Having given both you and myself a break from my personal blog over the last 2 months whilst Paul Grant the DCEO and Mark Oxley our Head of Clinical Services gave you their own thoughts, it is time for me to take back the mantle of writing the blog for this month.
There has been an eclectic series of different activities going on this month, which has seen the PTC team spread far and wide drumming up support and activity for both the PTC as well as for St George’s Police Children’s Trust. The month started with me attending the Police UK Charites Seminar at the PFEW HQ in Leatherhead. This is a gathering of the leading UK Police Charities to see how they can raise the profile, influence and fundraising abilities of the UK police charities, and exercise some collective muscle. I can assure you that it is not simply another talking shop where very little is done, as there were a range of good ideas and proposals that came out of what was the third meeting of its type that we are now looking to take forward for the collective benefit of not just the PTC, but the many other police charities out there. I will keep you posted as this develops.
The following week we hosted the new High Sheriffs of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire for their inaugural visit to the PTC. Despite the fact that this is a very high profile visit for the PTC, as with all our visits and something I am quite clear about, the PTC never do anything special for these visitors, they see and get to experience exactly the same standards of food, cleanliness and ambience that the patients do every day, as despite the number of the visitors that we do have, we ensure that they never distract from the reason that we are here, which is to treat ill and injured police officers. The High Sheriffs were universally impressed with everything that they saw, and as part of this reaffirmed their commitment to appoint the PTC as their charity beneficiary of the North Eastern Legal Service in York Minster in October.
That same week also saw the PTC mixed male/female team compete in the Knaresborough Bed race on Saturday 11 June. Having done the event last year, I decided that discretion was the best part of valour this year and I would “allow” younger and more enthusiastic members of the PTC team to take my place on the bed as a runner. The team acquitted themselves well and produced another fantastic effort in the race, and all of you will be delighted to know, that I did not feel a twinge of regret on the day about not running, particularly as I was able to watch the Facebook updates on the race whilst on leave in Ibiza in the sunshine!!
We have continued to push out and brief new groups of student officers and get them signed up to the PTC and St George’s, Mark Oxley and Peter Moore have engaged closely with both the Civil Nuclear Constabulary and the Defence Police Federation (DPF) this month raising awareness of both our charities, and the DPF also handed over a large cheque in support of St George’s of money raised on the night, Graeme Addison has been at Tulliallan the Scottish Police College and Paul Grant attended the PFNI Conference in Northern Ireland.
The last week of the month was dominated by 2 events. First of all trustee training for all our trustees which was sponsored and paid for very kindly by the BTP Federation. The BTP have been one of our donor constituent forces for some time, but in the last few years have been really engaged in terms of their support for the PTC, and also have an active and committed BTP Trustee in the shape of Darren Townsend as one of our Board Members who is adding real value to how we do business. The trustee training itself was a great opportunity to remind all trustees of their responsibilities, and how charities must run effectively in the best interest of their beneficiaries. All of the trustees and indeed the SMT at the PTC benefitted hugely from the training, and certainly picked up a number of learning points, but it was also reassuring to learn that we are running both the charities within the guidelines laid down by the charity commission, and although there are a couple of items that we can tweak and improve, we are essentially in good order.
The trustee training was followed the next day by the PTC and St George’s ACGM which we held for the second year running at the Centre in Harrogate which both saves us the costs of hiring a standalone external facility, but also allows us the opportunity to show case the Centre. The ACGM was well attended with over 60 external attendees, and as well as the rather dry although critically important business of delivering the financial reports and accounts, it was a good opportunity to provide a transparent and open update to all of our partners from the serving and retired officer communities on what we have been up to. Mark Oxley gave a very informative update on the PTC Psychological Well Being Programme which was welcomed by all, and an insight to some of our future plans. Although I would like to think that the CEO address was the highlight of the day, I suspect that both I and Mark were knocked well down the order of interesting events by Rummy the Harrogate therapy dog who was in the Centre for the day of the ACGM and immediately attracted the attention of Baroness Angela Harris who clearly thought it worthwhile coming just to see him. Following Rummy in terms of interest levels, was the excitement generated by a squirrel which took a wrong turning out of our gardens and found itself running round the inside of the PTC reception area. Notwithstanding this moment of light relief, the ACGM passed off smoothly, and all of our attendees left the meeting both better informed, and reassured, about the decisions and progress in 2015, and where we envisaged going over the next few years.
That is about it for this month, stay safe everyone.
Feliciter Servimus
Patrick Cairns
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