Dear Editor, I wasn’t sure whether to be upset or amused at the article written about us (City schools spend £1.5m on therapy sessions, Post July 28).
Whilst there were some complimentary observations about the work we do in schools around the country, there were also several inaccurate statements which are untrue.
Herriotts and Millward is a company that delivers a wide range of programmes to schools all over the country. These address a range of issues: Childhood obesity, low self esteem, deprivation, teenage pregnancy, isolation, developing strategies for stress management, re-entering the workplace with qualifications, and yes, somewhere in that list is the wellbeing of teachers.
To suggest we spend most of our time providing massage or indeed alternative therapies to teachers and children is ludicrous and untrue. To suggest we turned over £4 million doing so this year is also untrue. Our turnover has not reached a quarter of that yet this year.
What we do, however, is a fantastic job of helping a range of people from children, teachers and parents to develop strategies to deal with some of the dreadful issues that life throws at them.
This week we are working with around 600 children in Birmingham in a variety of venues. Their projects give them wonderful opportunities to enjoy and achieve, each week will see them performing their shows or exhibiting their creations. I wouldn’t call this massage, would you? However, the money billed for this is part of the figure being bandied around.
These particular projects are directly funded by the Government and rolled out in each authority through their Extended Schools Provision.
This brings me on to the two invoices that were apparently billed this year to single schools, being £42,900 and £38,137 by us. These invoices cover activities in at least 10 schools and form part of the City’s My Choice provision, directly funded by the Government to engage children in out of school activities. This meant we provided after school clubs, literally hundreds of children with the opportunity to make new friends, learn new skills and above all, have fun – guess what? No massage in sight.
I strongly object to the statement that we are providing any kind of massage for children. We train schools in Peer Massage, a well-established programme where children work with each other on a clothed arm and back massage. This helps children to develop self esteem and promote calm environments.
We are proud of what we do, so very proud and our work in Birmingham is where it all began. Our programs are about what people need, we will continue to keep pace with new Government initiatives making sure that our services are the best they can by.
Devaney Herriotts (managing director),
Herriotts & Millward,
Birmingham
