Award for ex-police officer

A FORMER police officer who has helped raise £10 million for community groups in Warrington received an MBE from The Queen at Buckingham Palace.
Alison McCausland, of Warrington, worked for Cheshire Police for more than 30 years and during that time got involved with vital work in the community.
She said: “Receiving the MBE was an amazing experience. I met other award winners who were amazing people, including brave soldiers who had served in Afghanistan.
“The Palace staff were amazing and The Queen was lovely. She asked me a few questions about my work and Warrington.”
Alison, who left the police in September, helped pioneer the now-familiar partnership approach to policing. The MBE recognises the impact her work has had.
After working in the then-emerging policing fields of child protection and domestic violence, she realised that this was a major interest. She was instrumental in helping set up Warrington’s first Domestic Violence Unit and moved from there to setting up procedures to deal with vulnerable adults.
“Every area of police work I got involved in, I realised there were little or no facilities to work with the community,” she said. “One job that sticks in my mind was the woman who was punched so hard she went through a wall, and this was marked as ‘advice given’. You had to wonder just what that advice was – where to find a decent plasterer?
“Because of this I started to look at the correlation between children on the child protection register and the instances of domestic abuse. At the time, other than Women’s Aid, there was no organised help. With each agency working on their little bit there was no inter agency communication going on. The police were working in isolation and the rest of the community was working completely separately from them.”
She worked on setting up support services, both in her role and spare time. Since retiring she has become a consultant for several charities.
One of her major achievements was work with Warrington-based charity The Relationship Centre and “Talk Don’t Walk”, which supports those with relationship issues and children who have run away from home or are thinking of doing so.
Alison, who has four children and a grandson, said: “To receive the honour is wonderful, but it isn’t just for me – it is for all the people I work with and my partner who has worked so hard. Without them it would have been impossible to achieve it all.”
Pictured…Alison with her award.