This was the first meeting I had attended at South Cambs since the change in political leadership, firstly nothing seemed to be have been painted orange, but there were some different faces at the meeting.
These meetings are still finding their feet having replaced the old Local Health Partnerships. The bulk of the meeting was around three presentations
- Libraries and their role in Health & Wellbeing. Christine May from the County Council
- The Health & Wellbeing Network, connecting the Voluntary Sector with Primary Care. Susie Willis from Care Network
- “Prescribing Advice” – the impact of CAB work in GP outreaches and its role in social prescribing. Rachel Talbot from CAB
These were followed by some updates on the Health and Wellbeing Meeting and other health initiatives.
1 – Libraries – Attached presentation. Libraries presentation June 2018 ppt
The libraries are about far more than books, they are able to help people get online and have also have opportunities to help with things like assistive technology. There are 33 libraries and also 4 mobile libraries. These often have meeting spaces and are working more in partnership with organisations to deliver services.
Contact for more information to discuss how you can work with the library service
Christine May
Assistant Director, Culture and Community
christine.may@cambridgeshire.gov.uk
01223 703521 07920 727437
2 – Health and wellbeing Network – Presentation attached – This is a network of voluntary organisations working around health and Wellbeing. It describes itself as “The Health and Wellbeing Network aims to facilitate collaborative working across Cambridgeshire charity organisations and promote access into the wide range of interventions that the third sector offers.”
They can act as a single point of contact for others to help people find appropriate services. This could be GPS or care workers.
There are opportunities for charities to get involved if you they feel they can offer support or services around all aspects of health and wellbeing.
More information http://www.hwncambs.org.uk/
3 – The prescribing project – Highlights of work at GP health settings – CAB from 2016 – The project was explained and some of the key successes and case studies were shared. There are now workers in City surgeries as well as a pilot in South Cambs.
There is very clear evidence that the project has reduced GP visits and that those helped were in a better place to move on with their lives as the stress factors had been reduced. The project has seen 622 clients across 2014 sessions with the main areas of support being
- Welfare rights
- Debt advice and money
- Housing
- Relationships and family
More info on the project and on the work of CAB https://www.cambridgecab.org.uk/projects-impact/our-projects
The health landscape is changing. The Cambs and Peterborough Health and Wellbeing Boards met jointly for the first time, although this was a little confusing at time with different groups having to make different decisions it is likely to be the way forward. At the same time the Sustainability and Transformation Partnerships (STP) have been split into a north and South in order to mirror the hospital areas.
There was a discussion around the fact that wellbeing has become the new priority for Sport England, this means that their funding is opened up to a much wider audience, for more information contact Living Sport http://www.livingsport.co.uk/ There was a discussion about how services around wellbeing and loneliness could be funded and about the inequality of provision and health indicators across the county.
There are opportunities for more organisations to frame their work around wellbeing and isolation and if groups want to discuss this they should contact CCVS.
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