April 2008

The M.E.N Arena hosts a diverse range of world class performers from pop, rock, dance and classical, family shows, comedy and sport.

This is what they said after a 1 day Introduction to British Sign Language course with our Deaf tutors Kate and Mickey

• One of the most useful courses we have had
• I definitely want to learn more
• Thoroughly enjoyable and very well presented
• Useful and Interesting
• Very helpful
• Educational but clear and concise.
• The day flew by
• I think we should build this into our inductions and potential training in the future.

Thank you MEN Arena for your comments - we were looking forward to delivering the training and really enjoyed the day . We hope that you will be able to make a difference to Deaf visitors! If you need more signs just let us know.

Double baby news at HearFirst

Our tutor Debi Burridge became a Grandma for the 1st time on 11th March – Congratulations Grandma!!

Also Congratulations to Ash our Training Manager who gave birth to a very beautiful baby girl on 10th March 2008.

Evie Miriam weighed in at 7lbs 3oz. Both Mum, Dad and Evie are all doing great. We are all looking forward to Evie learning to sign.

It always gives us great pleasure to deliver our 1 day Introduction to British Sign Language Course. A little sign language can go a long way and this course proves time after time that our step by step approach works well for our learners. HearFirst deaf tutors Kate and Mickey were well impressed with the staff so keep it up folks – you’re doing good!

By the end of the day the group was ready to learn some work related signs and staff from Salix Homes were shown relevant signs e.g. tenancy, repair, neighbour etc.

Another Introduction to British Sign Language . . .

By the end of the day staff from Blackburn and Darwen PCT were confident, knowledgeable and raring to get going with signing to their deaf patients. This course was a pilot course so if you work for the PCT, contact Jules Wall and get your name down for the next one.

This is what Riccardo Kennedy said, “The course was fantastic. I am certainly interested in furthering my BSL learning.”

Work Solutions March 08

We are very pleased to be working with Work Solutions delivering both ‘Disability Equality and Awareness Training’ and ‘Diversity and Equality Training’.

Work Solutions deliver high quality and innovative services aimed at improving skills and securing employment for the socially excluded, disadvantaged and economically inactive people in the Manchester Sub-region (MSR). Through its network of 15 centres, Work Solutions has a physical presence across Greater Manchester. Work Solutions works in close collaboration with local authorities, Jobcentre Plus, Learning Skills Council (LSC) and various local regeneration partnerships to significantly improve the employment prospects for local people.

In Manchester again – this time with Manchester Care. They offer a range of support services:

• Specialist care
• Care for older people, including older people with dementia and similar needs.
• Adults with mental health needs.
• People with learning disabilities.
• People with physical and sensory disabilities.

We delivered our brand spanking new course to them - ‘Sensory Awareness'. The one day course covers deaf awareness, visual awareness and deafblind awareness. Click here for the course outline.

Karen Smith, Patient Services Manager had a HearFirst experience a couple of years ago when she attended a training event held by Oldham PCT! When she moved to her new role she was keen to get us involved to roll out some Disability Training to almost 100 members of staff ranging from GP’s to Receptionists to Diabetes Nurses!

Karen wanted us to deliver training that would enable providers to be more aware and enable services to be much more accessible for a range of disabled people especially those with hearing difficulties. We tailored our 1 day course to suit their needs.

Tameside GP Patrick Doody said this, “Excellent training, would be good to promote to all GP practices as in house training for their GPs”.

Child minders from Rochdale spent a very cold 2 hours in Rochdale Town Hall learning more about deaf children, their communication methods and equipment they use. The session was very well received and the warmth of our tutor ‘Jayne’ ensured a productive evening for everyone with ALL participants reporting that they had learnt new things and would feel much more confident communicating with a deaf or hard of hearing child.

Success continues at the Dept of Justice. Here are our latest recruits signing ‘court’.

Louise Chambers, Regional Diversity manager is aiming to have at least 2 people in every Court in London trained in basic BSL. The courses are highly successful and more events are planned for 2008.

Louise says,”Thanks for all the great work you have been doing with our front-line staff.”

Julie says, “Don’t mention it. Everyone is picking up the signs really well. Not only that, they are picking up my Lancashire accent as well – it’s just greaaaaate!”

Remploy January 08

HearFirst developed and delivered 5 deaf awareness sessions to workers from the Remploy factory in Huddersfield, Yorkshire. Remploy realises the importance of hearing workers understanding the needs of D/deaf colleagues and vice versa.

“If communication is clear, everyone knows what’s happening and that helps our business performance.”

The sessions were delivered to hearing workers, D/deaf workers and workers with learning difficulties. The training was followed up by a report to management and an action plan to improve working relationships and signing skills within the factory.

Good luck to Remploy Huddersfield in implementing the changes.

Perc January 2008

Over 100 childminders and nursery nurses from Merseyside have now received training in child related signs over several sessions. More courses are planned for 2008.

Gemma works with children in Liverpool City Centre she says, ”I never thought I could learn so many signs in the time we had. Julie was really friendly and made it easy and fun.”

Julie Ryder is runner up in the
Stelios Disabled Entrepreneur of the Year Award

November 07

Julie Ryder (HearFirst founder) is a finalist in the Stelios Disabled Entrepreneur Award 2007. Stelios from easyGroup has committed to giving £50,000 of his own money to the winning company. The winner will be announced on 29/11/07 at a glittering award ceremony in London. Stelios has had help from Leonard Cheshire Disability to sift through the applications and choose the winner. Before you all ask for a discount on our course fees. 1. She hasn’t won yet! 2. The money is earmarked for HearFirst’s sister company www.talkfirst.net to help with franchise recruitment! So it is business as usual at HearFirst!

Julie Ryder (HearFirst founder) is guest on The Deaf Blog

Read her article here

October 2007 – more open course success!

HearFirst undertook a second mini series of open courses this year in Manchester and Preston. The open courses are a great opportunity for people to book a small number of places or for delegates to come and check us out in advance of booking their own in house courses.

If you are interested in a place on a future open course, please contact us or look at our site again soon when we hope to have more information about courses.

Our delegates came from organisations as varied as Councils, NHS Trusts and Theatres and each course was lively and provided much food for thought. Here are some of the comments from our delegates:

Thank you for a super course on Wednesday. I thoroughly enjoyed it and am sure so did everyone else. We learned a lot and personally I would like to take things further, and will be having discussions with my manager about that, but a sincere thank you for your time and a brilliant day, I think it was one of the best courses I have attended.

I think signing is something that needs to be practiced consistently to improve the skill and I intend to propose that we set up a "skills practice club" within our office as I believe there are several in the office who have some signing experience and a practice meeting may be a way to promote signing between us all on a regular basis.
Many thanks again.
Dave Dixon, AtW Advisor

16th August 2007

Janet Toth attended a HearFirst Disability Awareness training session for the lifelong learning team at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council in March 2006. She said ‘I was so inspired by yourselves I decided I wanted to learn to sign. I enrolled on a course at Blackburn College and this week I received my results – I now have a level 1. Thanks for the inspiration’.

We are delighted Janet was inspired by our tutors and by her excellent exam success. Well done Janet!

If you would like to take part in an introductory course in British Sign Language which covers basic signs, why not book on one of our open courses?

Monday, 23 July 2007

Eastlands Homes is a not for profit housing transfer partnership set up in 2003 to take over and improve around 3000 of East Manchester’s former council homes. With the help of grants from sources such as New Deal for Communities, they’ve invested over £45 million on improving homes and the environment.

Not only that, they have invested in their staff to help them improve services to Deaf tenants and colleagues. 10 members of staff successfully completed Unit 101 of CACDP’s Level 1 qualification in BSL. The training was made up of 9 hours tuition time and a final individual assessment followed. The assessment had to be videoed in line with CACDP requirements so that made it all the more nerve wracking for the candidates. Nevertheless the pass rate was 100%. Well done Eastland’s!

Here we are in the Green Room at The Bridgewater Hall in Manchester applauding ourselves (Deaf style) for a good days signing.

The Bridgewater Hall hosts hundreds of events, meetings and conferences throughout the year attracting thousands of visitors. They look after their deaf visitors well and there is a good selection of hearing devices available to borrow at the Hall. Not wanting to rest on their laurels they decided to go a step further and learn some British Sign Language. Following the training, many members of staff can now directly assist British Sign Language users by giving basic information in BSL and responding to requests. Well done to everyone who took part.

Sandra Perrott, Operations Manager said, ‘Thank you so much for the training. Everyone and I mean everyone, even those who didn’t attend, are now signing to each other. The feedback has been tremendous.

‘B’ is for Bury. Staff from Bury PCT learn the BSL alphabet.

A little while ago Marion Lampert (PALS Programme Manager, Bury PCT) contacted us to enquire about a deaf awareness course just for herself - selfish I know! When other staff heard of the treachery there was a revolt and an in house course followed for Marion and 13 others. She emailed us after the course to say:

I just wanted to say a big thank you from everyone here at Bury PCT for a most enjoyable and informative training session on Tuesday. We all really enjoyed the session and I’m sure we have all now gained new skills and a much greater awareness of what it is like to be deaf. Keep up the good work, you are an absolute inspiration and your training was a breath of fresh air from the usual training sessions we have to sit through.

13 Childcare professionals attended 4 evenings of British Sign Language training. The training aimed to improve their communication with Deaf BSL users and also act as an introduction to using signs in their mainstream work with all children. There are many benefits to using signs with speech for all children.

Catherine Wilkes, Teacher said ‘Very well delivered, lots of signs built up our confidence. This is a great course, put it on regularly. Would also be great for parents in Surestart Centres.’

Claire Stryczek, Manager at Little Stars Private Day Nursery said, ‘Better than expected, brilliant. This is the best course I have been on - should do more.’

The good news is we are putting on more courses for Surestart and all participants from this course have signed up to do the follow on course which includes an assessment to achieve Unit 101 Level 1 BSL.

April 2007

One day British Sign Language Course
The course was held at Newcastle University in Castle Leazes Halls of Residence for Accommodation staff.

Angela Bridgett emailed after the event to say this:

I just wanted to say a very big thank you, everyone I spoke to had a really good day. I came back to the office full of enthusiasm and have been encouraging everyone to apply for a place on any future courses. The whole learning experience was really enjoyable and, although I realise I have only touched the tip of the iceberg, feel that at least I could now try to help any visitors to my reception desk!

April 2007 - Mental Health Action Week

This week is Mental Health action Week. The Mental health Foundation is raising awareness of about the importance of friendship and its positive impact on mental health. Click here for more information.

What a pleasure it was to be working with people who actually live in the homes managed by the Housing Association.  We work with many Housing Associations but usually get to meet staff rather than residents.

Pauline Heron who is Resident Involvement Co-ordinator with Space New Living (now part of Great Places) attended a one day course last year with us.  She felt a half day version would be appropriate for the residents panel.

March 2007   - Julie and Ash get big headed in the big city!

Louise Chambers is the Regional Diversity Manager for HMCS in London.  When she asked for 30 people from the Civil and Criminal courts to nominate themselves to attend a British Sign Language 1 day course she got 150 requests! 

The courses ran smoothly and delegates on both courses rated us 100% highly satisfied in all 3 indicators: quality of materials, delivery and overall course success.

Louise said, ‘This level of feedback is unprecedented in my experience (17 years as a trainer).  It doesn’t get any better than that!’

Tutors were Julie and Ash for this event and after much pushing, shoving and squeezing they did manage to get their heads through the train door to make it home.

March 2007

Stockport MBC 4 day British Sign Language Extravaganza

Fifteen carefully chosen employees attended a 4 day BSL extravaganza (otherwise known as an introductory course!).  The course was held every Friday over 4 weeks and ended on a high note when the last session fell on Red Nose Day 2007.  We could not let the occasion pass without doing our bit and a signed song of ‘I Can Sign a Rainbow’ was performed beautifully by all course delegates.  We raised £28 in total.

Thanks to all who took part.

Comments were great from all delegates.  Lisa Jackson summed it up:

This course is exceptional.  I have thoroughly enjoyed every second and will take a great deal away with me.  The context was excellent as was the delivery.  The tutors were a joy and their teaching methods outstanding.  I would recommend this course again and again.

February and March 2007 

Open Course Success

HearFirst undertook a mini series of open courses in Manchester and Preston.  The open courses are a great opportunity for people to book a small number of places or for delegates to come and check us out in advance of booking their own in house courses.

Delegates came from far and wide and all courses were a roaring success.  We will be back again to do another program of courses in the autumn so if you missed these, please look again on our site soon and we’ll have details or contact us and put your name on the waiting list.  Here is a selection of comments from some of our delegates.

‘Thank you for the excellent information I received when attending the course at Luther King House.  I enjoyed it immensely.  The knowledge I gained was invaluable, useful and very interesting!  You made me feel very welcome.’ Sue Pickles, Learning Support team leader Nelson and Colne College

I feel relaxed today and have developed my confidence to continue to learn BSL.  I wish we had had more sessions like this when I did a previous Level 1 course – maybe I wouldn’t have failed – who knows! Jean Kay-Morley Rossendale Borough Council

Linda Barker from the Disability Rights Commission said ‘This Awareness training should be given to all employees.’ Linda, we agree entirely!

January 2007 

Chorley Taxi Drivers improve standards for disabled travellers

Five taxi drivers from Chorley attended our Disability Equality and Awareness in Action Course in an attempt to beat off competition from other drivers to get their Licence plates renewed from Chorley Borough Council.

The training is good news for disabled travellers in the Chorley area and all the drivers said they felt much more confident and aware of various disabilities.

The drivers undertook the training in their own time and funded themselves.  We wish them all the best with their Licence applications. 

Here are 3 of them with their certificates
(Mr Hussain, Mr Waseem and Mr Akram)

December 2006

Sumara Hussain, Disability Adviser at the University’s Equality & Diversity Office contacted us in the summer to enquire about a deaf awareness course for herself. After speaking to HearFirst she decided to arrange an in house course not only for herself but for 13 colleagues as well! Not only that, she roped them in for an accredited course which meant a dreaded end of day exam! This is what she had to say:

‘Thanks so much for the Deaf Awareness Training, everyone loved it! I’ve had such good feedback; it’s good to see people going away with thoughts on how they can improve their services! I will definitely recommending you to colleagues. Hopefully we will all have passed the exam and we can arrange for you to come down and present them yourself.’

Well I am confident of good results and have taken my best suit to the dry cleaners already in anticipation of a certificate presentation in the near future!

Nov 06

New disability legislation comes into force in December.  Are you ready?

As from 4 December 2006, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (as amended) will impose a Disability Equality Duty on organisations across the public sector, requiring them to proactively promote disability equality rather than simply react to the individual needs of disabled people.

In addition to the General Duty, the majority of public authorities will be subject to further Specific Duties, which will include a requirement to produce and publish a Disability Equality Scheme by 4th December 2006.

For up to date information on the Duty and advice on what you need to do click here 

Tuesday, 7 November 2006

Almost 60 staff from Mosscare Housing Ltd attended a series of half day Disability Awareness in Action courses. Based in Moss Side in Manchester, Mosscare is a charitable, not for profit housing association committed to communities and neighbourhoods. Several staff wished to gain an update on information; others came along because they wanted more information about the Disability Discrimination Act and how this applies to their job role. As always all the tutors at HearFirst enjoyed the days, and all the delegates agreed their personal objectives had been met. Here are some comments from the sessions:

“Very informative, interesting and enjoyable course” – Marilyn Evans

“My personal objectives have been met, and I will look at things differently from now on” – Yvonne Clarke

This was a successful run of courses – thanks to all at Mosscare for your positive comments and the friendly welcomes we received! Following on from these initial courses Mosscare plans to roll out more in depth training to customer facing staff in the New Year.

October 2006

HearFirst launches a new combined course to raise awareness of Legislation and Discrimination. 

The new course brings together different strands of equality into one action packed workshop.  The course can be tailored for individual organisations. Rossendale Borough Council are currently enjoying a series of courses which aim to raise awareness of both legislation and new internal policies in relation to Age, Bullying and Sex Discrimination.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006

HearFirst is pleased to support Amy Stathers during her 3 month trip to Jamaica. Amy is working with Deaf schools and communities to improve educational facilities and opportunities for Deaf children and youths. Please click on this link to view her web site and for further details.

Sunday, June 18, 2006

13 staff from OMBC’s Adult and Community Care Services attended our 1 day course ‘Introduction to Deaf Awareness and Communication Tactics’

For some delegates the course was a refresher and for others it was new information. Several delegates admitted to being a little anxious at the start of the course but we all settled down by morning brew time! We understand that some people do find training courses quite an ordeal. Part of our job is to ensure everyone gets the most out of the day and to do that delegates need to be relaxed.

Joanne Rudd who attended the course summed it up. ‘The course was facilitated well. The tutors made me feel confident and comfortable – it was fun. Thank you for the information and knowledge.’

………and thank you Joanne for your kind comments – your tenner is in the post!

10th May 2006

United Response (UR) supports people with learning disabilities or mental health needs to have the things they want and need in their lives. They are a national registered charity that works through local services.

Karen Routledge’s team in Carlisle support a man with learning difficulties who is also Deaf and uses British Sign Language. We were able to deliver a tailored 1 day course to some of the support staff which will ease day to day communication difficulties.

Chris Earle who attended the course said ‘A really good training day, very entertaining and useful to my work with clients.’ Greg Glaister also found the course ‘excellent and well delivered.’

3rd April 2006

We are pleased to announce the launch of our sister company TalkFirst. The aim of TalkFirst is to provide fun classes to babies with adults, encouraging them to bond and helping them to learn how to communicate together more effectively at an earlier stage. Children develop the ability to communicate non-verbally long before they can communicate vocally, and learning to sign together may boost the child's self esteem and gear them up to start acquiring language skills at an earlier stage. There is also a social aspect to the classes which the parents and children alike will benefit from. Visit www.talkfirst.net for more details.

29th March 2006

Ashton Pioneer Homes is a medium sized housing associated based in Tameside. A mixed group of residents, managers and staff attended our 1 day Disability Awareness in Action Course. All feedback was positive and each delegate was able to suggest ways to improve services for disabled people which related to their particular role. E.g.
‘I will evaluate literature we have available. ‘
‘I am much more aware of the needs of disabled people and can include them into our policies.’
‘I will be more aware and have more understanding and patience.’
‘The course was good – I will consider more accessibility to jobs and recruitment.’

15th March 2006

20 members of staff from NIACE (The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education - England and Wales) attended our lively half day Introduction to British Sign Language workshop. This course not only teaches delegates thebasics of signing their name and good morning etc but also gives an insight into the history of British Sign Language and the people who use it today.

‘Probably the first workshop I have learnt something AND will be able to use what I have learnt. It has made me more confident about using BSL. The whole team should attend – compulsory training.’

‘I am strongly considering taking the training further and enrolling on a BSL course.’

‘The Bingo game was a brilliant learning tool.’

We are pleased you like the Bingo game – it is our favourite part of the course, but be warned tensions can run high!

7th March 2006

The Imperial War Museum North wanted to improve communication and awareness towards museum visitors who used British Sign Language. We delivered an excellent workshop and another is planned for May 06.

‘Really enjoyed this training – tutors were excellent, very positive and enthusiastic.’

‘Brilliant learned a lot – feel I have basic tools to prepare myself for a situation in which I can offer assistance to a Deaf person.’

‘Tutors were friendly and excellent at their job. Would recommend them to any organisation wanting to learn basic BSL – Thanks.’

Thanks to everyone at the Museum for their kind remarks – these are genuine comments readily offered by course delegates (we didn’t bribe them too much – just chocolate, wine and a timeshare in Tenerife!!!)

16th February 2006

Progress Housing Group is based in Leyland, Lancashire. During February and March 06, 33 members of staff attended Disability Awareness Training. This is what they said:

‘I wish the training could have been longer – it was very interesting and informative.’

‘I would recommend this course to colleagues – the training was focused and well thought out. Delivered by people who lived first hand with some of the issues and not just talking from text books.

‘Excellent presentation and very amusing!’

We are not sure which bit Sue Harrison (Head of Housing Support) was referring to there but we do like to have fun at work and enjoy what we do!!

1st February 2006

Oldham College continues their rolling program of half day disability awareness courses for all staff. It is interesting to know what their teaching staff think of our course delivery and methods. Here are some comments from today’s course.

• Les Liversidge - ‘Good, well structured and professionally delivered session.
• Joanne Draper – ‘Great delivery of what could have been a heavy subject.
• Emma Jenkins – ‘Excellent learning experience.

9th January 2006

Lauren Higginson is responsible for the smooth running of the roll out of HearFirst courses across the council. She’s been intending to come on the course herself for the past 12 months but the demand for places has been so high, there wasn’t room. We were pleased to have her on our first course of 2006 and this is what she said.

‘I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed the course yesterday - not that I didn’t expect it to be good!! I thought it was ‘spot on’ - covered everything that an ‘awareness’ course should cover. I must admit that I do usually switch off at times during courses but you and Ash kept me interested for the whole day.’

New disability definition protects
thousands from discrimination

From 5 December 2005, new rights extend legal protection against disability discrimination to thousands more people.

Some quarter of a million more people now have protection under disability discrimination laws, effectively from the point they are diagnosed with cancer, multiple sclerosis or HIV, and closing a major loop hole in the law.

In addition, people with mental health conditions will no longer have to prove their condition is "clinically well-recognised" to use their rights under the DDA. As for those with physical impairments, they only need to prove that it has a 'substantial impact' on their lives.

Other new duties make it unlawful for local authorities and private clubs to treat their disabled members less favourably. From December 2006, a new public sector duty will require all public bodies in Britain to lead by example and integrate disabled people in their policy-making from the outset as well as to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people. This is similar to existing duties under race legislation and will be an important driver to achieve equality for millions of disabled people.

Details on the new legislation are available from www.drc-gb.org

HearFirst is being talked about again!

Karen Gregson, (Learning Support Co-ordinator in Education & Lifelong Learning Department at Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council) commissioned a 1 day disability awareness in action training course and received this email from a delegate the day after…….
 
‘Hello Karen,  I just wanted to congratulate you for yesterday's event. I thought it went really well. I put "excellent" down for everything on the evaluation form.  I do not know how you found out about the 'HearFirst' organisation but well done! 
I wasn't the only one to be impressed, Sarah Watson felt the same way.’

Further courses went on to be booked in 2006

Eyes opened at South Derbyshire
District Council!

Jackie Young who attended the 1 day course Disability Awareness in Action on 31st October said:

‘My eyes have been opened today and the day has allowed me to look at how I have dealt with my customers fro SDDC. Looking at different types of disabilities helped me to focus on making improvements in my role at SDDC. I will use what I have learnt in every aspect of my job, speaking on the phone, meeting my customers and in written communication.’

SDDC went on to commission a further 2 days disability awareness training in February 2006, following the positive feedback received after the initial course.

Friday, September 16, 2005

If you are wondering if a HearFirst British Sign Language Course is what your organisation needs then take a look at the comments from staff at Huddersfield University who attended a 1 day introductory course last week.

‘An excellent day, tailored exactly right for our needs. Have learnt a lot today and will attempt to maintain the signs used.’

‘Today has given me the incentive to enrol on a BSL course that I have intended to do for the last 2 years. Many thanks for an enjoyable day.’

‘Thank you so much – the day was presented in a very professional manner, yet we all felt immediately at ease due to your very friendly and relaxed teaching methods.’

‘I cannot thank you enough for giving me what you have given me today.’

‘The course was excellent, I learned much more than I expected. I am keen to learn more and put signing into practice – thank you.’

Friday, September 16, 2005

61 Learning Support staff from Myerscough College are disability aware thanks to 4 half day sessions which ran simultaneously on 8th September.

The training proved to be a positive start to the new College year and staff left the sessions keen to make real changes for disabled students.

Jenny Walker, a Communication Support Worker at Myerscough, said after the session that she would be more patient towards students with disabilities, be more understanding and more positive. She said, ' I came, I learnt, I benefited!’

Val Senior who booked the training with HearFirst said after the event ‘Thanks again for the training day – I have had some good feedback. I shall let senior management know how useful it was and encourage them to book you for other staff sessions. Hope to see you again soon, Val.

Investors in People
July 2005

Hearfirst is delighted to announce that on the 3rd of June 2005 it was awarded Investors in People. Investor In People is an international quality standard for effective investment in the training and development of people to achieve business goals.

Investors in People is based on four main principles:

• Commitment - an Investor in People makes a public commitment to invest in people to achieve business goals.
• Planning - how individuals and teams are to be developed to achieve these goals.
• Action - to develop and use necessary skills in a well defined and continuing programme.
• Evaluation - measuring progress towards goals, values achieved and future needs.

Investors in People really means improving performance by using a planned approach to setting and communicating business goals, developing people to meet these goals so that what people can do and are motivated to do matches what the business needs them to do.

We regard our people development and training as a fundamental component in business success. This award recognises our commitment to the successful future of Hearfirst and our commitment to our clients

Positive About Disabled People
July 2005

In 2005, Hearfirst was awarded the disability symbol ‘Positive About Disabled People’.

What is this logo?

It is a recognition given by the Employment Service to employers who have agreed to take action to meet five commitments regarding the employment, retention, training and career development of disabled employees.

The symbol using employers make five commitments regarding the employment, retention, training and career development of disabled people. These commitments ensure that disabled people are supported by employers and treated fairly at every stage of their selection and employment.

What are the five commitments made by employers?

Employers who use the symbol have agreed with the Employment Service that they will take action on these five commitments:

• To interview all applicants with a disability who meet the minimum criteria for a job vacancy and consider them on their abilities;
• To ensure there is a mechanism in place to discuss, at any time, but at least once a year, with disabled employees what you and they can do to make sure they can develop and use their abilities;
• To make every effort when employees become disabled to make sure they stay in employment;
• To take action to ensure that all employees develop the appropriate level of disability awareness needed to make your commitments work;
• Each year, to review the five commitments and what has been achieved, to plan ways to improve on them and let employees and the Employment Service know about progress and future plans.

Prowess, the website that promotes women's enterprise, has named HearFirst's Julie Ryder their Inspiration of the Month

(June 27, 2005)