Help is being offered to Ashfield firms who want to reduce their energy bills and look for greener alternatives to running their business. The Accelerator project aims to encourage local businesses to make the vital steps towards decarbonisation and net zero. It is being funded through Ashfield District Council’s £3.2 million allocation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and delivered by East Midlands Chamber. The project signals a new era of local place-based support for the District and, as well as reducing energy costs, aims to help businesses improve productivity through innovation and digital technology, and develop through new overseas markets and workforce upskilling. Net Zero support under the Accelerator project includes: • 1-2-1 consultancy – developing a comprehensive energy and premises audit which includes a review of a business’s energy and fuel consumption. A site visit will involve an Energy Saving and Improvement Opportunities (ESIO) audit using equipment such as cameras, infrared temperature sensors, energy monitors and temperature data loggers. Information collected will be collated into an energy savings opportunity report. • Training – including a newly-launched and accredited Carbon Literacy course. Delivered as two half-day online sessions, it allows delegates to acquire the knowledge and skills they need to develop responses to lowering their organisation’s carbon footprint, typically by 5-15% per certified participant. John Bennett, Executive Director Place, for ADC said: “It is fantastic we can offer support like this to help businesses go green. Ashfield District Council is committed to achieving net zero by 2030 and we want to do everything we can to encourage companies across the District to play their part too. “Our UK Shared Prosperity Fund is funding a huge range of support, training, and upskilling for residents and businesses in Ashfield. The Ashfield Accelerator just one of these initiatives and I would urge local businesses to get involved and take advantage of this great opportunity.” Diane Beresford, Deputy Chief Executive of East Midlands Chamber, added: “There are so many reasons why a business should consider more environmentally-sound practices. Consumers and businesses are becomingly increasingly conscious of the environmental impact of their purchases, and businesses that show they’re attentive to this can differentiate themselves from the competition. “More than that, there are small and often inexpensive changes that can be made to reduce energy consumption and improve bottom line as a result. I would urge any Ashfield business looking for guidance on where to start, to engage with one of the Chamber’s business advisers who will be able to make arrangements for support.”

Chesterfield-based Peak Pharmacy has invested in new, innovative equipment to speed up its processes, along with improving accuracy and capacity. The organisation recently moved to a new headquarters at the Horizon 29 development near Chesterfield and is now investing in an Austrian system provided by Knapp to improve the way it dispenses medications for customers. Managing Director, Joe Cattee explained: “Knapp partners with a number of organisations within the country already and supports with the ability to pick products by using fully automated and manual picking zones for speed and convenience. “The attraction to work with this provider was that they have designed a system that enables us to dispense patients’ medication at our site. This takes this workload out of community pharmacy and creates capacity within our pharmacy network for our teams to support patients in different ways. “The machine is significantly more accurate than human dispensing, and the speed in which we can dispense medication means that we can do approximately half of all the prescriptions we do on a monthly basis through our Hub. Clearly, there will be some requirements to support and educate both our pharmacy teams and patients, but it enables us to revolutionise what we do under extremely challenging conditions.” The new technology is helping Peak Pharmacy to revolutionise how it operates, enabling the business to continue thriving during a challenging economic climate. Joe Cattee added: “Community pharmacy is vastly underfunded across England. It’s being reported that 8 pharmacies a week are closing in the current climate with funding decreases between 2015 & 2019, and a flat fee funding contract introduced from 2019 – 2024. This obviously has a detrimental effect on the million visits to community pharmacy in England every day. “By investing in automation at our Hub, we reduce the stress and pressure on our pharmacy teams, ensuring a better level of patient care is provided. The launch of the ‘Pharmacy First’ scheme on 31st January 2024, enabling community pharmacy to treat seven common health conditions without visiting a GP, shows the direction of travel that community pharmacy needs to undertake. “By removing dispensing volume across our estate, and assembling centrally, we can ensure a more accurate and timely service of medication provision, whilst also having capacity to engage in more NHS and private services to support patient wellbeing. In short, if we don’t adapt then we will not remain a viable business. Community pharmacy plays a huge part in supporting the country, but the financial reimbursement for what we do means that the costs of running our business now outweigh the revenue we receive for the services we provide.”

PAB Languages Centre has been named as a supplier on the KCS Procurement Services Language Services Framework Y23031 for the next four years.

Operating nationally and regionally, the East Midlands business will provide an array of services, including translations, transcriptions, ancillary services, telephone and video interpreting, and face-to-face interpreting with a focus on inclusivity through BSL interpreting.

The award of Framework Number Y23004 by KCS Procurement Services marks a pivotal step for PAB in expanding its footprint in public sector language services.

Tarryn Kerr, Director of KCS Procurement Services, said: “We are delighted to have launched our new Language Services framework, which has been created to help support public sector organisations across the UK. “Our framework experts have undertaken a stringent tender process to award to the successful suppliers and we are pleased that PAB Languages Centre is one of our new partners. We look forward to creating a long-lasting relationship with PAB Languages Centre and working collaboratively to support the needs of the UK public sector.”

“Being part of this prestigious framework is not just a great achievement; it’s a responsibility that we take very seriously,” said Iwona Lebiedowicz, Managing Director of PAB Languages Centre Ltd.

“We understand the critical role language services play in a diverse and multicultural society. Being appointed onto the framework reflects our team’s dedication to delivering top-tier language services and demonstrates PAB’s excellence in service quality, efficiency, and reliability.”

This framework is designed to streamline the procurement process for public sector entities, offering a direct award capability that ensures a quick and compliant route to acquiring language services.