Helping local people improve health and social care services

News archive 2011

Help develop the Southwark Health and Wellbeing Board

Over the past few months Councillor Dora Dixon–Fyle, the Southwark Council Cabinet Member for Health and Adult Social Care, has beeen working with key Health and Adult Social Care personnel within the Council and Southwark Business Support Unit to form the Health and Wellbeing Board (HWB) in Southwark. Part of the HWB’s role is to focus on tackling the right Health and Wellbeing priorities for Southwark.

If you are keen to get involved in shaping the HWB click on the following link to find out how you can do so Health and Wellbeing Board Letter

Alternatively to find out how your local LINk is contributing to this contact 020 7358 7005, link@ch1889.org

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NHS Future Forum publishes recommendations to Government

The NHS Future Forum has published its recommendations to the Government on the modernisation of health and care.

Set up as an independent group in order to ‘pause, listen and reflect’ on the Health and Social Care Bill, the Forum has made 16 key recommendations, including:
•the pace of the proposed changes should be varied so that the NHS implements them only where it is ready to do so
•the Secretary of State for Health should remain ultimately accountable for the NHS
•nurses, specialist doctors and other clinicians must be involved in making local decisions about the commissioning of care – not just GPs – but in doing this the NHS should avoid tokenism, or the creation of a new bureaucracy
•competition should be used to secure greater choice and better value for patients – it should be used not as an end in itself, but to improve quality, promote integration and increase citizens’ rights
•the drive for change in the NHS should not be based on Monitor’s duty to ‘promote’ competition, which should be removed, but on citizens’ power to challenge the local health service when they feel it does not offer meaningful choices or good quality
•all organisations involved in NHS care and spending NHS money should be subject to the same high standards of public openness and accountability.
•The Forum’s recommendations will now be considered and responded to by the Government.

Forum Chairman Professor Steve Field, a practising GP from Birmingham, said: ‘There is no doubt that the NHS needs to change. The principles underlying the Bill – devolving control to clinicians, giving patients real choices and control, and focusing on outcomes – are well supported.

‘However, during our listening we heard genuine and deep–seated concerns from NHS staff, patients and the public that must be addressed if the reforms are to be progressed. If the substantial changes we propose are accepted by Government, then I think the resulting framework will place the NHS in a strong position to meet this objective and tackle the pressing challenges in the years ahead.’

The NHS Future Forum was launched on 6 April as part of the Government’s listening exercise on the current Health and Social Care Bill. Since then its 45 members have attended around 200 events and have met more than 6,700 people face to face. More than 25,000 people have sent their views to the Forum by email, while a further 4,000 have sent private comments, completed questionnaires or website responses.
(source: http://healthandcare.dh.gov.uk/future–forum–report)

  
LINk Southwark Annual Report 2010–11

To view our report click here Annual Report

LINk Southwark & Cool Tan Arts Personalisation Event – Thursday 23rd June 2011

Social Care Services are changing. If you require council support, you can get a Personal Budget.

Come and find out what this means for you... more control..? ...more choice? LINk Southwark are holding workshops on how the assessment process works and how to create a personal budget. There will be workshops on:

• Mental Health
• Learning Disabilities
• Physical Disabilities
• Older People

Venue: Albrighton Centre, 37 Albrighton Road, East Dulwich Estate SE 22 8AH
Time: 10.30–1.30pm – lunch included.

Please call 020 7358 7005 to confirm your place.

To download the flyer please click here. To download the directions please click here.

Join us in helping people survive bowel cancer.

Be Clear on Cancer is a national NHS campaign that aims to save lives across South East London by increasing awareness of bowel cancer signs and symptoms and encouraging people to visit their GP.

We want to get everyone in Southwark talking about bowel cancer and we need people like you to help us.

We are developing a campaign, which includes a number of local activities in the Southwark area to get more people talking about bowel cancer. We know that more people will survive if they are familiar with the signs and symptoms of bowel cancer and visit their GP at the earliest possible stage.

• Bowel cancer is the third most common cancer in the UK
• Over 8 in 10 bowel cancer cases occur in people aged 60 and over
• Research suggests that over 90% of bowel cancer patients will survive the disease for more than 5 years if diagnosed at the earliest stage.

How to get involved

To kick off the campaign we're asking those who are interested to meet us at Beormund Community Centre http:www.beormund.co.uk/index.htm on Monday 9th of May at 5pm for a workshop on how best to get people talking.

We will provide full training and support along the way but it’s your connections and knowledge of the community that will really bring this campaign to life and help save lives in Southwark.

Please sign up TODAY or contact us to find out more. Please call Clare on the dedicated line 07734 103 184 or email clare@socialchange-hub.co.uk.

Governance Framework for NHS South East London PCT

Following the Department of Health's guidance, PCTs across London have 'clustered' together in their local areas to make management cost reductions by delivering certain management functions together.

In South East London, corporate functions are now shared across the PCTs and local commissioning support teams across six local boroughs, Bromley, Greenwich, Lewisham, Lambeth, Southwark and Bexley care trust.

The Governance Framework details the different committees, boards and management groups that together set strategy and delivery on key issues such as healthcare commissioning, performance and pay. The summary can be accessed here.

Latest LINk Southwark newsletter

Please find our latest LINk newsletter available here. If you would like to see a particular issue or event included in our next newsletter, please contact us. Happy reading!

As you may know, March is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month

The Prostate Cancer Charity will be launching our new Testing Choices campaign in Parliament on 30th March and we need your help telling MPs about it.

The Testing Choices campaign calls on politicians to do more to improve Men's awareness and understanding of prostate cancer risk and testing.

Take action now!

You can take action now by contacting your MP and asking them to support the campaign and to do more to improve men's awareness and understanding of prostate cancer risk and testing.

Please visit www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/dayofaction for more information about the campaign.

Prostate Cancer Facts

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. Every year 37,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer and 10,000 men die from the disease. Prostate cancer mainly affects men over 50 and the risk increases with age. You are two and a half times more likely to develop prostate cancer if your father or brother has had it. African Caribbean men are three times more likely to develop prostate cancer than white men of the same age.

Tell a friend

The more letters, emails and phone calls MPs receive about the Testing Choices campaign, the more likely they will be to support it. Please ask your friends to visit www.prostate-cancer.org.uk/dayofaction so they can tell their MP about the Testing Choices campaign.

More information

If you need any further information, please contact us by emailing campaigns@prostate-cancer.org.uk.

Guys & St. Thomas – Patient Information Strategy – Consultation

The Guy's and St Thomas' Foundation Trust have drafted a ‘Patient Information Strategy’. They are asking for your views and thoughts on the Patient Information Strategy. The consultation can be accessed here. The questions can be accessed here.

Please could you comment on the attached consultation questions and send it back to us at: link@ch1889.org by Thursday 24th March 2011.

If you would like these in hard copy, please contact us on 020 7358 7005 and we will send them to you.

Changes to Services delivered to Older People in Southwark – Consultation – Deadline extended

Southwark Council are changing the way services are delivered to Older People in Southwark. A consultation has been written explaining what they intend to change to Open Access Services in Southwark. This refers to:

• Day support and/or lunch clubs
• Befriending
• Advice and Information
• Advocacy support

Key changes include:

• Re–shaping Lunch Club Projects which involves cutting down the number of lunch clubs available from 12 to 3
• Stopping all open access support services projects (advice, information and befriending projects) and then inviting local organisations to bid for these projects against a new personalisation and Health & well–being criteria. This will take place from April 2012

The Council are asking three questions on their proposed changes:

1. Do you agree with these proposals? If not, what alternative proposals would you present to achieve the £1 million savings (as part of the total £8m savings) required for 2011/12 that support community cohesion and the vision for adult social care?
2. What wider issues need to be considered by council in relation to the development of more self–sustaining, open–access universal services?
3. What key considerations/outcomes should be taken into account as part of developing a specification for Community Support services?

You can access the consultation here.

Your views and voice are important. Please contact us to tell us your views. We welcome contributions from all local groups affected and residents of Southwark. You can call us on 020 7358 7005 or email us at link@ch1889.org

Note: LINk Southwark would like your comments by 12th April. This will allow the Host Team time to bring your responses together into one response by the official deadline of 19th April.

Southwark Council Draft Budget Proposal out now

Southwark Council have published their draft budget proposals for finding efficiency gains and funding cuts of 29% (£85.6m) over the next three years.

We would like to ask your views on Southwark Council’s budget proposals regarding the Health & Social Care Services in Southwark. Please find on the links below a summarised and extraction of relevant health and social care information.

• Relevant information & proposals on cuts/savings/costs at the Health & Community Services (adult social care) department.
• Detailed list of efficiency savings/cuts at the Health & Community Services department

If you would like information on the other departments, this can be accessed here

The Cabinet has given a deadline of Tuesday 8th February for any comments from the community. This will feedback into the committee and a final copy of the budget will be presented to the Council Assembly on 22nd February.

In order to capture your views and suggestions on these proposals, we will need your response by the latest Monday 7th February. This will allow the Host to collate your responses.

Note: If you would like hard copies, please contact us on 020 7 358 7005 or email us at link@ch1889.org and we will send you it.

Our latest LINk Southwark newsletter is available here.

Draft Health & Social Care Bill published – 19th January 2011

The Health and Social Care Bill was introduced into Parliament on 19 January 2011. The Bill is a crucial part of the Government’s vision to modernise the NHS so that it is built around patients, led by health professionals and focused on delivering on world class healthcare outcomes.

The Bill takes forward Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS (July 2010) and the subsequent Government response Liberating the NHS: legislative framework and next steps (December 2010) which require primary legislation. It also includes provision to strengthen public health services and reform the Department’s arm’s length bodies.

LINk members may be particularly interested in Part 5 of the Bill which deals with “Public Involvement and Local Government” and includes the legislation to establish HealthWatch, among other things.

The Explanatory Notes will also be available via this link, shortly. Explanatory Notes have to be published alongside every Government Bill. Explanatory Notes are there to help make the proposed legislation accessible to readers who are not legally qualified and who don’t have specialist knowledge of the subject area. They aim to help readers understand what the Bill does and how it does it. They do not replace the Bill and do not necessarily deal with every single clause in a Bill - where a clause, or part of a clause, does not seem to require any explanation or comment, none is given.

A summary of the main changes and its functions relevant to LINks / HealthWatch will appear shortly on the website. In the mean time if you require, further information, please contact us on 020 7 358 7005.