Our People
Frank – Principal Engineer
After 22 years service within Tower Hamlets, Frank is now responsible for all the engineering needs within Children’s and Adult’s Services – which means maintaining all the schools and children’s and adult’s centres in the borough. No mean feat.
Managing a team of six, one might think his day job would keep him busy enough. However Frank has a fused spine, making his mobility severely impaired, and part of the reason he chooses to be actively involved in the Disability Forum. The forum was set up five years ago, and Frank has chaired it since the start.
“Over the years, the council have been supportive of my condition, adapting my workstation to enable me to do my job well.
As Chair of the Disability Forum, I feel that together we are making progress. As an organisation Tower Hamlets are very committed to disability – particularly at a senior management and council leader level. We meet every three months and have around 30 people who attend.
Our plans are to make the forum an even more interactive service. At present, the forum is used as a port of call for those that need something resolving, which is valuable but leaves plenty of room to do more. So for the next session we’re using it as a platform to give a talk on dyslexia and how that can be dealt with in the workplace.”
Liza – Training Administrator
Liza joined the council in 1989 as an HR Officer. Some years later, she moved to the Adults and Wellbeing directorate as a Training Administrator following a stroke which occurred after an injury she incurred in a rugby match. Her experiences have spurred her on to help Tower Hamlets make the workplace work for all their employees.
“As a Training Administrator, no two days are the same. Each year I organise training courses for some 1,500 people – for both council employees in the Adult Social Care Services, as well as for the voluntary organisations that we work with, such as Help the Aged and Mencap. This includes everything from scheduling the annual course calendar, booking in and ensuring delivery of training sessions, arranging all the facilities, as well as resourcing the courses and budgeting for them too.
When I returned after my accident, it was clear that I had different requirements. The facilities team really helped to shape my workplace to accommodate my new needs. It was the everyday things really, for example it was difficult for me to carry a cup of tea and use my door swipe card at the same time…so facilities arranged for me to have a fob that automatically opened the door as I approached.
Since then, I’ve worked continually with facilities to see what else we can do to enhance the working life of our disabled employees. And whilst we’ve come a long way, there’s always more to do. I’d like to potentially be involved in running a disability awareness module for managers when they’re inducted so that they can deal with, and be aware of, possible needs of staff in their care.”
