Simon Ball Parliamentary Visit

Simon Ball, Clinical Engagement and Implementation Manager for our Wheelchair framework was invited to The House of Lords to attend the inaugural Wheelchair Innovation Special Interest Group meeting hosted by The Wheelchair Alliance on Tuesday 7 May.

The Wheelchair Alliance is an organisation which champions national accountability for wheelchair users and their carers, to ensure their voices are heard and represented at a national level.

Their vision is to ‘transform the experience for wheelchair users in England through improved access, quality and effectiveness’ working in partnership with organisations, to ensure that wheelchair services provide choice, and have capacity to deliver the outcome of each user referred to a wheelchair service. They have commissioned and published two recent reports into Wheelchair provision, the first in 2022 was the ‘State of the Nation’ and in 2023 ‘The Value of a Wheelchair’.

The meeting was chaired by founder member of the Wheelchair Alliance and current board member, Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, and the Alliances’ Chair and COO, Nick Goldup.

In attendance were board members, representatives from wheelchair services and suppliers.

Attendees found the meeting valuable, topics covered explored:

• National variation.
• Consideration of product provision.
• Ease of access.
• Timeframe for service delivery.
• Ongoing service / review.