After serving for over 30 years on what is now the North Essex Bench, I have seen and heard many things that might cause me to pause and consider the importance of this most valuable voluntary role. Let’s be honest, without the dedication of the lay magistracy, the criminal justice system in England and Wales would quickly grind to a halt. But we as volunteers make a difference, and I would like to share with you my perspective on the importance of voluntary service to our wider communities.
Life doesn’t always play fair, and I discovered this unfortunate reality one afternoon in September 1979. I was riding my 250cc Yamaha motorcycle home from work in London when I encountered a French national driving on the European side of the road in East Ham. This was at a sharp bend and I had a split second to avoid a fatal head-on collision. In doing so, I exposed the right side of my body and my leg was destroyed by the impact. I survived and have lived the past 45 years as an above-knee amputee. A different life, and not one that I had planned.
Most people will encounter major setbacks, and sometimes even tragedy in their lives. How we face these challenges will depend upon something deep inside of ourselves. I must have some of that intangible element in me, because I have turned this personal tragedy into an opportunity to help other disabled people overcome some of the barriers that they may face in life.
My life changed when I met a former RAF Spitfire pilot in 1984 who was paying a visit to the Essex prosthetic clinic where my alternative right leg was being repaired. Sam Gallop CBE, himself a double leg amputee, had the year before founded a charity to support civilians living with limb loss in the UK. This was based on his experience of working with Blesma, The Limbless Veterans (formerly known as British Limbless Ex-Service Men’s Association), itself established in 1932. Sam’s vision for providing advice and support for non-military people who were struggling to cope with a very different life as an amputee resonated with me then, as it does today, and forty years onwards I have the honour to lead the Limbless Association as chair of the trustee board.
The Limbless Association (LA) is the only UK charity providing advice and practical support to the limb loss community. It’s always been led by people living with limb loss, unlike many other charities that are for disabled people! And this is a crucial difference. Disabled people are the experts in their impairment and however well-meaning some other organisations might be, excluding disabled people from the decision-making process will often lead to inadequate outcomes. As you will no doubt imagine, this is not a universally popular opinion within the UK charity sector.
Over 25 years ago, we highlighted a significant gap in the services available to people who were starting their rehabilitation journey following an amputation. I had met too many people who were struggling to cope with the challenges of this different life, beyond the clinic room. I therefore designed and introduced the LA’s Volunteer Visitor Programme where trained people with the actual life experience of limb loss could support other amputees adjust to this different life. Four years ago, with a generous grant from the National Lottery Community Fund, we re-launched the programme, and just in time to deal with the devastating impact of the Covid-19 emergency, where the NHS shut down almost all of the prosthetic services in the UK. Our 95 trained and DBS-cleared volunteers met that challenge and in one particular case that I dealt with, directly saved a new amputee’s life.
The NHS provides some very good services to the limb loss community, but there are gaps in the service and it is also challenged in terms of being able to keep up with recent technological advancements in this field of specialised health care. However, I have long believed in the idea that disabled people should be, wherever possible, directly involved in decisions that will impact their daily lives. I work directly with NHS England as the only amputee member on the clinical reference group that covers prosthetic and orthotic services, and I’ve recently linked up with Lord Mackinlay, the first quadruple amputee to ever sit in the House of Lords. As well as both being amputees, Craig Mackinlay and I have another connection; he used to be a magistrate in Kent! These connections are of course very useful and I was able to recently have a private meeting with Wes Streeting, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, where we discussed issues that directly impact upon the levels of NHS support for people who are living with limb loss.
Away from the NHS, I have been conscious of the reality that there are not that many disabled people serving as magistrates. And for the over 30 years of my service, that hasn’t changed to any significant extent. I joined the Magistrates’ Association (MA) soon after my appointment and have always been looking for opportunities to bring some influence to bear. I was the inaugural chair of the magistrates with disabilities special interest group and I now serve as one of the two disabled representatives of the MA’s diversity and inclusion committee, together with the disabled magistrates’ network.
However, I return to my earlier viewpoint, that disabled people should be involved in decisions that materially affect them. I was involved in the MA’s ground-breaking report ‘Inaccessible Courts: A Barrier to Justice’ where we shone some light into the dark corners of the court estate. This report revealed that three-quarters of magistrates’ courts are insufficiently accessible, identifying the barriers this creates for the public and magistrates, and offered six recommendations to urgently address the systemic issues in the court estate. This report was validated by having disabled magistrates directly participating in its formation.
Yet the work to ensure that the voices of disabled magistrates are heard is a continual one. The diversity and inclusion committee is currently trying to address some significant barriers faced by disabled magistrates in terms of ‘reasonable adjustments’ to facilitate their full participation in the magistracy. This shouldn’t be a problem, almost 15 years after the introduction of the 2010 Equality Act, but it is. One major reason for this situation is that disabled magistrates are too often not consulted and at the moment, excluded from the working groups that are charged with addressing these problems. This must change as soon as possible. We have extensive campaigning experience within the disabled magistrates’ network, and I hope that we can make change happen in the very near future!
