In April 2022 the Brain and Spinal Injury Centre (BASIC) were awarded a Big Ideas Fund grant by Salford CVS (supported by NHS Salford ICP) to purchase a wheelchair accessible electric vehicle to provide low-cost transport for their clients. This proved to be a great success in enabling local people to access therapeutic services at BASIC, hospital appointments and social activities.
An opportunity for further investment came about in 2022/23 through the Director of Public Health, Dr Muna Abdel Aziz and securing of public health monies. In early 2023, further discussions were held with BASIC along with Being There and Headway to identify ways in which these public health monies might boost their capacity to improve access to health services for people with physical disabilities. All three organisations identified transport access as a barrier for disabled people. This led to a joint investment in a second electric vehicle, based at BASIC, and made both vehicles available for use by clients of all three organisations.
With volunteer driver support (recruited via Salford CVS) this new scheme provides valuable transport services to disabled people who have been disproportionally affected by COVID-19 and are affected by wider health inequalities. In summer 2023 the project was selected as an example of delivering ‘Fairer Health for All’ and funding was secured via 10GM to bring in Carbon Creative to produce a great video case study (see below).
Film