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Winter 2015

News

In Conversation with... Luke Turnbull, Calderdale Clinical

Commissioning Group

Weekend Care join the VAC Team

Second year for VAC Winter Directory

Choice Project Event

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Helping Calderdale one shoebox at a time

Welcome

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Welcome to the second edition

of VAC News.

This edition is packed with

useful items such as news on

our Winter Directory (page 5),

designed to support our most

vulnerable citizens during the

coming winter months. There is

also news from Choice on page

8 to hopefully bring a smile to

your face during the cold

weather ahead (not to mention

raise some cheer on dark

evenings) and an update on

page 6 about the new Quality

For Health website.

In this edition, we are trialling a

new item in the magazine about

our Health Connections Grants

and the groups it has supported.

See page 9 for more information

about our first featured project,

Roshani .

Happy reading!

Soo

CEO, VAC

VAC News is available in both

electronic and hard copy.

To request more copies,

please call 01422 348777 or

email info@cvac.org.uk

For the past 3 years,

Voluntary Action Calderdale

has helped local Rotary

Clubs to deliver the

C a l d e r d a l e S ho e b o x

Scheme. Whilst also

supporting the international

shoebox campaign, it was

identified a few years ago

that sometimes ‘charity

begins at home’. From that

point on, the Calderdale

Shoebox Scheme began to

offer support to vulnerable

people within our own

borough.

The scheme, which runs

over the Winter, helps those

who need a bit of extra

support at this time of year,

whether that’s food,

toiletries or children’s toys

for Christmas. The scheme

can be accessed via a

number of referring agents

across Calderdale.

Dr Soo Nevison, CEO of

VAC said:

“We at VAC are extremely

proud to be a part of the

Shoebox scheme. With the

help and support of our

dedicated volunteers and

the generosity of local

people across Calderdale,

we can make a real

difference to so many

people in our local area this

Winter”

If you would like to know

more about the Calderdale

Shoebox scheme or would

like to enquire about

becoming a referring agent,

please ring Voluntary Action

C a l d e r d a l e o n

01422 348777 or email

info@cvac.org.uk

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Winter can be really hard for

p e o p l e w i t h c a r i n g

responsibilities, and equally

as hard for the ‘cared for’.

Dark nights and low

temperatures keep people at

home and the risks of

isolation, loneliness and

depression are higher at this

time.

Weekend Care is a cheerful

day care service that

provides lunch and social

activities on Saturdays and

Sundays, to enhance the

quality of life for Calderdale

residents over the age of 50,

and respite for their carers

(who are welcome with or

without the people they care

for). Now hosted by

Voluntary Action Calderdale,

Weekend Care are the only

voluntary group at present

that offers such a service in

Calderdale.

The aim of the service is for

people to meet, make friends

and have a nice day out.

Weekend Care try to achieve

this in various ways through

day trips, shopping trips,

e n t e r t a i n m e n t , m o v i e

sessions, events and regular

activities.

If the weather is bad during

the winter and usual routines

have to be cancelled, a driver

and escort will go and visit

guests who live on their own

to make sure they are safe.

Weekend Care will also

telephone them to make sure

they have enough food in the

house. Although this does go

beyond their remit, this is

how the service has

developed over the last few

years; the guests know they

can ask for help and advice,

and that Weekend Care will

try to provide it.

The Weekend Care centre is

mainly staffed by fully trained

volunteers, so they are

always on the look out for

additions to the team.

Volunteering opportunities

include drivers to transport

the guests to and from the

centre, escorts to help the

drivers, or centre volunteers

to help and befriend the

guests, serve the meals, and

wash up. All volunteers get

training, expenses and a

meal.

Weekend Care can take

referrals from individuals,

GPs, Health Professionals,

Social Services and families/

carers, so if you feel this

service may be of use to

yourself or someone else

please get in touch. Informal

gatherings in central Halifax

cost £5 per day (or £10

i n c l u d i n g t r a n s p o r t ) .

Registration and booking are

required.

For more information, please

call 07548 249813 or email

melanie.rumble@cvac.org.uk

Weekend Care join the VAC Team

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The ‘In Conversation with...’ section of the

magazine is all about the organisations that

Voluntary Action Calderdale and its projects work

closely with. For this edition, we spoke with Luke

Turnbull who is the Designated Nurse for

Safeguarding Adults of the Calderdale Clinical

Commissioning Group (CCG).

What is your role within the Calderdale Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)?

The CCG has statutory responsibilities to assure itself that organisations that we commission have

effective adult safeguarding arrangements in place. My role is about providing safeguarding

leadership across the health economy, which includes ensuring the CCG fulfils its responsibility to

safeguard adults including protecting adults at risk of abuse, the Mental Capacity Act, domestic

violence, Prevent (part of the government’s counter terrorism strategy), human trafficking and

forced marriage. This involves advising and supporting agencies in all aspects of adult

safeguarding. I also provide advice and support to CCG colleagues to ensure that safeguarding

adults is duly considered in all stages of the commissioning process from procurement to service

evaluation. In order to perform this role effectively, it is absolutely vital to work collaboratively and

in partnership with organisations from health, social care, criminal justice and the voluntary sectors.

Safeguarding is a legal requirement and extremely important for any voluntary and

community sector (VCS) organisation working with adults at risk. What are your

expectations of the VCS around safeguarding in the services they provide?

The VCS has a proven track record in engaging with some of the most disadvantaged people in

Calderdale, many of whom face barriers to accessing services. The sector therefore has a vital role

in engaging with and providing person centred safeguarding support to those in most need as well

as helping to break down the barriers that people face in accessing the services they need.

We must ensure that the VCS has organisational structures in place to ensure safeguarding adults

at risk of abuse are effectively safeguarded. All staff must be trained and supported to identify and

respond to adults at risk

The ‘In Conversation with...’ section of the

magazine is all about the organisations that

Voluntary Action Calderdale work closely with.

For this edition, we spoke with Luke Turnbull

who is the Designated Nurse for Safeguarding

Adults for the Calderdale Clinical Commissioning

Group (CCG).

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All services should take a person centred approach to help adults at risk of abuse make informed

choices about the support and outcomes they want to achieve. Safeguarding adults is not just

about keeping people safe but also to enable people to live happy and fulfilling lives and often

this means supporting people to take calculated risks.

The Mental Capacity Act (MCA) is a visionary piece of legislation which affords rights to all but

particularly to those people who face difficulties in making decisions for themselves. It is widely

recognised the MCA has not been fully implemented and the VCS has a crucial role in ensuring

people’s rights are understood and protected.

Voluntary Action Calderdale, funded by the CCG, provide extensive support around

good safeguarding practice. How important is this type of support to the VCS?

For safeguarding to be effective across all aspects of health and social care it is vital that

services work in partnership. VAC offers safeguarding support to the VCS in a number of

important ways including:

training; advice and support; DBS checks; VACs quality mark (Quality For Health); dissemination

of information; ensuring VCS groups are aware of their legal duty to safeguard and supporting

groups to have good safeguarding in place.

The safeguarding support to the VCS is absolutely crucial in achieving the priorities of the

Safeguarding Adults Board, the CCG and other partners.

You currently sit on the Calderdale Safeguarding Adult Board with our Safeguarding

Lead, Tracy Selves. What is the boards role and how is this relevant to VCS groups in

Calderdale?

The role of the board is to provide safeguarding strategic direction for Calderdale, to hold

partners to account and gain assurance that the safeguarding arrangements in Calderdale are

effective. VCS groups are key partners of the Safeguarding Board.

The Calderdale Safeguarding Adults Board can provide useful information, guidance and support

to the VCS. The success of the board relies on engagement from and with all partners. The VCS

can provide unique insight to the board and represent the views and needs of the most at risk

people in our communities. VCS groups can also provide important information and insight into

Safeguarding Adult Reviews conducted by the board, as well as ensuring that lessons are

learned and practice improves across the sector.

Many thanks for this interview. I look forward to continuing to work closely with the VCS to ensure

adults at risk of abuse get the support they need and their human rights are protected.

A big thank you to Luke Turnbull.

If you would like to know more about the Calderdale CCG, please visit their website

www.calderdaleccg.nhs.uk 4

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Second Year for VAC’s Winter Directory

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Last year, Voluntary Action

Calderdale (VAC) produced

its first Winter Directory of

support services available

to vulnerable people over

the winter months. Funded

by the Calderdale Clinical

Commissioning Group

(CCG), the directory was

very positively received by

voluntary and statutory

bodies alike and more than

two thousand copies were

distributed across the

borough including in all

Calderdale GP Surgeries.

Following on from the

success of last year’s

Winter Directory, VAC has

produced a new edition for

2015/16. This year’s VAC

Winter Directory - with its

distinctive knitted jumper

front cover - includes even

more support services

available in Calderdale than

last years edition.

Emma Worsley, VAC

Communications lead said

“The VAC Winter Directory,

now in its second year, is all

about keeping vulnerable

people safe, supported and

in the know of who can help

them in times of need over

the Winter period”

The 2015/16 Directory

contains local services that

provide continual or

specialised support during

winter and is broken down

i n t o t h e f o l l o w i n g

categories:

Keep Warm

Keep Safe

Keep Connected

Keep Active

Keep Social

Keep Supported

Hard copies of the directory

are available at all GP

Surgeries and an online

version can be downloaded

from the VAC website

www.cvac.org.uk

If you would like more

information about the VAC

Winter Directory 2015/16

please ring 01422 348777

or email info@cvac.org.uk

VAC Room Hire

VAC is very proud to own and

maintain a fully accessible and

DDA compliant Resource Centre.

We offer a range of flexible

rooms for hire. Our rooms

include a fully equipped, large

training room with SMART board

and flipchart facilities seating up

to 30, two smaller meeting

rooms seating up to 12 and a

small office with computer

facilities suitable for one-to-one

meetings or rent-a-desk.

Rooms can be hired for just an

hour through to a full day. All

rooms have free WiFi access

and we offer a range of

equipment to hire for your

meetings if required.

We offer a discounted rate on

both room hires and tenancies

for voluntary and community

groups. The level of discount

depends on your income so

please do call us on 01422

348777 for a competitive quote.

VAC also offer a catering service

for all in house bookings starting

from £5.75 a head. To find the

menu, please visit the ‘everything

else’ section of our website

www.cvac.org.uk and select the

‘our facilities’ tab.

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Quality For Health is now supported by its own

websi te www.qual i ty forheal th.org.uk.

The website, its pages, and associated tools

will provide core support to our users in

Calderdale and also to those users across the

country.

The numbers of users outside of Calderdale

are expanding rapidly and we are currently

working with around 5 other providers across

the country as well as the 35 organisations in

our Borough.

The website has been designed to have four

clear functions:

Provide an overview of the Quality For

Heal th System for in terested

organisations and new users

Keep users up to date with events and

news to support users as they progress

A dedicated moodle page that will support

e-learning, on-line forums and webinars

A portal to a secure server to enable the

safe uploading of evidence

These four functions are delivered across the

new Quality For Health website. The website

is broken down into the following menu

options:

Welcome, System and Benefits; These

pages provide the overview.

Support; This page provides a brief

description of the support opportunities

available to those working towards the

award.

Events; Here you can find details of

dates and locations of events and

meetings.

QFH Tube; This page is our dedicated

video channel. We will be uploading a

variety of videos to support users from

technical support clips to interviews with

users and stakeholders.

News; This page will highlight news that

will be of interest to our users. As with the

events page, the news will be categorised

by location.

Training (login required); This is the

moodle page. This page will provide a

platform for support services such as

e-learning, on-line forums and webinars.

Your Evidence (login required); This is

the portal to upload your evidence and

also to access resources for download.

To find out more or to register for the Quality

For Health system or website, please email

terry.perkins@cvac.org.uk

A Short Guide to the Quality For Health Website

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Engagement Champions are representatives of

community and voluntary groups who have been

trained to talk with local communities about local

health services. They enable local people to

influence the way services are developed.

The Engagement Champions training covers

how to carry out surveys and focus groups as

well as an important overview about why it is so

important for the Calderdale Clinical

Commissioning Group (CCG) to work with

voluntary and community sector (VCS)

organisations in this way.

In 2015, Engagement Champions have enabled

local communities to have a voice in Care Closer

to Home helping the CCG to shape the hospital

and community services of the future.

They have been involved in surveys and focus

groups about local GP surgeries, hospital and

community services and maternity and paediatric

services.

The findings from all the work the Engagement

Champions are involved in is used by the CCG

to develop services and is recognised nationally

as a model of excellence.

If you would like to find out more about

Engagement Champions please contact Megan

Vickery on 01422 431092 or email

megan.vickery@cvac.org.uk

Become an Engagement Champion

Photo 1 (from l to r) - Jamie Johnson,

Dave Boardman, Darlene Stanton,

Marion Spruce

Photo 2 (from l to r) - Sally Newby,

Debs Taylor

Photo 3 (from l to r) - Councillor Bob

Metcalfe, Marion Belshaw, Megan

Vickery

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As part of Mental Health

Awareness Week, Choice

Volunteering at Voluntary

Action Calderdale, decided to

go out and host an event. The

overall purpose of the event,

entitled ‘Can I make you

smile today?’, was to try and

find how people of all ages

controlled their mental health

without pills and potions.

Choice set out to find out in a

creative and stimulating way

how people keep mentally

happy. There are hundreds of

events with a medical theme

and the aim of the day was to

offer something a little more

laughter based instead.

The event took place at Heath

Stroke Club and had 10

participants and 2 volunteers

representing a range of

diversities.

The event was made up of a

combination of presentations,

table top activities and

g r o u p d i s c u s s i o n .

Key activities included:

Paper plate face making

3D Animal Making

Paper hat making

Topics on the day focused on

how the group felt supported

at the club and how their

family, friends and staff

played an important role in

keep ing t he i r men ta l

happiness in check.

A few shared how they had

feelings of isolation and

confusion before attending

Heath Stroke Club.

Others had felt frustrated with

t h e i r o w n p e r s o n a l

capabilities, whilst others said

that they felt supported and

were able to share their

experiences whilst being at

H e a t h S t r o k e C l u b .

The event was very

successful and this was

evident by the laughter

th roughout the room!

After collating the monitoring

information from the sample

of people that were engaged

with, it was very evident that

being part of a group and

having family and friends

around you keeps your

mental health happy.

Sadly, funding for Choice

Vo lun tee r ing ends in

December but if you’re

interested in mentoring then

please contact Choice on

01422 438727. The project

had worked with over 300

volunteers with additional

support needs and trained

nearly 150 mentors to support

them.

To all who worked with or

volunteered for the Choice

project, a big thank you for

helping to break down the

barriers to volunteering and

helping to get a lot of people

smiling.

Can the Choice Project make you smile today?

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Health Connections Grants support... Roshani

Roshani (Urdu for “Light”) is

a partnership with Healthy

Minds & WAC (Women’s

Activity Centre) that has

been piloting work within the

Asian community to increase

awareness of mental health

issues and challenge stigma.

Funded by Comic Relief and

the Health Connections

Grants (run in partnership by

Mental health is a huge

issue for the Asian

community of the Park Ward

in Calderdale, and isn’t easy

to address. Research* has

found that mental health

problems are much higher in

the Asian community than in

the White UK population, for

a number of possible

reasons:

Sharam (“shame”)

around mental health is

a powerful factor that

can prevent people

from acknowledging

mental health problems

and seeking help.

There can be a lot of

m i s u n d e r s t a n d in g s

about mental health,

including the belief that

mental illness does not

count as a treatable

medical condi t ion.

Families can assume

responsibility for caring

for someone with

mental health problems,

w i t h o u t s e e k i n g

professional help.

When people do seek

help, they may find that

s e r v i c e s d o n o t

understand their culture

and there may be

language barriers that

mean they do not get

the level of service they

need.

From the beginning, Healthy

Minds & WAC knew they

wanted Roshani to take a

different approach by

working with, not against,

cultural and traditional

beliefs.

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* Research includes: mental health inpatient audit (SWYPFT 2012); Chief Medical Officer Annual Report on Public MH Priorities (DOH, 2013); Family Matters: A report into attitudes towards mental health problems in the South Asian community in Harrow, North West London (Time to Change, November 2010)

VAC and the Community

Foundation for Calderdale

(CFFC), Roshani has been

running for 9 months and is

already having an impact.

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The project has some

fantastic volunteers from

within the community to help

d e s i g n a n d d e l i v e r

educational workshops,

resources and support

groups. The project has

been humbled by people’s

personal stories; wherever

they go, people tell them

what an important subject

this is for their community,

and how much needs to be

done.

Roshani seems to be

succeeding in its aim to get

people talking about mental

health, giving people

information and directing

them towards suitable

support. Working with

community organisations,

including mosques, it has

been successful in engaging

people in tackling a hitherto

taboo subject, with almost

400 people getting involved

so far. 98% of those have

said that they feel more

k n o w l e d g e a b l e a n d

confident about mental

health, including how to

maintain their own emotional

health and wellbeing.

As a result of lively focus

groups in the community, the

next steps in mind for

Roshani include:

Involving more people

to spread the word;

D e v e l o p i n g p e e r

support groups so that

people have more

opportunity to access

ongoing support in a

safe environment;

working with people

from other cultures and

backgrounds including

refugees & asylum

seekers;

Producing guidance for

services on how they

could respond better to

people from ethnically

diverse backgrounds.

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In addition to supporting the

very successful Roshani

project, Health Connections

supports the Mental Health

Matters network through its

Bursary scheme.

The purpose of the network

is to share information and

good practice, gather

evidence about the mental

health needs in the

community and identify gaps

in provision.

Membership is open and any

organisation working in

Calderdale for which mental

health is a current issue can

get involved. This includes

service user and carer

representatives as well as

organisations in the statutory

and voluntary sector.

The Health Connections

Grants & Bursaries are

funded by the Calderdale

CCG and delivered in

partnership with VAC and

CFFC. The Bursaries

scheme is currently open for

applications. For more

information contact VAC on

01422 438729 or visit

www.cffc.co.uk

To find out more about

Roshani or the Mental

Health Matters Network,

contact Healthy Minds on

01422 345154 or visit the

website

www.healthymindscalderdale.

co.uk

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VAC is a company limited by guarantee registered in England No. 4115234 and registered charity no. 1087518