Agenda item

The Board is asked to note the End of Year 2023/24 Report and to renew the Area Board Priorities, as informed by the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

The Board noted the End of Year 2023/24 Report and received an update from the Strategic Engagement and Partnerships Manager, Karen Linaker on the findings of the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. CAJSNA 2024 - Southern Wiltshire Wiltshire Intelligence

The update included a summary of Area Board Investments through Grant funding, a quintile investment table and details on the existing three Area Board Local Priorities, which were:

Youth

Environment

Older & Vulnerable Adults Health & Wellbeing

The Board would work towards resetting new priority themes and actions, with the view of reporting back on a new workplan at the next meeting in September. 

Comments and questions included:

How could the Board penetrate areas of work on issues such as self-harm? 

Answer: Teams met to discuss this topic and found that having more places for people to come forward and feel safe in a comfortable environment, where they could talk or share their issues, in addition to increased support from statutory services.

It was noted that realistically the Area Board did not have the resources to address all of the issues listed and several of the areas strayed into the Integrated Care Boards, neighbourhood collaborative work.

Flooding was also noted as a key issue for Southern Wiltshire which required further exploration.

The data available may not clearly paint an accurate picture of what the communities were experiencing. There was an awareness of what services were available to the community, the challenge would be to connect the dots between the existing groups, transport links and more volunteers.

The Area Board had limited resources and in setting any priorities the Area Board would need to ensure they were achievable, feasible, and appropriate.

Often the experience in the community was that groups relied heavily on a small number of people to take on the leadership roles across the various services. It could feel quite vulnerable to those people if one of those fall by the wayside.

In some areas community-based activities had greater impact, like Downton Down Time, which provided activities for people living with dementia.

Answer: We would like to replicate the Downton Down Time activity across the community area but recognise that each community was different.

One objective moving forward was greater support from statutory services, there were aspects where people get frustrated, like waiting 5 months for an occupational therapist visit. 

Answer: The volunteers were regularly the same people across our services. The Board would encourage more people to volunteer. There was a decline after covid in reduced numbers in volunteering. There were known barriers and challenges in volunteering which the Board was trying to overcome.

A linking theme was exercise, which could help with mental health and physical health.

What was the current position on the Salisbury to Amesbury cycle route, as that would touch on health, the environment and highways?

Answer: Work was still ongoing, a compulsory purchase of land may be required, proposals were being worked towards.

Flooding had been really prominent in residents’ concerns, maybe the Board could look at a specific area of flooding under environment?

Communication was key, there needed to be more advertising.

Answer: Wessex community action recently give a presentation at an event on marrying up organisations looking for help with those wanting to give help. The Wiltshire Togetherplatform is a useful resource.

The Chairman thanked everyone for their input, noting that this was the start of the discussion, Councillors would informally review this in June 2024 and bring a further update in September.

After discussing the renewal of the Area board Priorities for 2024/25, it was;

Resolved:

The Area Board noted the end of year report and agreed to renew the priorities for 2024/25.