To receive an update from the HWBG.
· Communities Together
An update from Cllr Graham Wright focusing on working as One Team and Army Rebasing - especially the implementation of the required infrastructure and community cohesion.
Update on the Tidworth Super Garrison.
· Provision of Doctors in the Amesbury Community Area
To receive updates on the provision of Dr’s and Dentists in the Amesbury Area from:
o NHS/Wiltshire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG)
o Local Dr’s Surgeries - Shrewton Cross Plains Surgery
· Solutions 4 Health Weight Loss Programme
To receive a presentation from Matt Bearne of Solutions4Health on their free Shape Up 4 Life weight loss programme.
· The Bridge Youth Project
To receive an update on the Bridge Youth Project and their mentoring programme, following receipt of a grant from the Area Board.
Minutes:
Health and Wellbeing Group
Cllr Graham Wright gave an update from the Health and Wellbeing Group. There had been a wonderful event at Stone Henge on 12 December and Cllr Wight extended his thanks to Community Transport.
There had been a good HWBG meeting on 16 January 2019. Wiltshire Council were extending the use of existing buildings in Amesbury to create community spaces. Radian Housing Association, who own over 1000 properties in Amesbury and Salisbury would be running a social enterprise event for people who want to set up small businesses.
A new role of Local Area Coordinator had been created by Wiltshire Council, which would involve working in deprived areas, providing support, following a client through from the initial problem to a good outcome.
Cllr Wright wished farewell to the current CEM, Dave Roberts, who would be leaving at the end of January and thanked him for all his hard work. He welcomed the new CEM for the Amesbury Area – Jacqui Abbott, who would also be taking the lead on HWB groups for the whole of Wiltshire.
Communities Together
Cllr Darren Henry gave an update. Details were given regarding the taxi bus service running in Shrewton. Cllr Henry wanted to promote use of the service so that it continued. The service was operated by Wiltshire Council and was known as a taxi bus as it was regulated by private hire regulations which made it cheaper to run. There was only one bus, with one driver. The bus usually did the school run and then followed a route. The service would collect users from their house, however you did need to book it. The service would be reviewed later in the year and was due to go out to tender again at the end of 2019. Cllr Henry wanted connections between Shrewton, Winterbourne Stoke, Stonehenge and Larkhill to be improved. It was hoped that a working group could be established in order to facilitate improved connections in the area and the continuation of the taxi bus service.
Further updates were given by Cllr Graham Wright. A new website for Communities Together was to be created to signpost people to the right places. Upcoming events included an Easter Egg hunt in Larkhill on Easter Saturday with a walk to Stonehenge and back. A survey on Military Civilian Integration had been undertaken, showing that there was still a lot of work to do.
Provision of Doctors in the Amesbury Community Area
Sarah MacLennan from Wiltshire CCG gave a brief update. The CCG saw the opening of the new Doctors Surgery at Larkhill as fantastic opportunity as it was rare to have a new, purpose built building. Work was still ongoing to finalise the services offered other than primary GP services. There was however a lack of Doctors. A new NHS 10 year plan had been announced and the model they were using was part of the new plan.
Dr Celia Gromet from the Cross Plains Health Centre gave an update. The Durrington and Shrewton surgeries had been deemed as not fit for purpose by the Care Quality Commission as they were not purpose built but had been converted from their former use. Therefore they would be moving to the new purpose built building at Larkhill. The Shrewton practice would close in 2019 and the Durrington practice would close in 2020. The new building at Larkhill would not be ready until 2020 so until this was ready they would be working from a temporary building at Larkhill. There were a lot of pressure on resources and facilities and the move would enable them to make the most of their resources and offer better facilities. There were problems recruiting Doctors and a lot of the current Doctors were due to retire in the next few years. It was hoped the new building may help with recruiting new GP’s. Alternatively they may be able to share Doctors with the MOD.
Cllr Wright stated that he had only recently realised that there were enough Doctors Surgeries, but that these surgeries usually did not have enough Doctors.
The CCG stated that Doctors Surgery numbers had reduced in Wiltshire from 58 to 48. However health care in Wiltshire was very good. Groups of GP’s worked together across populations and shared services in order to provide a good level of health care.
In response to questions it was stated that there would not be a chemists at the new Larkhill surgery. There would be a pharmacist on site but only for military personnel. It was hoped that they may be able to do same day delivery of prescriptions using new technology.
Waiting times for an appointment were so long (especially if you requested to see a particular Doctor) as there were simply not enough Doctors. However if an emergency appointment was requested you should be able to get an appointment that day. This was a very hard problem to solve. It was hoped that Physicians Associates may be recruited to undertake simpler tasks, freeing up some of the Doctors time.
The Chair thanked the presenters and requested that they may come and give and give updates at future area boards.
Solutions4Health Weight Loss Programme
Matt Bearne of Solutions for Health, gave a presentation on their ShapeUp4Life programme.
ShapeUp4Life was a newly commissioned, free, 12 week long weight management programme for Wiltshire residents. The programme aimed to support people to lose weight and keep it off long term by making realistic changes to lifestyle and nutrition; addressing sedentary behaviour and increasing physical activity; and making behaviour changes.
Sessions were composed of 2 parts, a 45 minute long lifestyle workshop, providing participants with the tools they need to make educated changes and
live a healthy and active lifestyle long term. The second part of the session was
comprised of 45 minutes of physical activity. A different activity was undertaken
each week and were taken by qualified instructors who could tailor the activity to people’s needs.
To join the programme a participant must be a Wiltshire resident, over 14 years
old and have a BMI of ? 30 kg.m² or ? 28 kg.m² with a health condition. Courses
were to take place in local venues including gyms, leisure & community centre’s & village halls. The course had good results with 96% of participants losing weight. There was an online option for those who could not make it to sessions. There was also a programme created for those that could not undertake the physical exercise component which involved longer workshops. The sessions were cyclical, so you would not have to wait to start the programme. Sessions were running in Shrewton and Bemerton and they were hoping to run one in Amesbury soon.
The Chairman thanked Matt for his presentation.
The Bridge Youth Project
Kate Moody, Mentoring Coordinator for the Bridge Youth Project gave an update to the meeting following receipt of a grant from the Area Board. An overview of The Bridge Youth Projects work was given. The project had 10 paid staff, working in primary and secondary schools, giving lessons and assemblies. Pupils were encouraged to develop their own sense of faith/spirituality. There were also 3 lay chaplains, working in 6 secondary schools around the area, running clubs and courses. For example the Alice Course to help build self-esteem.
Their mentoring scheme helped to provide support for young people with issues such as depression, anxiety and behavioural problems. All their volunteers were DBS checked. Young people were referred by the school and would spend an hour every two weeks over the course of a whole year with their mentor. So there was a lot of time to develop a relationship and address issues. The young person would undertake a questionnaire at the beginning of the year, to identify issues. The mentor could set small goals to help try to solve some of the problems. Encouragement, praise and support would also be given. These courses had a good success rate. At the end of the year the young person would again be asked to complete the questionnaire. 73% had improved in more than half the areas they were asked about. 87% had achieved one or more goal. Although it was a religious charity, religion was not a factor in the mentoring courses.
The Chair thanked Kate for her presentation.