Mr. Reinhard Schäler:

We have three asks. The main ask is that we are allowed to start building that centre next year. That does not mean the full capital cost has to be allocated for next year but enough to allow us to start doing that. It will probably take two or three years to finish it. As to whether it is a priority for the NAI, it is probably not. As my colleague said, there are more than 30 organisations represented by the NAI, so what do we prioritise? We can only highlight our own organisation’s needs. I am very pragmatic. I still have a lot of energy and I am trying to preserve that and invest it in a service that is really needed but has not been there to date.

When I first got involved, I did not have any idea of what I was facing because I was doing something completely different. I started to read all of the strategies, papers, reports and plans. What I saw was that they were all saying what we were doing, but what was lacking was the filtering through to the practice. That is what we are demonstrating. We have proposed something that will go way beyond the services that we offer to people with severe acquired brain injuries. It is a model that can be duplicated not just in that area but in many other areas where similar services are required. I am obviously a bit biased but we have the backup of international experts to support that. It is a model that other people will be able to replicate and we can all learn from it. There is an opportunity to kick that off and if we let it pass, we will all be sorry in a year or two.