We are coming to the end of ‘Stoptober’
2014 (see my previous thoughts on this here). I don’t smoke and don’t allow
smoking inside the house. I mention this as smoking is still one of the main causes
of fire deaths in Greater Manchester. Over the last 7 years 40% of people who
have died during fires in Greater Manchester, perished in fires started by a
cigarette. Across the UK, 1770 people are either killed or injured by fires
caused by smoking at home. A fire caused by smoking happens once every 3 days. During
this year’s Stoptober, fire-fighters in Greater Manchester have been out disturbing
leaflets which describe the dangers of smoking, and smoking in the house.
2 years ago I took full advantage
of having a home safety check undertaken by these fire-fighters at the Bolton
House. The result was the fitting of state of the art smoke detectors, said to
last 10 years without any need to change batteries or anything else, and
complete peace of mind. However despite not smoking, I was slightly alarmed [sorry]
when one of the detectors started to make a most peculiar scratching sound. After
contacting the fire service once more, an enthusiastic fire-fighter attended
the house and in minutes had changed all the detectors. They were from the same
batch, so it was the safest thing to do. It was a great service, and peace of
mind was re-established.
The Greater Manchester Fire and
Rescue Service (GMFRS) provides a service for communities across nearly 500
square miles. It employs 2174 fire-fighters. It has its Headquarters in
Pendlbury, Greater Manchester. I was there last week. The BIKINI security level
alert was Black and Severe – (an attack is highly likely). I was struck by just
how unaware I had become of such things.
I was there to discuss how colleagues
from the School and other parts of the University could work in partnership
with GMFRS in taking their new Community Risk Intervention Team (CRIT) project
forward and to evaluate its effectiveness in preventing and reducing the number
of fires, the number of older people who fall, who are the victims of distraction burglaries, and
increasing mental health and general wellbeing of people. The GMFRS have secured nearly a
£1m to pilot the scheme in Wigan, Salford, and Manchester and a further £3.7m
to roll it out across the whole of Greater Manchester.
The notion of early intervention
and prevention is aimed at reducing the demand for fire, ambulance and police
resources. Prevention work such as the fitting of smoke detectors, Stoptober campaigns has helped
reduce the number of 999 calls GMFRS receive and have to deal with. Whilst the
CRIT project draws upon a soon to be employed dedicated workforce, the
intention will be that fire-fighters will eventually take on this work. I was excited
as the project provides an opportunity for our colleagues from sociology, social
policy, nursing, and social work to join with colleagues from other Schools across
the university to work together on a project that will improve peoples lives.
Well that was last Thursday. On
Friday, I had a meeting with other Deans and Heads of School from across the North
West to discuss some changes to our NHS contracts – a difficult meeting in part.
Coming after the meeting with GMFRS, in my mind it reinforced the need to think
how we might change our Schools educational and training portfolio to reflect a
rapidly changing world of health and social care service provision.
I was able to leave the School at
15.00 to take the road back to the House in Scotland. There were no problems on
the journey home, but it was dark when I arrived. On my way to the Anchor Hotel
for a Friday dinner out, I was confronted by what seemed to be an unnaturally large amount of flashing lights where there should really be complete darkness. It
turned out to be Mark Newton and his mobility scooter. Somewhat reminiscent of
a pinball machine on wheels (younger readers can ask your parents what a pin
ball machine is) his scooter was parked outside of the Hotel and was lit up
like a Saturday night at Blackpool.
Mark was a serving member of the armed
forces when he suffered a life changing injury to his right leg. By 2009 his mobility
was considerably reduced due to his continued deterioration in his physical condition
and he was presented with a mobility scooter by the Queens Dragoon Guards (his
old regiment) and the Royal British Legion. He was inspired to take to the road
by a chance conversation where someone remarked he could travel around Britain
on his scooter. And that is what he is doing. He is busy raising money for Help
the Hero’s, and the Royal British Legion, and the Queens Dragoon Guards. As I write
this blog Mark has raised nearly £38k for these charities. If you would like to make a donation,
you can do so here.
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