The Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board is currently writing the safeguarding adults strategic plan for 2018-2021.
This is an important strategy to feed your views into. There is an online survey which can be accessed by clicking here, it just takes a few minutes to fill out.
Continue reading “Bristol Safeguarding Adults Board wants to hear from carers!”
UPDATE: Programme for the day now available!
10.30AM to 1PM at the Vassall Centre
Bristol City Council has a statutory responsibility to provide a range of short breaks (previously known as respite) to parent carers. This is set out in their Short Breaks Statement jointly developed with Bristol Parent Carers (BPC). The Targeted Short Breaks services contracts for children and young people up to age 18 all end on 31 March 2019. Targeted services are services that you don’t need a social worker assessment to access.
This survey will ask you about short breaks services and also about:
The deadline to respond is 17th January.
For more information, click here.
Talking therapies services (otherwise known as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies – IAPT) are being recommissioned and redesigned in Bristol, South Gloucestershire and North Somerset. IAPT services provide support for adults who are experiencing low mood, anxiety and depression, stress, excessive worry or difficulties controlling emotions. These therapies are sometimes known as ‘talking therapies’. Typical treatments include cognitive behavioural therapies, mindfulness, counselling, couples therapies, psychodynamic therapy, psychosexual therapy, and group-based support.
We’d like to invite you to attend a focus group so that we can make sure that your views on how these services could be improved, what should be included in the redesign and also, any positive experiences that you or the person you care for have experienced (if any) around talking therapies.
Continue reading “Focus Groups for Carers on Talking Therapies”
In addition to the existing discounts in cafes, shops & restaurants on North St, there are now 14 more discounts available for Carers Emergency Card holders on East St & Bedminster Parade.
BDA (Bedminster Domestic Appliances)
Bedminster Flowers
Bizoe Toys
Bubble Play Café
Cut Above
East St Fruit Market
Eddies Coffee Lounge Ltd
Goldminster Jewellers
Hairspray
Refresh Bedminster
Shoe Tappers
Smart Phones
Strongman Moustache
Taunton Leisure
See all available discounts.
Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) is a programme to support people of all ages who are experiencing low mood, anxiety and depression, stress, excessive worry or difficulties controlling emotions. These therapies are sometimes known as ‘talking therapies’. Typical treatments include cognitive behavioural therapies, mindfulness, counselling, couples therapies, psychodynamic therapy, psychosexual therapy, and group-based support.
The current contracts for IAPT jointly commissioned between Bristol and South Gloucestershire are delivered through 16 separate contracts as part of the model. Services are commissioned for all ages. Services are commissioned for adults only, with an additional 16-18 year old pathway to adult services.
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Groups plan to re-design and re-procure a new IAPT service for people in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
Have you say about this process via the following survey here. It is open until 12th January.
Carers Support Centre is planning to organise a focus group for mental health carers. If you are interested in taking part in this, contact Caroline McAleese.
Take part in vital consultation on Bristol City Council’s budget and Corporate Strategy.
Continue reading “Consultation: Bristol ‘Tough Times, High Hopes’”
Healthwatch Bristol and Healthwatch South Gloucestershire would like to know about your experiences of GP services in your area. You can do this by accessing the survey here.
For more information about Healthwatch in your local area, please contact: 0117 965 4444.
Shared Reading are events happening regularly at libraries across Bristol, with some newly started in South Gloucestershire (keep an eye out for future groups in South Glos). A trained volunteer will read aloud a story and poem – participants can relax, listen and chat as they wish. All reading material is provided, no booking is required and the sessions are free. They are a great way to open a conversation and make new friends.
We are currently looking for more carers, or those that have recent experience of caring, who would like to be trustees or carer representatives.
Carers Support Centre – Bristol and South Gloucestershire (CSC) is a local independent charity that supports unpaid adult and young (children) carers and we are committed to being carer-led. This means that we want carers to be an integral part of our staff team, management and board of trustees.
In an increasingly challenging environment for carers, with social care and healthcare services facing difficult times, it is more important than ever that unpaid carers have an independent organisation to champion and support their needs.
Carer representatives have the opportunity to ensure that carer’s voices are heard by key decision makers both locally and nationally to make services work better for all carers. As a carer representative, you would be trained and supported to ‘get involved’ in a way that works best for you and your caring situation. For example; attending meetings, focus groups, providing feedback on consultations (either over the telephone or online). We work flexibly with carer representatives to find the best way of being involved that works for the individual, to ensure that the views of carers are heard by service providers.
We need your help to identify where we can make the most difference to carers’ lives and ensure that carer’s voices are heard.
Trustees are responsible for the governance of CSC and play a pivotal role in working alongside the Chief Executive and Senior Management team to ensure that that the organisation achieves its aims and objectives.
Trustees come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences and you do not need to have been a trustee before in order to apply.
We would like to invite you to our ‘Get Involved’ event to meet some of our current trustees and carer representatives, find out what’s involved and how you can apply.
What level of commitment does being a Trustee or Carer Representative require?
There are a minimum of six trustee meetings a year with the possibility of some additional meetings. This commitment is likely to be a maximum of one day per month on average, dependent on the role.
Carer representatives normally attend around eight meetings a year which will need some preparation time too (with our support) before meetings. The time commitment is about half a day a month, dependent on the role.
We can also offer support and development opportunities in a range of skills for both Trustees and carer representatives.
Next steps
Please contact Keith Sinclair (Chief Executive Officer) email: KeithSinclair@carerssupportcentre.org.uk if you’d like to discuss the trustee role and/or receive an information pack, or Caroline McAleese (Carer Engagement and Involvement Lead) e-mail: CarolineM@carerssupportcentre.org.uk if you are interested in the carer representative role.
Integrated Urgent Care includes provision of NHS 111, out-of-hours and urgent care services.
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) plan to commission an Integrated Urgent Care (IUC) service for the residents of Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire. As a key part of this process, they are looking for two or three people to join in the procurement decision making processes. This could be a great way to make sure that carers views are heard at this important stage of the process.
What you will receive
If you become a member of the procurement evaluation panel, Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire CCGs will provide:
Who can get involved
BNSSG CCGs promote and support diversity and are committed to equality of opportunity for all. They particularly want to hear from people from black and minority ethnic communities and younger adults.
How to get involved
For further details, please go to the BNSSG website by early November.
This will take you to a page where you can express your interest in this role. If you have any further queries, please email contactus.bnssg@nhs.net with the heading Integrated Urgent Care Service Involvement.
The ‘Your Neighbourhood’ consultations were open between 13th June and 5th September, 2017 and comprised consultations on proposals for:
All of the above are relevant to carers, but in particular, the proposed changes to Bristol Community Links are likely to impact carers whose cared for attends Bristol Community Links Day Centres. There were 1607 responses to the Bristol Community Links consultation and of these, 84% agreed that the drop-in service should be maintained. 73% agreed that independent living should be a priority for the Bristol Community Links service and people responded to where they most thought additional drop-in services would be valuable. The highest number of requests for local drop-in services was in Avonmouth and Lawrence Weston, followed by Hartcliffe and Withywood. The survey asked respondents, “If we extend the opening hours, do you think that we should no longer provide transport automatically, but that it should be decided on an individual case by case basis”. 61% of those who responded, agreed that the transport to Bristol Community Links centres should be decided on an individual case by case basis. 15% disagreed and 24% weren’t sure.
The full report can be accessed here.
The consultation results, along with Bristol City Council’s Equalities Impact Assessments, will be taken into consideration in developing a set of final proposals.
The council’s decisions on these services will be made at public meetings of Cabinet later in 2017 or early 2018. These dates will be published as part of the Council’s forward plan here.
The Sustainable Transformation Partnership (STP) in Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire are redesigning the musculoskeletal pathway and need your help to do this. The musculoskeletal pathway includes physiotherapy, rheumatology, orthopaedics, pain clinic, podiatry, plus the musculoskeletal assessment and treatment service. In partnership with South Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group, the STP are looking for the views of patients, public and interested parties to offer your views on what the high level design of the service will look like.
A workshop is being held on Tuesday 31 October, 10am – 1pm at the Vassall Centre, Bristol, BS16 2QQ. They are particularly looking for people that have experienced these services within the last two years. If you are interested in attending please contact
E-mail: samantha.benney@nhs.net or
Telephone: 0117 947 4441
The government requires that all Health and Wellbeing Boards produce an assessment of pharmaceutical services in its area at least every three years; the last pharmaceutical needs assessment for Bristol and South Glos took place in 2014.
Both Bristol City Council and South Gloucestershire Council have drafted updated Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment documents and would like to hear carers’ views on pharmaceutical services in your area.
Continue reading “Consultation: Draft Pharmaceutical Needs Assessment”
To help make services more accessible for Black and Minority Ethnic communities, Bristol Dementia Wellbeing Service has commissioned 6 short films (in Urdu, Punjabi, Cantonese, Somali, Polish and English-language) titled “Your questions answered – a film about dementia”. You can view them at Bristol Dementia Wellbeing Service.
Keep an eye out for videos explaining services for carers in a range of languages appearing on this site soon.
Do you care for a relative or friend in Bristol? If so, you are warmly invited to the next Bristol Carers Open meeting at the Vassall Centre.
Continue reading “Update: Bristol Carers Open Meeting – September 20th”
Do you care for a relative or friend in Bristol? If so, you are warmly invited to the next Bristol Carers Open meeting at the Vassall Centre.
Organised by the Carers Support Centre, these free events are the best place for carers to meet others in similar situations, hear about changes to services and support in Bristol and ask questions directly to health and social care service providers.
Continue reading “Bristol Carers Open Meeting – September 20th”
Bristol, North Somerset and South Gloucestershire (BNSSG) CCGs have recently published details of the local Operational Plan for 2017/18 describing how local health budgets totalling £1.15 billion will be spent in the year ahead, to meet the health needs of the local population of nearly one million people.
Bristol City Council is running a consultation on the proposed reductions in central government funding which will severely impact services such as Bristol Community Links, libraries, public toilets, and School crossing patrols. Continue reading “Your Neighbourhood Consultation 2017”
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