Clive is the Community Liaison and Engagement Officer (CLEO) for Kent and Medway Wheelchair Service.

I’ve put together our latest updates, and insights to keep you informed and engaged. From details on upcoming events, including the dates for our next Service User Engagement Forum, to helpful tips from our engineering team.

The Disability Assist Board (DA) 

We had the pleasure and honour to host the Disability Assist Annual General Meeting at the Gillingham Service Centre.  As chair of the Disability Assist Trustee Board Clive officiated at this event leading the meeting. It was very successful with DA thanking Ross Care for the use of their facilities.

Service User Engagement Forum (SUEF)

We are looking forward to the next SUEF meeting on the 18^th March 2026, we hope people will attend in–person.

Carers Awareness Training

On the 27^th November Hannah and Helen from East Kent Carers Network provided Carers Awareness Training to the Wheelchair Services clinical team, it was a very interesting session, informing those present of some mind-boggling statistics.

Service User Feedback Forum

This has been organised by our Regional Director Sam Affonso, the aim being to co-ordinate all feedback across the organisation and to share learning and good practice.

The first meeting was held on the 10^th December with future dates in the works.

Younger Persons Group

Preparations are being made for our first Younger Persons Group on the 18^th February 2026, Archie and Beth will lead the meeting.

So far, we have the organisations Disability Assist, Whizz-Kidz, WetWheels, The Education People and Dr Flora Renz (Lecturer in Healthcare Ethics and Law) attending. The previous date for this meeting was postponed to February to coincide with Half Term.

Wheelchair Rugby

We continue to liaise with Archie, Beth and Flora at Canterbury Hellfire to explore continued support. Ross Care Wheelchair Therapist, Harry Selala has also been contacted by the club to establish ways he can volunteer. To find out how you can get involved, contact them at wheelchair@cantrugby.co.uk or visit @hellfirewrc on Facebook.

Winter Well Event by Age UK

Nicola attended the Winter well event and shared a table with Disability Assist. This was a great event, and she was able to draw awareness to the Wheelchair Services.

SENS

Clive and Mike attended a meeting with Kate Hebson and Rory McDonnell from SENS. A clear pathway was identified and now Rory and Kate will garner interest from their management while Clive and Nicola will start to think about potential case studies. 

Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)

Clive attended a meeting looking at ‘Patient Safety Incident Response Framework’ on the 23^rd September. CLEO/CHEO’s will play a role in supporting service users going through
this process, Clive is on the waiting list for PSIRF Training.

Para Badminton

Clive attended a practice session at Kings School Canterbury, where he met with the coach Lesley and new member Sue who was being put through her paces.

These sessions are fully inclusive and can be 1:1 or groups of 10-12 people. I will be advertising this activity throughout all Wheelchair Service channels.

Medequip

Nicola and I were delighted to be invited to visit the Kent Medequip site to look at how the service operates, many thanks to Hayleigh Nash (Medequip Community Engagement Lead) for showing us around. It was very informative, and I look forward to working with Hayleigh exploring ways our organisations can work together to deliver a more seamless service.

We also attended a Medequip & Ross Care community engagement network meeting on the 25^th November.