (Platinum) anniversary of her wedding to Prince Philip - many congratulations.
Despite having two fairly serious gales, this year is due to be a record mild one.
Please contact us before the start of February if you would like to contribute to the Spring edition of Warwickshire Vision.
We wish you health and happiness for 2018.
News from Warwickshire Vision Support
Community Update
Felicity has now left the Community Team and we have since appointed a new Community Worker as we have a busy schedule of Vision Support Centres, hospital eye clinics and providing support to our Clubs. In the meantime, Sue and Christine are covering as many services as possible but please do bear this in mind when requesting information or support from them as response times may be a little longer than usual.
Nuneaton
We were delighted to learn that the Nepalese community had come together to support our work and that of another charity, Blind Rocks, in August at a fundraising dinner at Cross Khukris Gurkha Restaurant. They raised an awesome £261.50 for us through the auction of artwork and collected donations from attendees, which is absolutely wonderful! Our Manager John, one of our volunteers from Nuneaton called Andrew and a visually impaired service user named Paul all attended so they were able to experience the generosity of the event first hand.
Stratford-upon-Avon
This year we played host once more to the National Citizens’ Service, with the turn of sharing personal stories of sight loss falling to our Stratford Vision Support Centre service users, who gamely joined in. The young people from NCS were also able to spend some time with our IT Team and explore specialist technology, as well as discovering what their own smart phones could do to increase accessibility for visually impaired users. You can read a service user’s story that the NCS participants gathered in this magazine.
Countywide
The Community Team is always on the lookout for affordable, relevant training opportunities to build our knowledge and skills to cater for our wide range of service users. As such, we’ve been fortunate to attend training on areas including volunteer recruitment, safeguarding, and disability benefits, all of which feed into our day-to-day work. We’re regularly asked for advice regarding benefits entitlement and about the process of applying for financial support therefore, a basic understanding of the subject is beneficial to so many.
Barbara Main
On August 27th 2017 our dear friend and colleague, Barbara Main, died from cancer at the age of 59.
Barbara had worked for Warwickshire Vision Support, formerly WAB, since 2004. She began as the Administration Assistant and rose to be the Administration Officer with three staff.
Barbara was one of the most hard-working people I ever met. She had tremendous commitment to the charity and a passion for ensuring that its administration was efficient and effective. There were times when Barbara was on long-term sick leave, due to her cancer, but she insisted on monitoring administration performance through remote access to our databases and telephone conversations with staff.
Warwickshire Vision Support has expanded the services it provides dramatically in the last 13 years. Barbara ensured that the Administration services were always able to meet the challenges this produced.
Barbara was responsible for ensuring that all referrals for services were properly dealt with, for the charity’s databases, for all of our computer systems and for managing our Quality Control System (ISO). In addition she insisted that all of her staff received nationally accredited professional qualifications in administration. She relished her responsibilities; she was a consummate professional.
Barbara and her team were known to all of our service users, volunteers and regular professional contacts. This is because they were most likely to be the first people that you spoke to when telephoning Warwickshire Vision Support. Barbara dealt with many of our suppliers on a day-to-day basis. She took great pleasure in showing me her mail addressed ‘For the Manager’ or ‘Managing Director’ because the companies had presumed that was her title. I took no offence because I know I was able to rely on Barbara to take care of our Admin business!
Barbara was a big personality. She was caring and supportive, very witty, very intelligent. She was devoted to her staff and volunteers and the feelings were reciprocated. I can say with confidence that all of our staff and volunteers would tell you that Barbara always made herself available to sort out any problems they might have.
But equally she liked to be at the centre of any office games and entertainment. WVS does not have a ‘Dress down Friday’ but the Admin Team do have a ‘Sweet Treat Friday’ that involves cakes, chocolate etc. One Christmas, Barbara organised that every team would dress a door and it would be judged by some of our volunteers. I recall that my door, which I shared with Phil, was magnificent. Unfortunately the judges were got at and the Admin door won. In addition, part of my singing canary was vandalised and batteries were removed. The investigations are still ongoing.
We all miss Barbara but we all have really great and intimate memories of her, which we treasure. We loved Barbara; she will not be forgotten.
John Davis, Manager
Editor: Before opening the September Board Meeting Jeff Perry marked Barbara Main’s death and said that ‘she was held in great affection by all the staff and Board alike. She was a stalwart of the Charity for many years - was known to a great number of service users, volunteers and members - she will be sadly missed by everyone - and is irreplaceable. I have received letters and telephone calls from a number of ex-employees and Board members with messages and condolences.’
Board of Trustees/Directors
As a result of the recent election process, Rosemary Went was re-elected also FunshoAjibade and Janet Hurrell were elected to the Board. (FunshoAjibade is unable to take up his seat at present.)
Jeff Perry and Richard Orme have agreed to continue as chairman and vice-chairman.
Elsewhere in this magazine, you can read about structural changes to the management of the organization. When things have settled down, we hope to co-opt one or more visually impaired trustees.
The Board currently comprises:
Jeff Perry (Chairman)
Richard Orme (Vice-Chairman)
Kath Phelps (Company Secretary)
Lesley Edwards (Treasurer)
Heather Fairbairn
Janet Hurrell
Rosemary Went
General Meeting -12th October
Jeff Perry, Chairman, opened the meeting held in Nuneaton and introduced the Trustees present - Lesley Edwards, Janet Hurrell and Rosemary Went. He spoke of the Board vacancies because of the retirement of four Trustees and that all Members should have received voting papers. The attendees included 26 service users or visitors, seven members of staff and two volunteers
He then paid tribute to Barbara Main, Administration Officer, who had died at the end of August. Jo Swann and Imogen Edwards had held a Macmillan Coffee Morning in her name at the office and raised over £800.
He spoke of the Strategic Review, led by Richard Orme, who was unable to attend. A Strategic Ideas Report had been received and adopted. A Working Party was looking at prioritising the suggestions made and a significant budget provision had been made towards implementing a number of suggestions.
Lottery funding had been applied for, to fund a Economic Empowerment Service and to recruit a Volunteer Co-ordinator to manage the recruitment, induction and placement of volunteers.
Two key themes had emerged from members
Inclusion of more people with sight loss in the organisation
A small organization cannot do it all - so we must be open to collaboration with other organisations. Blind and partially sighted people want to use the same services and facilities as everyone else, but can be prevented sometimes by their needs not being accounted for. So let’s work with others to make services inclusive.
Insurers in general are becoming more concerned with the observation of safeguarding of vulnerable adults and children and are becoming very risk averse. In order to continue our existing insurance arrangements we will therefore have to implement more stringent procedures concerning professional training of volunteers, risk analysis of premises, monitoring our volunteer drivers and their cars as well as introducing safeguarding policies and procedures. This will involve a significant amount of time and cost. A small training grant has been obtained from Leamington Town Council and a pilot programme will be held in the area. It is vital that we continue to maintain our insurance cover.
The GDPR - General Data Protection Regulation - is to be implemented by May 2018. It will affect all forms of communication between WVS and our stakeholders and will involve a great deal of work and expense. The complexities would require a new computer system. As a small charity it is becoming more complicated simply to continue providing our existing services.
It has been decided to separate the roles of Senior Rehabilitation Officer and Manager, and that the wider role of Chief Executive Officer should replace that of Manager. John Davis who had carried out the dual role for 15 years had decided to take early retirement. Everyone present applauded to show their appreciation of everything that John had done for the Association.
John Davis gave his Manager’s Report. He spoke of the staff - arrivals and departures. He introduced Christine Gill, who spoke on the MySight group in Nuneaton and Bedworth and North Warwickshire. A programme of monthly group meetings was being held. A successful application had been made to fund the same service in Stratford, Warwick and Rugby.
He also spoke of the Eye Clinic Advice Desks at Rugby and Stratford Hospitals. The latter of which, opened in August with the planned involvement of the local Lions group, displaying some equipment. Incidentally, the Lions support visual impairment and brought the long cane into the UK from the USA.
Members had the opportunity to ask questions and informal chat took place when the meeting closed.
Staff Changes
Kelly Sowter, Rehabilitation Officer
At the end of July, Kelly left to join the Coventry City Council Rehabilitation Team. In the 2 years and 4 months that Kelly was with us, she made a lot of friends and impressed everyone with her hard work and positive attitude. We hope that Kelly enjoys her new job.
A replacement for Kelly will join us at the end of November.
Felicity Kirby, Community Worker
At the end of October, Felicity left to take up a post with Warwickshire County Council in one of their front line teams. Felicity will provide support and advice and will be able to use her excellent communication skills to the full. We hope that Felicity stays in touch.
We have appointed a new Community Worker who will join us very soon.
Rebecca Hunt, IT Officer
Rebecca left in November to join Blind Veterans in providing their IT service. I know that Rebecca is relishing this new challenge and I feel confident that she will be successful. We are sure to have contact with Rebecca over time.
We all wish all of our colleagues the very best in their future careers and would like to thank them for their hard work and commitment whilst working for Warwickshire Vision Support.
New Structure
In the light of all these new changes, the Board is taking the opportunity to restructure the charity.
In the coming weeks we will be promoting staff internally to their new roles.These roles include Senior Rehabilitation Officer, Senior Community Worker as well as promoting our Administration Assistants to Administration Officers.
John Davis retiring after 15years
After more than 15 years at the helm, John Davis, our Manager and Senior Rehabilitation Officer has decided to take early retirement.
The majority of you will have known John for many years and will be aware of all that he has achieved for Warwickshire Vision Support, but we wanted to take this opportunity to recognise his immense contribution to the charity and say thank you for his commitment and dedication.
John joined what was then Warwickshire Association for the Blind in 2002 and within a couple of years he was promoted to the position of Manager/Senior Rehabilitation Officer.
In those days, the Association was focused mostly upon our clubs and providing rehabilitation across the county. We had also recently sold the George Marshall Centre in Puckering’s Lane that had been the centre of our operations, but John turned this challenge into an opportunity to provide local services across the county.
By 2004, John had opened the first Drop-in Centre in Nuneaton and had plans for similar centres across Warwickshire. John’s vision was that each visually impaired person would be within just a few miles of a local resource – a venue that provided advice and information, equipment demonstrations and social support. Within a few years, we had opened seven Drop-in Centres (now called Vision Support Centres) and were welcoming 150 people through our doors each week. The Vision Support Centres have now developed into local platforms offering magnifier sessions, IT training as well as hosting advocacy groups and our new My Sight sessions.
But whilst the Vision Support Centres may be John’s most visible achievement, he has worked tirelessly to develop services that support people to retain their independence at home. The Home Visitor Service continues to support about 120 people each year. Thanks to our 100 volunteers we offer support with reading letters and managing correspondence but perhaps most importantly, provide some much-needed social support to people who have difficulty leaving their home.
In 2013 John introduced our IT training programme, IT4U, in response to the increasing marginalisation of people living with sight loss by the digital revolution. IT4U encourages the learner to set personal practical learning objectives on their tablet or smart phone to enable them to use email, do online shopping or keep in contact with friends and family. With more than 300 learners in the last 4 years, IT4U has been elevated from a pilot study to a core activity.
Throughout John’s tenure, Warwickshire Vision Support has consistently innovated and explored new approaches. John set up our Eye Clinic Advice Desks some years ago (before it became a core policy of RNIB) to help us reach people newly diagnosed with sight loss. We now have a presence at each clinic across the county and have secured Lottery and other major donor funding to create local My Sight groups to offer peer-to-peer support, mentoring, advice and guidance.