Access to Cash Crisis

Thousands of bank branches closed Analysis of bank branch closures since 2015 have shown not only that huge numbers of bank branches are closing but also that closures are happening at an accelerating pace. Over 700 bank branches closed last year alone and 220 branches are already scheduled to close this year (2022). In total, …

New Year’s Honours for Tokyo 2020 Paralympians

After a uniquely challenging summer of sport and a truly incredible Paralympic Games it is deeply satisfying to see the New Year’s Honours list includes 48 awards for Paralympians and individuals associated with the Paralympics. Both the Chair and Chief Executive of the British Paralympic Association have received honours. Professor Nick Webborn OBE, appointed Chair …

The Disabled Students’ Allowance Scheme is not working

What is the Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA)? Entering higher education is not easy, harder still during Covid, harder by multiple factors if you happen to be a disabled student. The Disabled Students’ Allowance was set up to enable, to empower disabled students to fulfil their potential alongside their non disabled colleagues.  The scheme could cover …

Inclusive by design: lacking at COP26

Despite being the nation that gave birth to the Paralympic Games in 1948 and staging one of the greatest shows on earth, not least in terms of inclusion, in 2012, COP26, unfortunately, failed the inclusive by design test earlier this week. Entirely avoidable There are many things which can be said about the incident, overwhelmingly …

2021 UK Blockchain Landscape

I am delighted to welcome the publication today, 3rd November 2021, of an incredibly useful overview of the 2021 UK Blockchain landscape. The overview breaks down on a company-by-company basis more than £1,6 billion worth of investments into UK blockchain companies, maps our entire blockchain ecosystem of entrepreneurial talent and sets out the most prominent …

Social Value in Government Procurement

Government procurement teams are responsible for managing billions of pounds of public expenditure, in fact, every year £300 billion is spent on contracts for public services. What is value? Thinking about how the Government gets ‘value for money’ out of this procurement spending is an important exercise. Value has previously perhaps been too narrowly defined …

Resolving Insolvency

The Rating (Coronavirus) and Directors Disqualification (Dissolved Companies) Bill is currently in the House of Lords. It is clearly a Bill in two parts. The first part deals with business rate valuations in the light of Covid-19 and the second provides for the investigation and disqualification of the former directors of dissolved companies. As this …

British Paralympic Association appoints Chair

It is tremendous today to see that Professor Nick Webborn has been appointed Chair of the British Paralympic Association.  Nick has extensive experience of so many aspects of the Paralympic Games, Paralympic sport, sports medicine and so much more. He has attended eleven Paralympic Games in various roles. I first met Nick when he was …

Paralympic Games 1988:

A Coming of Age Games On this day, in 1988 I was racing at the Paralympic Games in Seoul.  A good Games made great by being held in the same city as the Olympic Games for the first time in 24 years. Although big respect, to Tokyo, in 1964 for being the first city ever …