USERS of a day care service in Barry for people with physical disabilities have been catapulted into the limelight after starring in a film commissioned by financial services giant, Legal & General.

The film shows the difficulties faced by people with a physical disability when calling a contact centre with everyday but nevertheless, important enquiries. Although Legal & General made the film, the calls could be to any company with a call centre, perhaps to query a gas bill or to request pension information -important matters where people rely on the communication skills of the call handler to give them peace of mind and to deal with their enquiries promptly and efficiently.

All the actors who took part in the film have some form of disability and their experiences highlighted the obstacles they faced when making a call. These ranged from the call handler’s lack of knowledge of disabilities and their impact, as well as systems and processes that were a barrier to people needing a service. Complicated and confusing options, and information given too fast for them to process were also areas of concern.

The New Horizons Day Centre, run by the Vale of Glamorgan Council, was chosen because it was found to be the only centre of its type in Wales, run by a local authority for people with a physical disability. The film was produced by LGIM Retail, Legal & General’s retail investments business, and was intended as a training video for their call centre staff.

Senior Legal & General managers in London and Cardiff were so moved after watching the film that they have decided to use it across the Legal & General group of companies, as part of their training and development and to share it with other companies from different sectors too.

Graham Precey, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Legal & General said: “The New Horizons team have really helped us to understand their lives and what they expect good service to look like. We now have the job of taking this and changing how we do business for other customers.

"We have found at Legal & General that charities and not for profit organisations are some of the most insightful, to help companies do a better job of serving their customers”.

Mark Roderick (pictured), who had juvenile arthritis which caused the seizure of his joints, is a regular visitor to the New Horizons Day Service.

His experiences, along with ten other day centre users, featured prominently in the film.

“For so long vulnerable adults have voiced concerns and issues but nobody was there to listen," he said. "L&G did listen and they had the foresight to see the value of working with vulnerable clients, in order to help vulnerable clients."

Sandie Dunn, People Development Manager at Legal & General, presented the Vale of Glamorgan Council’s Louise Payne, who runs the New Horizons Day Care Service with a cheque for £1,000, which will be invested in physiotherapy equipment for the centre.