Meet the Board - Emma Collins, Communications Director

Where do you work?

I work for the Scottish Ambulance Service as the Musculoskeletal Lead (I am an Occupational Health Physiotherapist by trade).  This is a new role for me at the end of 2022 after having been the Manual handling service lead for a large local authority and before that for an NHS board.  

What do you do in your spare time?

With full-time work, my 4 daughters, my Dad, a mad dog, and an opinionated cat to look after, I don't have a lot of 'spare' time! I run though.  All distances from ultra marathons to 5 and 10ks.  I am a run leader for my local Jog Scotland group and go to the Scottish Athletics club near me too. 

What’s your role on the Board?

I work on communications with Kerry, the Marketing Director, and alongside the Echo team. We are looking to get the local groups' activities marketed out more, so that will be my role for the next little while.

What’s the best thing about your work with NBE?

Attending conference and meeting all the other folks who are involved in the work.

How long have you been Chair of the Scottish Manual Handling Forum? 

I have been Chair of the Scottish Manual Handling Forum since 2017, but have been on the core group since 2010 and held a number of different roles. 

What inspired you to become Chair? 

I absolutely LOVE the work we do with the Scottish Manual Handling Forum.  Bringing people together and sharing and supporting each other is my great passion and it was natural at the stage where Chairperson became vacant that I stepped up to it. 

How many members do you have currently? 

We don't have members as such because everybody is welcome to attend our events or join in our conversations online.  We have a website, are on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and our events are on Eventbrite.  Any interest in promoting safe manual handling and you should come along and join us.  We have a mailing list of 309 people but on average there are around 100 who attend our get-togethers.  Apply to become a network member - Scottish Manual Handling Forum here.

How often do you meet? 

Well... the events run annually.  In the uneven numbered years we have a one-day study day anywhere in the country and in the even numbered years we have a 2-day conference just outside Glasgow. The Core Group meets every 1/2/3 months depending how close to an event day it is! We are also involved in the Scottish Manual Handling Passport Review Group and they meet every few months too.  There are smaller working groups at times who meet to collaborate on projects and feed into the review group too. 

Why would you recommend joining a local group to others? 

For sure! and I would encourage people to get involved with the groups, be a part of the discussions.  It has given me such a wide network of colleagues and has enhanced my practice beyond measure.  There is no way I would be where I am today without the support of Scottish Manual Handling Forum colleagues - no, FRIENDS 

What is the plan for the future? 

We want to try and get more people involved in our events from as wide a field as we can.  We have a really varied attendance already from NHS, councils, higher education establishments, care companies, training companies and charities.  But the majority are from teams in the NHS and Councils and we would be delighted to see more of those smaller care and training companies, maybe places where the staff teams are small & could really gain a lot from the wider support network.  

We have just started a light review of the Scottish Manual Handling Passport as well so there will be a lot of work around that and promoting registration.  Work has only just started on the possible addition of a Bariatric handling module to the passport too.  

Plenty of options to do more though if anyone wants to lead on some projects and need help getting working groups together - just get in touch on smhf2000@gmail.com