Voice for Health – Nottingham North and East

 

Nottingham North and East  Clinical Commissioning Group are hosting a series of public meetings called – ‘Voice for Health’  – over the coming weeks.  They are inviting you to ”join them for a cup of tea and have your say on your local NHS health priorities.

The events will take place on

 Tuesday 28th May 2013, 6.15pm-8.30pm

At The Canarvon Rooms,  Chestnut Grove, Burton Joyce. NG14 5DP

 Thursday 20th June 2013, 6.15pm-8.30pm

At Gedling Borough Council, Civic Centre, Arnot Hill Park, Nottingham. NG5 6LU

 Friday 21th June 2013, 1.00pm-4.00pm

John Godber Centre,  Ogle street, Hucknall. NG15 7FQ

NHS Nottingham North & East Clinical Commissioning Group is the new organisation responsible for planning and buying health services for you and your family in and around Gedling and Hucknall  

As a local resident you are invited to come along and find out more about your local NHS, share your views and to shape priorities for future healthcare.

So why not come along and have your say, your opinion counts!

 This event is open to everyone, but Nottingham North and East would be grateful if you can register your place so it is aware of the numbers attending.

Register Now!

Phone: 0115 883 1709 or

Email: Info.NottinghamNorthEastCCG@nottspct.nhs.uk 

Web: www.nottinghamnortheastccg.nhs.uk

Prepare to Care event for Carers Week

The Carers Federation Ltd has an event for planned for  Carers Week (10- 16 June 2013).  The ‘Prepare to Care’ event will take place on Wednesday 12th June from 10:30 to 12:30 at their offices, Christopher Cargill House, 21-23 Pelham Road, Nottingham, NG5 1AP. 

The event will have information stands from Nottinghamshire County Council and Nottingham City Council, Carers Federation Services, Department for Work and Pensions, personal budgets and a relaxation workshop and light refreshments.

April Update for Healthwatch Nottinghamshire

Following months of preparations, Healthwatch Nottinghamshire officially launched on 1^st April 2013. Healthwatch has now replaced the Local Involvement Network (LINk) as the consumer champion for health and social care in Nottinghamshire. We would like to take this opportunity to update you on the developments that have taken place so far.

Office & Team

Healthwatch Nottinghamshire’s Chair Joe Pidgeon, Interim Chief Executive Claire Grainger and a team of four staff moved into office accommodation at Byron Business Centre in Hucknall on 2^nd April. This completed the TUPE transfer of staff from the LINk Host Team.

Ongoing Work

The staff team are currently putting the ground work in place to ensure that Healthwatch Nottinghamshire has all of the policies, procedures and strategies it needs to become fully functioning, and ultimately to ensure that it has as much impact as possible in the future. As part of this the team have begun work on a Volunteering Strategy, Engagement Strategy, and a Signposting and Information Strategy. The team is also considering options for IT software and looking at procedures for prioritising the health and social care issues we receive.

The Board continue to work on establishing early priorities and a work plan.

Meetings & Events Attended

On 11^th April, Healthwatch Nottinghamshire Chair Joe Pidgeon attended the national Healthwatch network launch at Birmingham’s ICC with more than a hundred other Healthwatch people and interested observers. This was replicated across England by similar numbers in Leeds, London, Manchester and Taunton, all hooked up with a live video feed. There were more questions than answers, and many more questions to the Minister, Jeremy Hunt, in London than he was able to answer from the different conference centres.

From what Joe heard in Birmingham he was able to report that Healthwatch Nottinghamshire in its first two weeks is as well advanced as most others across the land. In this achievement much thanks must go to our implementers, NAVO, who took care of the logistics and planning ready for the April 1 start.

Joe also attended the first full Health and Wellbeing Board on 17^th April. Joe has written a separate blog about this meeting, which you can view in full by visiting www.healthwatchnottinghamshire.co.uk/news.

Joe, Claire and the team have also met with representatives from POhWER (who deliver the NHS Complaints Advocacy Service), the countywide Patient and Public Involvement Leads from each of the Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs), and will shortly also meet with the Chief Operating Officers of the CCGs, and the two Corporate Directors of Social Care within the County Council concerning both children and adults. These meetings will begin discussions around how Healthwatch will be looking to work with partner organisations – an ongoing process which will continue with many more stakeholders in the coming months.

Upcoming Events

The team are currently working on organising a presentation on our Volunteering Strategy to former LINk volunteers in late May – a starting point for what will be an ongoing volunteer recruitment process. We are also organising a workshop for stakeholders to look at planning the format for a Healthwatch Nottinghamshire Stakeholder Advisory Group in early June. More details will be available on these events in the coming weeks.

Contact Us

You can contact Healthwatch Nottinghamshire in the following ways:

Phone: 0115 963 5179

Email: info@healthwatchnottinghamshire.co.uk

Address: Units 2-3, Byron Business Centre, Duke Street, Hucknall, Nottinghamshire, NG15 7HP.

Website: www.healthwatchnottinghamshire.co.uk

Twitter: @HWNotts

Free Workshop on Dementia

 

Is your community Dementia friendly?

Do you care for a loved one suffering from Alzheimer’s or know someone who does? 

Please join us for a FREE Educational Workshop aimed at those caring for somebody with Alzheimer’s or other dementias as well as  communities wishing to become dementia friendly.

The workshop will cover how to:

• Understand Alzheimer’s & Other Dementias
• Handle Challenging Behaviours
• Encourage Engagement

All in aid of Dementia awareness week, we would like to raise awareness of the condition, how to handle challenging behaviour and how to encourage engagement.

Home Instead are running 4 sessions in Nottingham at various locations/ date/ times to make sure we make the session accessible to everyone, it would be a great help if you could spread the word.

 

Beeston	Mansfield Road	Woodthorpe
Families & Carers 23rd May 2013 AT 6pm Highfields Fire Station   Organisations working with older people – only 21st May 2013 AT 6pm Recart Space	Families & Carers 19th May 2013 AT 12noon Mansfield Road Baptist Church   Families & Carers 22nd May 2013 AT 6pm NCN Clarendon College	Families & Carers 26th May 2013 AT 1pm St. Marks Church

RSVP: by 13^th May 2013  to 0115 9226116 or, 0115 9222396

www.homeinstead.co.uk/Nottingham

Nottingham Stroke Research Consumer Group – Lay Conference

Nottingham Stroke Research Consumer Group – Lay Conference

Monday 29^th July 2013

10.00am – 3.30pm

East Midlands Conference Centre, University Park,

Nottingham, NG7 2RJ

Has stroke affected you or your family?

Find out the latest advances in stroke rehabilitation research, learn how you might benefit and feed in ideas to help shape the future of stroke research.  

Our guest speaker Bryan Steel, Olympic Cyclist will share his thoughts on how to ‘be the best we can be’.

The event is open to stroke survivors, carers and public with an interest in stroke.

The conference is free and lunch is provided

Spaces are limited – bookings must be received by 24^th May.  Full details of the event can be found on this flyer Stroke Lay Conference flyer 29 July 2013

To reserve your place, contact Helen Taylor – h.taylor@nottingham.ac.uk  /  0115 82 30246

Are you a diabetic in Nottingham North and East area

Nottingham North & East Clinical Commissioning Group (NNE CCG) wish to invite any members of your patient group or organisation who have been diagnosed with diabetes to be involved in consultations about their experience of being a diabetic.

The main aim of the consultation is to find out about how people feel about the care they have received and the process in which it is delivered and associated treatment, the type of information they have received and how involved they feel they are in determining their future care. The invitation is open to both types of diabetes diagnosis, i.e. Type I and Type II, and we are interested in people who have just been diagnosed or have had the condition for several years. There is no age limit either – though people under 18 would have to be accompanied by an adult if they wish to be part of the consultation.

The consultation will consist of a small focus group – say no more than six people- and should take no longer than an hour.  It will feature a questionnaire which we will go through together as well as open discussion. We aim to conduct the first of these consultations at the end of April or May so in you are interested please advise us on the dates of your availability. We are prepared to meet in the evenings if this convenient for you and your members. Full details of the consultation will be given when an interest is expressed.

Each consultation will require a maximum of three separate groups; however, there will be several conducted throughout the year so if your group is not selected they will be carried over to the next consultation. Please respond by 13^th May 2013.

If you want to know more please contact Laurence on 0115 987 1981 or laurence.quirk@gedlingcvs.org.uk

 

Healthwatch Update March 2013

Message from Joe Pidgeon, Chair of Healthwatch Nottinghamshire
 
The Implementation Team for Healthwatch Nottinghamshire has been very busy over the past few months setting up the new social enterprise that is Healthwatch Nottinghamshire.  I would like to express my thanks and appreciation for the excellent preparatory work that has been undertaken, which puts us in a good position to launch Healthwatch Nottinghamshire in April, notwithstanding the desperately short timescales that everybody has been working to. 
 
As the newly appointed Chair, I am excited by the opportunity that Healthwatch Nottinghamshire offers. I believe it will be a powerful voice for all of Nottinghamshire’s people to influence the health and social care services they receive, building on the legacy of the Nottinghamshire County Local Involvement Network (LINk).
 
I would like to update you on some of the developments that have taken place during March.
 
Healthwatch Nottinghamshire Board
 
In March, Healthwatch Nottinghamshire was formally established as an independent social enterprise.  The Healthwatch Nottinghamshire Board now has two new members.  Joining Joe Pidgeon on the Board are Shirley Inskip and Alan Sutton, both of whom have a wide experience of involvement in health and social care issues and who were members of the Nottinghamshire County LINk Board.  The Board has met twice in March and is beginning to establish early priorities, budgets and work plans for HW.
 
Office
 
The Healthwatch Nottinghamshire office at Byron Court in Hucknall (at the northern end of the tram line) is now equipped and furnished and ready to open for business at the beginning of April.
 
Staff
 
The Interim Chief Executive, Claire Grainger, will be staying on until a permanent Chief Executive is appointed and will be joined by the former LINk staff on April 1^st.
 
Meetings held in March
 
A successful seminar was held with a large, diverse gathering of VCS groups on Tuesday 12^th March at Pleasley Vale Landmark.  The discussion centred on what the VCS would be able to contribute to Healthwatch Nottinghamshire and what Healthwatch Nottinghamshire would be able to contribute to the VCS.  The results of the discussions have now been written up and you can find them here
 
Nottinghamshire County LINk held their final conference at the East Midlands Conference Centre on Thursday 14^th March to which Healthwatch Nottinghamshire were invited and a joint presentation was given about the transition planning between the LINk and Healthwatch Nottinghamshire.  Joe received the legacy documents from LINk to Healthwatch Nottinghamshire at the conference.
 
Joe Pidgeon attended the Health and Wellbeing Board on Wednesday 6^th March, together with Jane Stubbings Chair of the LINk Board. As chair of Healthwatch Nottinghamshire, Joe will now have a seat on the Health and Wellbeing Board.
 
Contact us
 
Healthwatch Nottinghamshire now has a website at www.healthwatchnottinghamshire.co.uk and this will be developed over the next few months.  You can contact us via the website or email us at info@healthwatch nottinghamshire.co.uk