Nautilus welcomes new charity alliance chair

The UK Maritime Charities Group  (MCG) has announced a change of leadership, with Tim Slingsby of Lloyd's Register Foundation (LRF) taking over the helm from the retiring Graham Hockley.

Nautilus Welfare Fund director of welfare and care Andrew Jones welcomed Mr Slingsby, saying: 'I look forward to continuing our well established and successful relationship with the Maritime Charities Group.'

Mr Slingsby said: 'I am truly delighted to be taking on this new role and am grateful to my fellow MCG members for all their support. As an alliance of 10 major seafaring charities supporting seafarers in all sectors, from the armed forces, the Merchant Navy and the fishing fleet, MCG has a critically important role to play.'

Commander Hockley said: 'I'm extremely positive about what I'm handing over. We've made really good progress in the last three or four years, especially on collaboration and diverse thinking. In my time as chair we've had many changes around the table including more women in senior roles, which has brought new energy and new ideas.'

The MCG was established almost 25 years ago to foster collaboration across the maritime charity sector to achieve the greatest impact for seafarers and their families. Its members include seafaring charities operating across all sectors and both within and outside the UK. Recent initiatives include: the Covid-19 Redundancy and Retraining Bursary Fund, which provided 105 UK-based seafarers who had lost work due to Covid with help towards the cost of training to stay in maritime; the Mental Health Awareness Training Standard; and a successful conference in September 2022 which helped set the MCG's agenda for the next two years.