Coffee with Will: A well deserved award!

Most of us will know Will Bee best as the Chair of our Board of Trustees, a position he’s held since Wellspring Settlement was born from the merger of Barton Hill Settlement and Wellspring Healthy Living Centre in 2020. Will has also held the position of CEO of Barton Hill Settlement, so has long standing links with the organisation and the community. We’re chatting to Will today as he’s recently had some great news about a little award he’s due to receive…

Good morning Will, and thanks for taking the time to have a chat. Huge congratulations to you, what brilliant news! First of all though, can you tell us a bit about your history with Wellspring Settlement?

I worked the Settlement as CEO from 1990 to 1995, so know the organisation and the area very well. After a good few years away, I was invited back for the centenary celebration in 2011. That was the start of me getting involved again, and I joined the Board, later taking on the role of Treasurer. When we were merging, it was felt it wouldn’t be right for the existing Chairs of either organisation to continue, so I was asked to step up as someone who was respected by the community and by both Boards. The idea was I would do this for six to twelve months until a local person could take the chair, but Covid then crashed landed. They keep asking me to stay on, so here I am!

I’ve always said that when I worked at the Settlement, it was, most of the time, the best job I’d ever had. It’s a terrific place to work and I really enjoyed it.

So, on to the main event! Can you tell us a bit about your award?

Well, the award I’ve received is an MBE, which came as a bit of a surprise! It was given to me for public service and my work with the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee, which I was a part of for 16 years, until the end of October last year.

Tell us more about the committee, what work did you do as a part of it?

The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee is a government committee advising the Secretary of State for Transport on how to make public transport more accessible for disabled people. I particularly got the award for being chair of a working group looking at buses, taxis and coaches. I was involved in getting the regulations in place to make sure that announcement systems on buses are now mandatory. The voice announcements and displays telling you which stop is coming up next are really important for people who are deaf or blind, so they know when they need to get off the bus. I’ve worked with people who used to ask the driver to tell them when their stop was coming up, and would often be late to work because the driver forgot! They’re also important for wheelchair users as we travel facing backwards. In fact, they’re good for anyone who’s on an unfamiliar journey and isn’t sure when to get off.

My role was to work with civil servants to get them to bring regulations into effect in order to implement legislation passed in the Buses Act 2017. There were two general elections in that period, as well as regular changes to ministers and civil servants, so it took a lot of tenacity and reminding people about this piece of work, explaining why it was important, and making sure it didn’t just get quietly binned!

I know I’ve benefitted from those announcements on unfamiliar journeys before, it’s really interesting to hear that something that seems so simple has taken such hard work. What kind of work did you do around taxis?

Well, for many years there was no specific guidance on disability issues for Councils licensing taxis, so drivers didn’t need to have any training on disability. So when presented with a blind passenger who needed to be guided into the seat, or someone with learning difficulties who might be a bit confused when paying, drivers had little awareness of how best to help. It is frustrating area, there’s a lot of discrimination still with drivers seeing a guide dog or a wheelchair and just driving off. But again, with persistent nagging, some good practice guidance was put into place and does appear to be driving up the number of authorities that are making this kind of training mandatory.

You’re obviously very passionate about this work, has it been difficult to step back?

It’s a slog, chasing it all the time and feeling like you’ve got to keep an eye on people. So it’s nice not to have that responsibility. But at the same time, I regularly use buses in Bristol, London and other cities, and you can’t help but spot things that aren’t as they should be. Or equally, I see good practice as well, drivers who are positive and helpful and patient. I do make a point of saying thank you to drivers when I see this, and feeding back to the company.

Have you brought any learning from your time on the committee into your position with Wellspring Settlement?

Mainly around how government works, and a general understanding of how government is often a series of cock-ups and accidents, rather than a conspiracy. And that they are very, very siloed. One of the great things about Wellspring Settlement is that we’re not, and we must never be. If we see a problem, we can work together to find a solution rather than fight over whose problem it is to solve.

Back to your good news to finish. Will there be a ceremony, and will you be going to it?

Yes, there will be an investiture as it’s called. There are over 3000 people on the honours list, so there will be a number of investitures at different venues, I’m hoping  that I’ll be able to go to one at Buckingham Palace, but I’m not yet sure when it will be.

Well, thank you Will and congratulations once again. It sounds like the award is well deserved after all your work to ensure disabled people have as much freedom to travel on public transport as others do. Make sure you take plenty of pictures at the investiture, we’ll all be looking forward to seeing them!