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Pride is celebrated every June and this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first Pride march in the UK. The event celebrates and raises awareness of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer community – commonly referred to as LGBTQ+. The ‘+’ sign stands for anyone in the community who does not fit under these rigid definitions, because Pride is all about being accepted for who you are.  

It is also very important to remember that, while Pride Month and rainbows can look like a big celebration, to a lot of people it is a very important time of the year, because it highlights the struggles they still face.  

LGBTQ+ in workplaces 

Pride is important in society because it celebrates and accepts our natural diversity, and the same goes for the workplace. Embracing diversity and equality creates a supportive work environment for all employees. LGBTQ+ employees need safe, secure and welcoming workplaces, where their protections are embedded and robust enough that they withstand ongoing outside pressures and negative opinions. 

This can be tricky since not everyone feels comfortable being “out” at work. In the UK, more than a third of LGBT staff hide who they are at work. Many people are worried their co-workers will treat them differently. It can be exhausting. That’s why it is important to celebrate with the people who support you!  

“At JCA we take great care in making sure that all our employees are treated fairly. Every employee is required to assist JCA with this commitment. Most of all, we want JCA to be a safe, secure and welcoming workplace for everyone.”  

Tom Absalom, Managing Director

Further reading:

• Supporting women in engineering
• National Apprenticeship Week 2023
• Armed Forces Covenant

We are delighted to announce a new sponsorship of Pro Sports Events, a cycling event company. This is an exciting opportunity to support a growing local business, which is at the heart of our approach to corporate social responsibility.  

At JCA, we are committed to developing sustainable communities. Our vision is to contribute towards vibrant, caring and mixed communities, tackling issues associated with the local environment, employment, training, transport and the instigation of local strategic partnerships. 

Pro Sports Events is a unique cycling event company with over 10 years of experience in delivering cycling events across the globe, specialising in bespoke cycling experiences for all abilities, both in the UK and abroad. 

Ian Jackson, Chairman at JCA, said: “We’re excited to partner with Pro Sports Events – a team of experienced and enthusiastic cyclists, delivering bespoke cycling adventures. Their ethos strongly resonates with our own; at JCA we recognise the value of health and wellbeing, and the need to balance work and personal life. Finding an outdoor activity, not necessarily cycling, is a great way to get away from everyday pressures and maintain positive mental health.” 

Ian Holmes at Pro Sports Events, said: “The team at Pro Sports are absolutely delighted to partner with JCA for this year’s events. This sponsorship has already brought a fantastic new look to the team, and we look forward to a busy year of bespoke adventures.” 

The JCA design team is part of the professional team assigned to designing and creating the new critical care (ICU) facility at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

JCA worked extensively and thoroughly engaged with the management team at the Trust, together with the clinicians and design team, with a view to deliver a new ‘class leading’ expanded adult (ICU) intensive care unit.

This is a major and exciting development within the hospital that offers patients, patient families and clinicians new state-of-the-art facilities for a critical care environment.

These benefits include but are not limited to the following:

• Maximising daylight for the patients with extensive views of the city using full height thermal comfort glazing
• Large bed spaces with carefully considered ceiling mounted articulated arms and monitoring facilities
• Glass will replace curtains to improve noise reduction and privacy
• Improved relative facilities
• Upgraded burns unit environmental systems
• Centralised 24 hours critical care engineering systems offering flexible, maintainable systems with minimal maintenance impact in patient areas

JCA overcame complex engineering challenges to design a solution to facilitate upgraded central engineering upgrades whilst ensuring there is no impact to the usual day to day running of the hospital during the construction works and to provide a phased handover and sectional completion of areas. The engineering specified throughout the scheme uses modern, energy efficient and dynamic controlled environmental and lighting management systems.

David Butcher, Director of Estates and Facilities at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Trust, said: “This project is a complex major scheme in a central London hospital that needed engineering design capability of the highest standard with a team capable of working closely with clinicians to provide a design that can be built in a properly planned and methodical manner with minimal impact to the usual day to day running of the hospital.”

Phase 1 of the project is completed, handed over to the client and currently in use.