Suffolk BME Business Awards

Nominations are requested for the Suffolk BME Business Awards to celebrate the diversity and achievements originating from the BME community

The award categories are:

Business of the Year
Business person of the Year
Start Up of teh Year
Community Business of the Year

Nomination forms can be downloaded at www.uos.ac.uk/business or www.bscentre.org.uk

Closing date 30th September 2016

And an evening of celebration will take place on Wednesday 28th October at 7 pm at the University of Suffolk

You can also find out more from the Bangladeshi Support Centre 01473 400081

Good luck to all our fab BME businesses!

The Doctors Strike and what you should know

The BMA must be the first union in history to call for strike action against a deal they themselves negotiated and said was a good one!

In fact the current chair of the JDC, Ellen McCourt, who called these strikes, co-led negotiations for the BMA when agreement was reached in May – and recommended the revised contract to members as ‘beneficial to our patients and to our junior doctors’.

The Government has been speaking to the BMA for three years and have made 107 different concessions. The Government is prepared to talk with the BMA about how we can call off the strike.

As doctors’ representatives, the BMA should be putting patients first, not playing politics in a way that will be immensely damaging for vulnerable patients.


Whilst there are many pressures on the frontline, funding is at record levels, with the highest number of doctors employed in the history of the NHS. Co-operation not confrontation is the way forward to make sure patients get the best treatment and the NHS is there for people whenever they need it.


The new contract is:

* Better for patients – who will have access to a great and improving service 7 days a week. These changes are the most significant change to the contract in seventeen years. The changes ensure the NHS is shaped around the needs of patients who can’t choose what day of the week they fall unwell.


* Better for junior doctors – guaranteeing better training, safety and working conditions. Junior doctors working legal hours will receive a basic pay rise of around 10 to 11 %, subject to modelling. New limits on hours worked, consecutive nights and long days will also be introduced. A new family support plan will help balance home and work and offer catch-up programmes.


* Better for the NHS – linking pay progression to attainment, tackles locum costs and scraps unsafe incentives for long hours. There will be a fundamental shift in the way doctors are paid for weekend work so it is a third less expensive for hospitals to roster doctors over the weekend. By introducing Saturday and Sundays plain time rates and a sliding scale replacing unsocial hour payments high standards of care will be enabled at an affordable rate.

We are absolutely certain this is the right way forward but I fear the BMA are on a one way street with an agenda to bring down the govt written on the side of their Bandwagon.

Community Grant applications

Voluntary groups are an important part of services provided within our town. without them, these services would cost the taxpayer so much more. 

I am glad to see that the pot of money has been maintained - we all know that it is essential to support the good work of kind people.

This press release came out today:

Voluntary and community groups in Ipswich can apply for cash support as the Borough Council announces it has maintained the size of its grant pot.

Groups can apply for amounts up to £20,000 for the year through either a Community Investment Grant (this grant provides core funding for running costs or pump priming funding for an organisation to build its capacity); 

or a Community Project Grant (this grant is suitable for trying something new or for one-off activity that delivers one or more of the Council’s grants priorities).

Successful applicants need to have a legal governance structure and be able to demonstrate how they will measure progress in at least one of the following areas: promoting community safety, improving health and wellbeing, promoting learning and skills development, making Ipswich cleaner, more attractive and sustainable, enhancing culture and leisure activities, working with individuals and groups who are disadvantaged and promoting equality of opportunity and fostering good community relations.

The closing date for applications is noon on Monday 10th October 2016.

The application form and guidance for applicants can be found at www.ipswich.gov.uk/content/community-cash-grants-201516