South Gloucestershire Council and NHS South Gloucestershire are working together to deliver an exciting programme of change which will transform the way people living here influence and receive health and social care services.
Fundamental to the success of this work is the engagement and inclusion of residents of South Gloucestershire. We want to bring people together in a different and new way to make sure that the voice of the whole community is influencing our programme. We are doing this by bringing together citizens, service users, carers, providers, members of the council, PCT board, LINks, Patient Advice and Liaison Services and other representatives as a Congress. This is an integral part of our strategy to engage, consult and listen to our community as we progress along the journey to delivering more choice and control to individuals over the way they live their lives through personalised, high quality services.
The Congress meets twice a year to review what has been achieved since the last meeting, to bring and debate proposals and suggestions for change, and to plan next steps.
The third Transforming Lives Congress was held on 9th July 2010.
At the Transformation Congress attendees spent some time exploring ideas to improve communication and recommended a number of approaches that could be developed by South Gloucestershire Council and its partners to improve communication with the public and those people who use health and social care services.
One of the key messages from the event was that social care is generally something that people do not give serious consideration to until they or a relative need it. This is a significant factor which needs to be understood when developing new approaches.
The ideas range from the fairly mundane – more leaflets – through to the more creative – sky writing and use of promotional beer mats.
Having reviewed the suggested approaches a number have been taken forward influenced or informed by the congress discussions. These include;
• Finalising and publishing a simple overarching ‘transforming lives’ leaflet under Read More on the right hand side of this page
• Preparing a signposting directory which lists the various publications and sources of information under Read More on the right hand side of this page
• On going promotion of Well Aware as a key source of information for all, with significant work undertaken by partners to ensure its accessibility www.wellaware.org.uk
• Recognition that on line tools like Well Aware need to be backed up by alternative access methods, we have therefore ensured that telephone support is available
• Maintaining our commitment to providing opportunities for people to get information from professionals and their peers in informal settings by committing to the ongoing provision of the dementia café and stroke café and well as undertaking to identify other opportunities for similar approaches
• The Community Care & Housing Department is now using Facebook http://www.tinyurl.com/cchengagement as a way of engaging and informing the public. People can also follow us on Twitter, @SGlosCCH
For further information please contact Rebecca Harrold on 01454 868228
Documents and presentations from the July 2010 Transforming Lives Congress are available to download in the Read More box on the right hand side of this page.
There is also a Directory of Community Care and Housing Services and Information. This is available under the Read More section on the right hand side of this page.