A message from the Clinical Lead, Richard Hammond:

It has been an extremely busy year so far. We have a fully staffed clinical team, which means we are maximising our clinical capacity.

As well as our service centre-based clinics, we run specialist clinics at Peartree House, Fryers House and several schools on the mainland and the Isle of Wight. We have been fortunate to run the external prescriber training this year, and are hopeful that we will be able to continue to do so.

Service User Engagement Forums

Are you a wheelchair user, carer, or family member of a wheelchair user? Would you like to get involved in shaping better services?

Our Community Health Engagement Officer (CHEO), Emily, chairs a quarterly service user engagement and improvement board meeting for service users, their relatives and carers, stakeholders, external professionals and organisations and anyone in the wider community who has an interest in the local NHS wheelchair and repair service.

Everyone is welcome, we’d love to hear from you! These meetings are easily accessible with meetings being held online via Microsoft Teams (join from any location, on any device: mobile, computer or tablet) as well as in person at our Service Centres.

To find out more about upcoming dates and to register your interest, please email Emily.Galton@rosscare.co.uk

Wheel Fest 2025

Co-productive inclusive event planning

Wheel Fest 2025 was a joint effort between Peter Hull MBE, Ross Care and Solent University to bring inclusive wheelchair sport and activities to the city of Southampton, to encourage and enable people with a disability/impairment to enjoy a range of wheelchair sports and activities, such as wheelchair dance, as well as raising awareness of the importance of inclusive sports and activities.

The event took place on Saturday 7th June at Solent University sports complex between 10am – 3pm. We had special guests attend the event, such as the Lord Mayor of Southampton who came and opened the event, providing us with a short speech and even took part in wheelchair rugby! We also had Paralympic wheelchair rugby gold medallist Aaron Phipps join us for the opening speech, who shared a few words himself.

Activities that took place were wheelchair rugby, wheelchair basketball, powerchair football, wheelchair dance, and even wheelchair skills which was provided by Stuart from Freedom Wheelchair skills. All the clubs kindly travelled and joined us for the event to provide their skills and expertise.

There is a page on Instagram dedicated to the wheel fest event, @wheelfest.2025 where you can find more photos and videos of the wheelchair sports and event in action.

Wheelchair Referrer Training Feedback

External feedback from our recent Wheelchair Referrer Training course

Two of our clinicians recently ran a wheelchair referrer training course to external healthcare professionals who often refer service users into the NHS wheelchair service. The first session was delivered this week by two of our clinicians, Kerry Schumann and Chantal Flax-Mashonga.

The one-day training course content included eligibility criteria, how to correctly measure someone for a wheelchair, home adaptation requirements for provision of a wheelchair, information on the powered pathway; criteria and provision of a powered wheelchair, buggy or self-propelling wheelchair for paediatric service users, outcome measures Watch-Ad form, PWB’s, routine vs. urgent referrals and their pathways and much more.

Here is some of the feedback we received after the training day from external professionals:

“Thanks so much, the packs are also a useful take home for future reference. Interesting and engaging, insightful and helpful. Kerry and Chantal were excellent.”

"Really enjoyed the training, great to experience the wheelchairs. Have found the course very useful both Kerry and Chantal were so friendly, made us feel welcome and both so knowledgeable.”

“Very insightful course, knowledgeable trainers. Thank you so much for a great course.”

"Was a helpful day to understand the important information needed to support a good referral. Feel like they covered all relevant topics. Maybe could have covered flat cushion and contoured cushion use.”

"A good mix of theory and practical. Good overview, plenty of time to ask questions during the session. Thought it was a good balance, presentation and setting varied to maintain interest. Really informative and useful, thank you.”

Some amazing feedback comments!

Evenbreak – the award winning job board for disabled people

The Evenbreak team help signpost candidates who contact them to organisations that can support them on their employment journey.

Kidz To Adultz South Exhibition

Engagement in the community

Our Community Health and Engagement Officers from Hampshire and Surrey, Emily Galton and Alex Gournay, recently attended the Kidz to Adultz South exhibition in Farnborough on 1st May, this time with a stand to represent Ross Care! Emily and Alex spoke to many service users, who stopped by the stand for information and advice, even just to say hello.

There were many organisations, charities and professionals who attended to showcase their services to the public. It was great for engaging and networking as professionals too. Ross Care has attended this event for three years in a row now, and we hope to continue attending.

Photo from left to right: Alex Gournay, Emily Galton

Healthwatch Hampshire Advisory Board Meeting

Stakeholder engagement and networking

Our Community Health and Engagement Officer (CHEO) Emily Galton, and Contract Support Manager Sarah Atkins both attended the recent Healthwatch Hampshire public advisory board meeting which was held at Badger Farm community centre on Tuesday 24th June.

The CHEO attends local health and social care meetings, to keep up to date with the latest service news and maintaining good working relationships with our stakeholders, to help with key service engagement, driving improvements, whilst also ensuring service user voice is represented.

Our Wheelchair Return Campaign

We are currently asking our service users to return any unused NHS wheelchairs back to our service. This is in line with our recycle campaign. Our aim is to be as green as we can, and one way in which we can do this is through recycling unused wheelchair parts.

Arrange a collection

One of our customer service team will be happy to arrange a collection:

Tel: 0333 003 8071 
Email: hants.iow.wcs@rosscare.co.uk

Opening hours 8:00am to 5:00pm, Monday to Friday.

If you would prefer to return wheelchairs that are no longer required yourself, you can take them to...

Chandlers Ford Main Office:
Unit E1 Omega Enterprise Park, Chandlers Ford Industrial Estate, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO53 4SE
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Newport Service Centre:
Unit 17, Barry Way, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 5GY
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Wheelchair Skills

Two frequently questions that often come up in conversation with our Community Health and Engagement Officer are “Where can I get wheelchair skills?” and “Why doesn’t the wheelchair service provide this?”

The NHS Wheelchair service is unfortunately not commissioned to provide additional wheelchair skills. However, our expert clinicians do provide basic wheelchair skills (i.e. manoeuvring) before a wheelchair is handed over in a clinical handover appointment. For further skills, like how to manage heavy doors, curbs, etc., you can contact various wheelchair skills providers.

Learning wheelchair skills will build your confidence and independence to enable you to tackle obstacles you never thought possible. From pushing techniques and carrying a coffee, to crossing uneven surfaces and going downstairs - learn the skills that will make a difference in your daily life and take you where you want to go.

Organisations that offer Wheelchair Skills Training:

One wheelchair skills provider option is Freedom Wheelchair Skills. Stuart recently joined us for the Wheelfest event, where he was kind enough to provide his knowledge and insight into various wheelchair skills. All of Stuart’s work is on a 1:1 basis.

Another wheelchair skills provider is The Wheelchair Skills College. Learning wheelchair skills will build your confidence and independence to enable you to tackle obstacles you never thought possible.

Friends and Family Feedback

Your feedback helps us to improve

We are always seeking feedback from our service users and their relatives, carers, and friends. We pride ourselves on delivering the best service and care. Your feedback helps us to ensure we are making the necessary improvements to provide you with the best experience of our service. Please share feedback where you can, our staff can provide you with a feedback form to complete after your appointment or you can complete the form online. You can also provide feedback by phone and email.