Benevolent Fund News
November 08
Annual Dinner - Fund News
For the Chairman of our Benevolent Fund’s Trustees, Mark Everett, the occasion of our 52nd Annual National Dinner must have been a very special evening – being able to recount ever increasing success to a large and appreciative audience is a sure guarantee for a speaker’s good spirits!
Mark Everett – Fund Chairman, with lots of good news
The choice of Mark to give our keynote speech was fortuitous in so far as our acting Chairman was in foreign parts, and President Kevin McNicholas is new to his role. However, Mark rose to the occasion, he was in fine form, and all his news was good.
In the course of his speech Mark explained that year by year our Benevolent Fund has become more widely known and accepted. Thus, those agencies which are involved in crisis, HSE inspectors and police force family liaison officers, now, as a matter of course, either point to us, or involve us directly when they have to deal with construction workers and their families. We are able to do more, and sooner. That is reflected in the figures that Mark gave the assembly of members and guests.
Said Mark: ‘In the twelve months of 2007 we helped 396 families. As I speak, that figure has already been reached, indeed, exceeded.
We gave aid last year totaling six hundred and thirty thousand pounds. This year it will be seven hundred thousand’.
Mark reminded us that the figures he had given related to people: to construction workers and their families; people with whom we established personal contact; people who, in many cases, were embarrassingly grateful for our help; people who had never before had dealings with any form of charity. And there was the value of our volunteer welfare officers, who were themselves construction people, ordinary people.
‘But’, said Mark, ‘this level of help is only possible thanks to the support that is freely given by the people in our industry. You, our members and guests, who are here tonight. Those people whose companies make direct contributions. And the people at branch level, club members and their supporters, whose fund raising events last year contributed three hundred and forty thousand of the close to eight hundred thousand pounds income to our Benevolent Fund’.
Mark concluded his speech with thanks to all involved in yet another record breaking year.
April 08
1st Quarter 2008 Report: More!
At our April National Council meeting, members heard that in the first quarter of this year a total of over £161,000 was awarded to new and existing beneficiaries and more cases than ever were being dealt with. The 99 new applications, compared with 70 during the same period last year, demonstrated an increasing awareness of our Fund and the help we can give. In fact, sixty referrals came from outside agencies, however, half of these were outside our remit. Referrals from our branches, thirty nine in all, made up the total.
For our successful applicants, help was swiftly forthcoming - forty five were awarded a one-off lump sum, twenty three were added to the monthly benevolence list, one was awarded a lump sum and also added to our monthly list.
Reviews of the circumstances of our monthly beneficiaries are ongoing; twelve were made in the first quarter. The result of the reviews was that help was continued in all cases, although in one the monthly amount was reduced.
Council members applauded the increasing involvement with our Fund of Health and Safety inspectors and learned that efforts were being made to involve police liaison officers, officers whose task it is to deal with families in hardship after accidents and fatalities.
Dennis Tidmarsh, who oversees our Holidays Scheme, reminded Council that a new season was underway and that referrals were welcome.
And the latest word from Peter Burns, our Fund Administrator, is that the level of new enquiries stands at over fifty each week.
Another record year is promised!
April ’08
HSE - More good news!
Back in February, London’s Welfare Officer was contacted by the HSE’s Charles Gilby. Charles is Principal Inspector (Construction) Basingstoke and Poole, and he was organising a two day conference for his fellow HSE construction inspectors. The gathering would include all the inspectors from the Southern Region - that’s the area below the line Bristol to the Wash. The venue was to be Brighton, the date March 5th., would the Lighthouse Club like to meet the delegates and tell them about the Club?
Well of course the answer was ‘yes’.
London’s welfare officer addressed an informed audience
of HSE Construction Inspectors.
March 5th. was a brilliant day, Brighton sea front looked splendid, and the ‘Pagganini Ballroom’ easily accomodated the forty or so inspectors. They were an attentive and well briefed audience. Their questions were to the point and they took away with them plenty of our literature.
And they passed round the hat.
And they paid the fare!
All in all, a very successful day at the seaside.
What was suggested was that our Welfare Officers establish personal contact with their respective HSE inspectors. That is already happening in some areas, but it is up to individuals.
Our experience in London is that it is a valuable relationship.
Your link to establish those contacts is:
Charles.Gilby@hse.gsi.gov.uk
Charles has very kindly offered to help our Benevolent Fund and its people in any way he can.
Furthermore....
The HSE Construction Division
Tim.Shambrook@hse.gsi.gov.uk
has organised a nationwide series of events to which construction people are invited to attend.
Details are available here.
The Club/Benevolent Fund has been invited to participate by sending representatives or making our literature available.
Jane Lowry has informed all Branches and we hope to have a good response.
November ’07
Our Fund establishes links with HSE and ‘ASPIRE’
HSE help out. In more ways than one!
Whenever there’s an accident on site an HSE inspector is involved, they interview the people and get to know their circumstances. Their help to our Fund in identifying those cases where we can give aid has long been sought, to that end we decided to include all HSE offices in our newsletter mailing. Maybe as a result, that help is now being given - the cases are coming.
In the London area, our welfare officer is building a rapport with a number of HSE inspectors. Their cases are being followed up.
In Leeds we have recently had a case where it was the HSE inspector, Nikki Allbut who acted as welfare officer for us. As a result, the case was featured in November’s issue of Express, the HSE’s house magazine, copies of which go to all inspectors. The story was given a full page and our Mark Everett, Chairman of Trustees, contributed.
Thanks to permissions from all concerned you can access (below) that page from Express.
You’ll agree that it is excellent publicity for our Fund’s activities. (And a caution to all you DIYers!)
But as Mark says: ‘Our Benevolent Fund is not just about accidents, we also help out in cases of illness, and for notification of those we need an alert and caring Membership’.
Express article is available here.
We link to 'ASPIRE'
Following on from a chance meeting a few months or so ago between our John Griffin, Chairman of London Branch, and a member of ‘ASPIRE’s Stanmore Spinal Injuries staff, our fund administrator Peter Burns has been receiving information about construction workers who have suffered spinal injury.
‘ASPIRE’ is a charity dedicated to working with people who have suffered spinal chord damage, their slogan is 'From injury to independence’(www.aspire.org.uk).
Living up to the slogan ‘From Injury to Independance
Currently, our welfare officers are working with three referrals to assess whether our fund can give financial assistance.
Given that ‘falling from a height’ is listed as being one of our industry’s most frequent accidents, as well as being all too often the cause of spinal injury, that chance meeting could well assist in our efforts to reach more construction workers and their families who are ‘in need through accident or illness’.
A.G.M. 2007. Benevolent Fund Report for the year 2006 (summary)
The Chairman of our Fund’s Trustees, Mark Everett, delivered his Annual Report at our AGM held at the RAF Club on Monday 11th June 2007.
He reported that in the year aid totaled £580,000. This sum had been distributed in various forms to 353 Construction Workers/Families. These were record numbers.
Mr. Everett reported on the setting up of our Scotland North Branch and the recruitment of Welfare Officers to cover that very large area. He paid tribute to the activities of all welfare officers.
Mr. Everett thanked all our Branch Committees whose efforts had generated a contribution to our Fund in excess of £350,000. Thanks were also extended to Officers of the Club and to Mrs. Lowry, the Club’s Administrator for the support given to the Fund and its Administrator Peter Burns.
The Benevolent Fund Report for 2006 can be found here.
Benevolent Fund Report. 1st Quarter 2007
When the Chairman of our Benevolent Fund Mark Everett tabled his report for the first quarter of 2007 at our April Council Meeting he made the following comment, asking that it be included on our web site.
Mark said:
‘Our members are the eyes and the ears for our Benevolent Fund. We, the Trustees, find that the cases referred to us from the membership through our Welfare Officers almost always meet our Fund’s criteria and are deserving of our favourable consideration’. Mark went on to ask that members act immediately to report hardship. ‘If you don’t tell us’, he said, ‘how can we act’?
Returning to the first quarter of this year:
Our Fund’s figures showed a marginal (and therefore satisfactory) year-on-year increase in the sum of aid distributed; the 1st quarter figures this year were close to £134k, last year £132k.
An increase is also apparent in the number of cases processed by our administrator Peter Burns. After weeding out those obviously not for us (most of those came from outside agencies) 70 new cases were considered. Of those, 28 were ‘non qualifiers’ mainly on the grounds that financial hardship was not in evidence.
However, during the quarter 42 cases were approved: 29 of which were awarded lump sums for specific needs. Monthly assistance was given to 14 families. And; a heartening instance; in the case of one lump sum grant, this was returned to us, the recipient having obtained sufficient funds from another source.
Mark Everett reported that he recently made contact with the Head of Health & Safety for Scotland and North East England. He asked if local HSE Inspectors could be made aware of our Fund and pass on details to ‘Cases’. The response has been positive and Mark has been assured that Inspectors are now promoting our Benevolent Fund wherever need is seen.
February 2007
At our January 2007 National Council Meeting Mark Everett, Chairman of Trustees, presented the following information:
1. Our Benevolent Fund last year distributed £580,000.
to construction workers and families who were in need through accident or illness. This was the highest figure yet for any year beating 2005 by £20000.
2. In 2006 Branch donations to our Fund reached a record high of £355,750-
(unaudited) – a sure sign of the strength and vitality of the Club’s Branches.
3. The number of cases helped in 2006 increased by 6.5% compared with 2005 and by 15.5% on 2004. This trend shows that the Club and Fund are ‘reaching out’ to those in our industry who are in need.
4. A deficit of approximately £10000 for the year 2006 indicates that our Fund is at full stretch. However the deficit is within the resources of the Club, and our Fund has reserves on which to call should there be need.
5. There are now two Welfare Officers in place in the new Branch in
the North of Scotland. These new members of our Fund’s voluntary team will greatly assist with finding and dealing with any cases in the Highlands and Islands region of the U.K.
In summary, 2006 was an excellent year for our Benevolent Fund and the Trustees hope that this current year will be even better. There is no doubt that there are families out there who are in difficulty and who are unaware of the help we can give. It is up to all members of the Lighthouse Club to spread the word, and to inform our voluntary Branch Welfare Officers, or our administrator Peter Burns, of any cases where they think there might be a need.
July 2006
In his most recent report to the Club’s National Council, Mark Everett, Chairman of the Fund’s Trustees, reported that the amount of aid disbursed this current year will almost certainly equal our 2005 record (£550,000 approx). At the 2006 half year the total stood at £279,000, over £6,000 more than at end of June 2005.
In the second quarter of the year 56 workers and/or families received financial help from our Fund, in six of those cases help was extended to recently bereaved ladies.
The high profile accident at Milton Keys, where a scaffolding collapse led to two serious injuries and the death of an injured worker from heart attack, was, from the Lighthouse Club’s point of view, something of a failure.
In spite of numerous phone calls and letters the contractors and the scaffolding company withheld all information as to the identity and contact details of the workers/families concerned. Our Benevolent fund was therefore unable to offer assistance.
VISITORS TO THIS WEB PAGE ARE REMINDED THAT THERE EXISTS NO CHANNELS, OFFICIAL OR OTHERWISE, BY WHICH OUR BENEVOLENT FUND CAN REACH VICTIMS OF ACCIDENTS. CONTACT RELIES ENTIRELY ON INDIVIDUALS REPORTING CASES OF NEED TO CLUB MEMBERS, THE CLUB OR THE FUND.
New Booklet
A pocket sized booklet which, page by page, will guide anyone who wants to know about, or make an application to, our fund is available from the fund’s administrator Peter Burns. Telephone Peter on 0161 429 0022.
A call to Peter and you should have a copy or indeed copies within a very short time. The booklet was very generously sponsored by the Gap Group who have distributed copies to all their Plant and Tool Hire depots.
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November 2005
Guests at our National Dinner
Study our 'Thank You' letters
And the report of a crane collapse
where our Fund gave help.
A thank you letter, one of many.
(Click to enlarge)
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FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!
Aid total for 2005 exceeds £half million
A month short of the end of the year and it is certain that our Benevolent Fund will, for the first time, distribute
as aid over half a million pounds. In November the Fund combines two monthly payments, (plus a small Christmas Bonus),
to those of our beneficiaries who are receiving regular monthly payments, and therefore much of 2005's expenditure
is already accounted for, thus we can be sure that half a million will be exceeded. Past experience has shown
that in the run up to Christmas there is often a spate of accidents, and claims for emergency help often peak
at this time of year, so a final tally has yet to be made. However, with the half million mark already passed
members of the Club can feel justly proud.
This significant milestone has been reached thanks to the work of our Fund's trustees and the efforts of the Fund's
administrator Peter Burns; plus, of course, the leg work, the calls, the visits, and the report writing, of our
invaluable branch welfare officers.
A measure of the value of our help to construction workers and their families can be gauged from the many thank you
letters received by Peter Burns.
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A poster reproducing half-a-dozen or so of these letters was on display at our National Dinner and attracted a lot of attention from our guests. Many of the letters are touching in their gratitude; after all we're not talking large sums of money here. But the Fund's cheques, whether they be for one off help or our modest monthly grant make a world of difference when a family is strggling through accident or illness.
Next year marks the 50th anniversary of the Club, and this achievement gives us a great start.
This is a very gratifying result in which all members of the Club can take pride.
Our Benevolent Fund administrator and/or our Trustees are available at all times to give immediate consideration to requests for help.
Telephone Peter Burns. 0161 429 0022
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September 2005
 The
collapse, (pictured left), of this tower crane received widespread
publicity. Of the three men involved in the tragedy, two were killed.
The third man, who was in the top of the tower, fell in and with the
tower, and survived the collapse, trapped in the iron work.
As there
was no contact from anyone involved we made efforts to track down
the victims. Peter Burns, our Benevolent Fund's Administrator, wrote
to the companies concerned and we were able to contact the families.
At the time only one family of the three needed help: for them we
met the funeral bill. The other fatality had no dependents, so there
was no call on our Fund. The injured man's family was still receiving
basic pay, and so they told us that there was no immediate need.
However,
six months later, the injured man, still receiving treatment, was
told that future payments would be reduced to S.S.P. This is a measly
sum, no where near enough to enable the family to maintain their very
modest life style, and as the family suddenly found itself in debt
they contacted us. The result is that our Trustees have agreed a monthly
grant for a period of a year, subject to the usual six monthly review.
Although in this case, as in most others, should it be that our beneficiary's
circumstances change for the better then we'll be the first to be
told.
As in so many cases, the people and families involved in this
tragedy had never heard of the Lighthouse Club. If we are to reach
those who need our help then spreading the word about who we are and
the help that we can give is an essential first step. It's up to us
all to do what we can. Signup, (on the home page), for our enewsletter
which you can circulate to your friends.
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The Team
Mark Everett (48), is MD of J&JE Contractors, a company based in Edinburgh. He is the Welfare Officer for
Scotland East Branch, (for the past 12 years). This has given him personal experience of the tact and
sympathy required when dealing with the people who apply to our Fund for help.
Mark has set himself the task of making our branches more aware of the work that the Benevolent Fund
carries out as it distributes the money raised throughout the country.
In his off duty hours Mark plays golf at Callander and at Gleneagles.
Don Armstrong
Don Armstrong was Chairman of North West Branch when he was invited to join the Fund's Trustees. Subsequently
he took on the role of Chairman in 1992. As head of the Armstrong Group of companies, Don has enjoyed a wide
experience in the construction industry. After twelve years as Chairman, an extremely taxing role, Don had
to step back due to ill health.
Mike Cummings
Mike Cummings has been a member of the Lighthouse Club since early days, and for many years was General
Secretary to the Club. Mike's involvement as a Trustee began in the 1980's, and he has served under
three Chairman. Now retired, Mike for ran his own contracting business in East Anglia, and he has an
extensive knowledge of construction and the people involved in the industry.
Alex Hillman
Alex Hillman spent his working life as a construction plant man,
until his recent retirement Alex held a senior position in Finning's Caterpillar organisation.
Len Smith
Len Smith, (57), joined our panel of Trustees in July 2005. He brings with him a wealth of practical experience as the long standing Welfare Officer for South East Branch. Len has worked in the Plant Hire industry since leaving school, and is the Founder and Managing director of Kent Sweepers which he established 20 years ago. Len was a founding committee member when South East Branch was established in 1990. He is also active in Medway community affairs..
The Benevolent Fund's Administrator Peter Burns works from a two room suite of
offices in Armstrong House, Swallow Street, in Stockport. One of the two rooms is given over to the filing
cabinets which hold the records of the Fund's activities. The Charity Commissioners require that the records
are held for a period of seven years, which means that considerable storage in a safe place is required.
Peter's 'working' office holds details of all current applicants, whether they have met our criteria or
not, (75% of applicants have no connection with construction and are thus ruled out), together with the
details of cases in progress, and the details of those who are currently receiving aid.
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