March was a month for exploration.

We were delighted to be invited back to BBC North at Salford Quays for a further day with the group of disabled staff we had worked with in the autumn. This was a day focused on turning ideas into action and group action planning. Energy levels were high and the group came up with a plan for three strands of work which would enable disabled staff to mutually support each other more, integrate disabled experience at the BBC and open up opportunities to do more cross-team working generally.

Result CIC tendered for a fascinating new contract with Manchester Health Care Commissioning (MHCC). MHCC is an innovative recent partnership between Manchester City Council and Manchester NHS Clinical Commissioning Group. The contract is for a set of pilot workshops with a coaching session aimed at managers of disabled staff. It responds positively to feedback suggesting the need to address managers’ understanding of the social model of disability and also looking at building trust and confident communication between managers and staff. We are happy that we are to partner on this work with Breakthrough UK, a very experienced disabled-led charity and are looking forward to starting work with them next month.

Partnerships have always been at the heart of our work. So we are happy to be developing our discussion with the Gaddum centre, Manchester’s oldest charity providing services to people who are disadvantaged. The area of shared interest is supporting young BAME carers. We are excited about this potential project.

Another area we are keen to explore is supporting homeless people. This is a priority issue in Greater Manchester. We are looking forward to discussions we have set up with Greater Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham’s Lead Officer on this issue and also to the honour of meeting Salford’s Mayor, Paul Dennett. We feel that building morale and confidence is part of supporting someone to reintegrate as a homeless person. We hope we can offer something to complement and enhance the impressive range of services already available.