September 2012

The HAL

www.haltonlink.org.uk01928 592405

Halton LINkN E W S L E T T E R

L I N kHaltonYour Health • Your Care • Your Say!

Our Annual Report for 2011-12 was

p u b l i s h e d at the end of June and is now available for download from

the Halton LINk website at http://tiny.cc/g3r3jw.

Hard copies of the Annual Report are also available by contacting the LINk support team on 01928 592405.

In the report you’ll be able to read a summary of work of the LINk over the last year and some details of the planned transition to Healthwatch for 2013.

Annual Report

The Healthwatch England website is now up and running.

As well as providing up-to-date information the website is the first step in providing public information about Healthwatch.

Healthwatch England will begin its work in October 2012 and help set up local Healthwatch organisations.

Through the Healthwatch network, Healthwatch England will make sure the voices of people who use health and social care services are heard by the Secretary of State, Care Quality Commission, the NHS Commissioning Board, Monitor (the independent regulator of NHS foundation trusts), and every local authority.

By law, those in power will have to listen to Healthwatch and respond to its concerns.

If you’d like to get involved at the start of this important new initiative you can visit the new national Healthwatch website to find out more and sign up for the newsletter which will be published later in the year.

You can view the website at www.healthwatch.co.uk.

Local Healthwatch will begin work in April 2013. There will be a Healthwatch organisation covering every local authority area in England.

From April 1st 2013, Healthwatch Halton, the new local patient and public champion created under the Health and Social Care Act, will replace Halton LINk. Healthwatch Halton will benefit from the local input of the membership amassed by Halton LINk. Healthwatch Halton will take over LINk’s responsibilities of gathering and representing the community’s views to influence and improve health and social care, and in addition, its role will be strengthened in a number of ways.

If you’d like to keep up to date on the development of Healthwatch Halton make sure to visit www.haltonlink.org.uk/healthwatch.

“Healthwatch England will act as a champion for those who sometimes struggle to be heard.”

Anna Bradley

Chair of Healthwatch England. Quality Accounts Workgroup

During May 2012, Halton LINk members were offered the opportunity to get involved in the Quality Accounts sessions that were taking place with all the local trusts.

We received an excellent response from all our members and everyone who was involved got an opportunity to comment on the Quality Accounts Reports that have been produced, which will be added to the final reports and published on the NHS Choices website.

Stoptober - It’s like October but without cigarettes

This October, England’s eight million smokers are being encouraged to take part in the first ever mass quit attempt launched by the Department of Health, called Stoptober.

The NHS Health Improvement Team (part of Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Trust) is supporting this new national campaign that leads smokers through a detailed 28-day programme to help them

achieve their stop smoking goal.

Research shows that if you can stop smoking for 28 days you are five times more likely to stay smokefree.

Stoptober is providing smokers with the motivation, encouragement and advise needed to quit for good.

Julie Tipton looks after the SUPPORT Stop Smoking Service in Halton and St Helens. She said:

“We want to help as many people as possible in Halton and St Helens to become smokefree. We know how difficult trying to stop smoking can be for many people.

“Stoptober offers smokers a supportive and encouraging process to follow to help become smokefree within a month. It encourages smokers to share their experiences and tap into all the social and support that is available to help them in their quit attempt.”

Smokers can receive advice and encouragement through a daily messaging service, and expert advice through the Stoptober mobile phone app and Smokefree facebook page.

It will also provide participants with a new preparation pack, 28 day Quit Calendar and Health & Wealth wheel that can be ordered through the Stoptober website, http://smokefree.nhs.uk/stoptober/

The benefits from not smoking are numerous. As well as the financial benefits of stopping smoking, those undertaking the 28 day programme will experience physical improvements including a better sense of smell and taste and more energy. Longer term, those who stop smoking reduce their risk of heart disease and lung cancer and protect others from their secondhand smoke.

In excess of 1100 local people and organisations have now signed up to become members of the Halton LINk.

If you’re not yet a member and would like to join, it’s easy to do and FREE.

You can complete a membership form online at http://tiny.cc/seltiw or alternatively call 01928 592405 and speak to Irene Bramwell in the LINk Support Team

STOP PRESS!!!

Students starting secondary school this September are being encouraged to get to know their school nurse so they know where to go for help and advice when they need it.

The school nursing service has been working with young people – supported by the British Youth Council and North West Regional Youth Work Unit – to design eye-catching materials to promote the range of services available from school nurses and how to access them.

For further information visit http://tiny.cc/uqrtkw

Get to know your school nurse

Patient Participation Groups

Halton CCG launch new website

If you’re interested in having a say in the way your local health services are delivered, getting involved with your GP practice’s Patient Participation Group (PPG) is a great place to start.

No training is required to be a member of a PPG – the most important thing is that you are keen and focused on taking positive action to help the practice and the local patient population.

All PPGs are different, but generally involvement tends to include attendance at monthly, bimonthly or quarterly meetings. Some PPG members will choose to take on additional roles that are more time consuming, such as editing/contributing to the PPG newsletter or setting up and running health education or fundraising events, but if you have less time available, this isn’t a requirement.

Not only can joining a group help to shape the delivery of services, many members also find that volunteering is a great way to meet new people and develop your own skills, such as negotiation, dealing with people or even speaking in public.

If you are interested in getting involved, the first step is to find out if your practice already has an established PPG. Speak to the practice manager: If you’re not sure whether your local GP surgery has a PPG, either look out for information and posters about the group in the surgery, or ask the reception staff or the practice manager, who is likely to be involved in running the group.

A list of all local GP’s is also available on our website, http://www.haltonlink.org.uk/nhs-services/localgp

‘Part of the Picture’ is a 5 year collaboration between The Lesbian & Gay Foundation and the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) and is being funded by the Big Lottery Fund. It is the largest survey of LGB substance use ever undertaken.

Aims of this project:

• To establish a national (England) database of LGB people’s drug and alcohol use

• To inform local and national policy and practice in addressing drug and alcohol use of LGB people

• To improve knowledge and understanding of the needs of LGB drug and alcohol users among drug and alcohol agencies

The survey is completely confidential and anonymous, and can be accessed at www.partofthepicture.co.uk

Halton Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), which is made up of representatives from each of the 17 GP practices across Runcorn and Widnes, have announced the launch of their new website.

Clinical Commissioning Groups are due to come into statutory form from April 2013 and will need to be formally authorised. They are responsible for planning NHS services across the borough, and they will work with other clinicians and healthcare providers to ensure they meet the needs of local people.

Halton CCG are currently working in shadow form as they move towards authorisation.

Simon Banks, Chief Officer (designate) said,

“ The new website is the next step in the process of us becoming an authorised health body. It will give patients a place to go to find out about us and give us a way to engage and communicate with our local people.”

You can visit the website at www.haltonccg.nhs.uk

On this site you will be able to find information out about the new CCG, information on servcies that the NHS offers in Halton, board papers and dates of public events the CCG are holding.

Do you have a friend or relative living in a local care home?

We’d like to hear your views on local care homes? Give us a call on 01928 592405 or email info@haltonlink.org.uk

Care Home comments

The CQC are in the process of updating the series of booklets they produce to help you understand what standards you can expect from:

• Hospitals

• Care homes

• Care at home

• Dentists

The latest versions of these booklets can be downloaded from www.cqc.org.uk/public/government-standards

Halton LINk, Halton & St. Helens VCA, Sefton House, Public Hall Street, Runcorn WA7 1NGTel: 01928 592405 email: info@haltonlink.org.uk web: www.haltonlink.org.uk

Halton LINk is hosted by Halton & St Helens Voluntary Community ActionRegistered Charity No. 1106001 and a Company Limited by Guarantee No. 2539153.

If you need this newsletter in a different format, e.g. CD or you would like a larger print version then please contact us.

A new tool allowing users to search and compare any Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered home care, residential or nursing home provider is now available online at NHS Choices.

The Provider Quality Profile was launched as part of the Caring for our future White Paper. It allows users to search for local providers within an area and link to CQC reports and information about the provider.

The Provider Quality Profile (PQP) will help people and their families make decisions and choices about their care and support.

It will also help providers to:

• benchmark their performance

• understand if and where they need to make improvements

• inform development and training of staff

The PQP is part of the social care reforms set out in the Caring for our future White Paper which aims to help care providers deliver better quality services and to improve the care that people experience.

News from the CQC

What standards can you expect

Halton LINk website

Some of you may have already noticed that our LINk website is undergoing a little bit of an update. It’s almost four years since we set first up the website and it’s beginning to look a little frayed at the edges.

The aim of the update is to give it a modern yet user friendly feel. We’ll also be reorganising all the information stored on the site to make it easier to find.

We’d like your feedback on the site and suggestions on what other information you’d like to see included on the site.

email: dwilson@haltonlink.org.uk

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