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| This government squeeze on charities just adds to the trauma of terror | |
| (7 months later) | |
| Sun 11 Jun 2017 00.05 BST | |
| Last modified on Sat 2 Dec 2017 03.10 GMT | |
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| In the aftermath of the Manchester attacks in St Ann’s Square, I met Graham Foulkes. One of many experts offered up to a media desperately trying to offer some possible context, his intensity stood out. It was quickly apparent why: Graham Foulkes is an involuntary expert. His son, David, a bright young trainee for the Guardian Media Group, was killed at London’s Edgware Road station in the 7/7 attacks. | In the aftermath of the Manchester attacks in St Ann’s Square, I met Graham Foulkes. One of many experts offered up to a media desperately trying to offer some possible context, his intensity stood out. It was quickly apparent why: Graham Foulkes is an involuntary expert. His son, David, a bright young trainee for the Guardian Media Group, was killed at London’s Edgware Road station in the 7/7 attacks. |
| So whether Graham, a direct, thoughtful man, is being interviewed on live TV by Victoria Derbyshire or speaking into an anonymous radio mic, his focus in the immediate hours after an attack is reaching out to that person who “is sat at home, knowing that their son is missing and that they can’t get in contact with him”. In many ways, he is reaching out to a version of himself on that terrible day in 2005. | So whether Graham, a direct, thoughtful man, is being interviewed on live TV by Victoria Derbyshire or speaking into an anonymous radio mic, his focus in the immediate hours after an attack is reaching out to that person who “is sat at home, knowing that their son is missing and that they can’t get in contact with him”. In many ways, he is reaching out to a version of himself on that terrible day in 2005. |
| Because while Graham acknowledges that the emergency response to a large-scale attack is now co-ordinated in a way that it wasn’t when his son was killed, there still exists an incredible, inhumane gap in services for the families of victims. Unlike homicide or missing-person cases, where police make contact with families as soon as they have found a body, the aftermath of terrorism is different. As minutes turn to hours, there is no support package and nobody to help prepare the family for what is to come. | Because while Graham acknowledges that the emergency response to a large-scale attack is now co-ordinated in a way that it wasn’t when his son was killed, there still exists an incredible, inhumane gap in services for the families of victims. Unlike homicide or missing-person cases, where police make contact with families as soon as they have found a body, the aftermath of terrorism is different. As minutes turn to hours, there is no support package and nobody to help prepare the family for what is to come. |
| While all of us express grief and sorrow and post messages of support to people we have never met, those families enter “meltdown”, as Graham calls it. Carrying ID is commonplace now and police may know the identify of victims quickly. However, they are unable to knock at the door before the coroner has confirmed the identify of the victim and authorised the police to make contact. Only then are support services such as family liaison triggered. | While all of us express grief and sorrow and post messages of support to people we have never met, those families enter “meltdown”, as Graham calls it. Carrying ID is commonplace now and police may know the identify of victims quickly. However, they are unable to knock at the door before the coroner has confirmed the identify of the victim and authorised the police to make contact. Only then are support services such as family liaison triggered. |
| Since the review of process that followed the Marchioness disaster, coroners will not release the bodies until they have absolute proof of identity. When David Foulkes was murdered on 7/7, this took a week. His father now dedicates his professional life (and much, you suspect, of his personal) to making sure that nobody else has to endure that gap, the time “when the most damage is done to the family”. He runs the Survivors Assistance Network (SAN), the smallest arm of the Warrington-based Foundation 4 Peace, (set up by Colin and Wendy Parry when their son, Tim, was killed in an IRA attack), for which Foulkes also assists on a terrorist deradicalisation programme (foundation4peace.org). | Since the review of process that followed the Marchioness disaster, coroners will not release the bodies until they have absolute proof of identity. When David Foulkes was murdered on 7/7, this took a week. His father now dedicates his professional life (and much, you suspect, of his personal) to making sure that nobody else has to endure that gap, the time “when the most damage is done to the family”. He runs the Survivors Assistance Network (SAN), the smallest arm of the Warrington-based Foundation 4 Peace, (set up by Colin and Wendy Parry when their son, Tim, was killed in an IRA attack), for which Foulkes also assists on a terrorist deradicalisation programme (foundation4peace.org). |
| Graham describes a pragmatic battle for survival in those first few hours, broadening to a bewildering swamp of administration over time. Who on earth can predict how they would respond? Graham finds families obsessively trying to get information from the news channels (as he did) but they don’t tell us how to deal with the coroner’s office, or the police. “You have to remind people to drink, eat, have a wash and a bath as well,” he says. “It’s a hand-holding exercise.” Partners without wills, their lives ended in an instant, leave families grappling with mortgages and bills for years to come. | Graham describes a pragmatic battle for survival in those first few hours, broadening to a bewildering swamp of administration over time. Who on earth can predict how they would respond? Graham finds families obsessively trying to get information from the news channels (as he did) but they don’t tell us how to deal with the coroner’s office, or the police. “You have to remind people to drink, eat, have a wash and a bath as well,” he says. “It’s a hand-holding exercise.” Partners without wills, their lives ended in an instant, leave families grappling with mortgages and bills for years to come. |
| SAN is currently helping more than 500 people, victims of terror and their families. “If you lose a limb or an eye, you don’t get a family liaison officer either,” notes Foulkes. “They come to us too.” | SAN is currently helping more than 500 people, victims of terror and their families. “If you lose a limb or an eye, you don’t get a family liaison officer either,” notes Foulkes. “They come to us too.” |
| SAN runs these vital services on a budget “well under £200,000”, which I find shameful. And from that, one could subtract a big chunk of cash that must now be diverted into jumping through administrative hoops. Tiny charities such as SAN have seen their meagre budgets slashed as part of governance and process reforms to charities, the government’s response to the Camila Batmanghelidjh Kids Company mess. | SAN runs these vital services on a budget “well under £200,000”, which I find shameful. And from that, one could subtract a big chunk of cash that must now be diverted into jumping through administrative hoops. Tiny charities such as SAN have seen their meagre budgets slashed as part of governance and process reforms to charities, the government’s response to the Camila Batmanghelidjh Kids Company mess. |
| In SAN’s case, this is precious money diverted from frontline services dealing with the aftermath of an attack, something nobody wants to think about, so apparently few people do. These include policymakers and those in a position to help Graham Foulkes plug that gap. | In SAN’s case, this is precious money diverted from frontline services dealing with the aftermath of an attack, something nobody wants to think about, so apparently few people do. These include policymakers and those in a position to help Graham Foulkes plug that gap. |
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