Shropshire Health and Wellbeing e-Newsletter

Welcome to this April Shropshire Health & Wellbeing e-Newsletter. This e-Newsletter is for everyone interested in health and wellbeing in the county.

To contact us, please click here
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Remember, you can find information about Health and Wellbeing events across Shropshire on our website, click here to find out more.

Screening for Bowel Cancer saves lives April is Bowel Cancer Awareness Month and this year the focus of the campaign is on screening.

Screening can save lives but at the moment in some areas of the UK only a third of those who receive a test complete it, meaning thousands of people are missing out on the chance to detect bowel cancer early when it is easier to treat.

Bowel cancer, or Colorectal cancer as it is also known, is one of the most common types of cancer in the UK, with around 40,000 new cases diagnosed every year. It is a disease of the colon, large bowel or the rectum and affects approximately 1 in 17 people, most commonly in people over the age of 60 years.  However, it can affect people of any age.

The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) is encouraging people eligible for screening to take the test so the cancer can be captured early and treated promptly.

Paula Brayford, Colorectal Clinical Nurse Specialist at SaTH, said: “Bowel cancer is the second largest cause of cancer deaths in the UK, but 90 per cent can be cured if spotted early enough. This is why in the UK we have a bowel cancer screening programme – to detect tiny pre-cancerous growths and early cancers.

For more information follow this link:

http://www.shropshiretogether.org.uk/screening-for-bowel-cancer-saves-lives/

We are doing something different this year for 

Dementia Awareness Week, 15 - 21 May.  

 Tour Dementia

We are holding a cycling event with local clubs, staff and volunteers beginning at Upton Magna and finishing in Market Drayton, on a safe cycling route planned by one of our Dementia Support Workers, who is a trained bike leader and has worked with Sustrans.  Our cycling event will be on Saturday 21st May.  Along the way we will have some mini community events in some of the villages, ie. pop up teas, mini singing for the brain sessions, library books on prescription, poetry sessions, Dementia Friends etc. to encourage support without needing to participate in the cycling.  

Volunteers are very important to enable this event to take place.  We are particularly looking for people willing to be marshals, man the signing in/out tables or support the social activities at the various stops.  I would be grateful if you could let us know your interest in being part of our event by contacting shropshire@alzheimers.org.uk or 01743 341800.

You can also keep up with the news on ‘Tour Dementia’ on our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tourdementia2016/?ref=bookmarks

Don’t miss this unique opportunity to hear about some of the most up to date research in relation to sight and hearing loss, learn about services available, see the latest technologies, take part in some fun activities, make new friends, and network, all for free!  

To book your place on the seminars and workshops, 

please click here 

With a vast range of local and national exhibitors, services and charities offering advice and information, the See and Hear Shropshire Exhibition will include:

• over 60 exhibitors
• eye screening by the Local Optical Committee
• hearing aid maintenance clinic, run by Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital’s Audiology department
• ‘Let’s Talk Local’ Drop-in, by People2People
• Boccia tournament, delivered by Shropshire Disability Network
• sports taster sessions, including a climbing wall and gym, to promote health and wellbeing
• all-ability cycling on the cycle track, by Quest88
• See and Hear information van
• eye condition simulation
• a practical and immersive guide dog demonstration by Andy Guiel and demonstration dog Natalie. Learn more about our wonderful partnerships and the challenges that people with visual impairment face on a daily basis

See and Hear Shropshire will also showcase a wide range of demonstrations and sessions throughout the day. Featuring:

• Update on the Five most Common Causes of Loss of Vision in Shropshire: from 10.30am to 11.30am – presented by Mr Prasad Rao, MB, BS, MS, FRCS, FRCOphth, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Shrewsbury and Telford Hospitals
• Lip reading session: from 10.30am to 11.30am- hosted by Shropshire Deaf and Hard of Hearing Forum
• Guide dog demonstration: from 11.45am to 12.45pm – presented by Andy Guiel and demonstration dog Natalie.
• Dementia Friends information session: from 11.45am to 12.45pm – presented by the Alzheimer’s Society Dementia Friends initiative
• Supporting Independence: Adult Social Care in Shropshire: from 1.00pm to 2.00pm – presented by Abigail Butters and Sarah Dillon of People2People
• Dementia and sensory impairment: from 1.00pm to 2.15pm – presented by Matt Broom of VISION 2020, Gemma Jolly of the Alzheimer’s Society, and Vicky Sadler of NHS Audiology.
• Friends & Family Sighted Guide Training Workshop: from 2.15pm to 3.15pm – presented by The Guide Dogs Association.
• Focus on Staying Steady, Staying Active: from 2.30pm to 3.30pm – presented by Tracy Fone of the Shropshire Falls Prevention Service. 

The Child Safety Week 2016 action pack is now available for you to download.

It’s the essential guide for anyone who wants to get effective messages out to children and families about preventing accidents.

• No thinking required to run activities – we’ve done it for you
• Pull outs that you can copy and give to parents with effective messaging that they relate to
• Practical activity sheets to copy and use with children and parents
• Tips on effective engagement with your families and children

Got staff or partners… that you want to get active on child safety?

If you’re responsible for a network or work closely with other agencies, why not buy in bulk and help boost engagement in child accident prevention throughout your local area.

It’s an effective way of boosting parental awareness and action levels by as much as 52%. For just £1.55 per person, you can supply 100 staff with their own Child Safety Week action pack and poster.

You can place an order or find out more from sales@capt.org.uk.

Go Thursdays relaunches with new location

A popular drop-in session in Whitchurch has re-launched in a new central location and with even more organisations offering free help and advice.  Go Thursdays will now be held each week at The Civic Centre, High Street and anyone can come along to talk about a wide range of issues from benefits and legal questions, social care to housing.

The sessions will run from 9.30am to 12.30pm every Thursday and will be attended by a number organisations including Meres and Mosses Housing Association, Fairshare Credit Union, the National Careers Service and Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing.

Also attending will be social care experts People2People, POhWER Shropshire who give support and advice with direct payments, employment and payroll.  Also taking part is ‘enable’ who support people with disabilities and Beechtree Community Centre with help on CV’s and job searches.

The drop-in centre has proved a real hit with local people who are able to get advice on one or more topics easily and quickly.

Sally is available for 1 to 1 teaching in lipreading and deaf awareness for family groups or for friends of hard of hearing people.  Also Befriending for anyone who is hard of hearing and struggles in social situations.  Sally says "I’m happy to meet them out somewhere of their choice or at home depending on their ability".  She also offers advice and guidance so that anyone who has a hearing aid (private or NHS) are able to access the correct services. 

Find more information take a look at Sally's website: http://www.intheloophearing.co.uk/    

Updates from our partners:

Complete the State of the Sector Survey before the deadline: Friday 27th May 2016! 

Click here to complete the VCSA State of the Sector Survey 2016

This year we will be doing the VCSA State of the Sector Survey a little bit differently and we need support from all of our members to ensure that we have a maximum number of returns.
The survey will be split in to two with different themes in each as we want to ensure we capture your information in as much detail as possible. The two themes are:

1. State of the Sector - Current Economic Climate - this will include questions on staffing, grants, funding, predictions for the future, barriers etc.
2. Volunteering and Social Action - this will include detailed questions on volunteering, infrastructure, partnerships and social action and impact. This survey will be available in May/June 2016. 

 So why are we doing the survey?

Recent changes and pressures at a national level have meant bigger challenges for all in Shropshire and there is a great deal of pressure for the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise (VCSE) groups and organisations to support vulnerable people, deliver preventative and other services with less funding. 

The impact of these changes has had an effect on Shropshire and it's communities including:
- cuts to public sector grants/funding both nationally and locally.
- more demand for VCSE representation, services and skills including volunteer management and training.
-pressure for local communities to be more resilient and more people to take on voluntary roles.
- need for communities or organisations to take over the running of community assets and local services (e.g. libraries). 
- need to strengthen the voice and the knowledge of the voluntary sector in Shropshire.

It is important that we are able to demonstrate the effect and impact that the changes are having on Shropshire's VCSE... but we can't do this without your help!
                  

The survey will close at 5pm on Friday 27th May 2016. 

What will we do with the results?

 Once the survey has closed we will use the information to:

• produce a report which can be accessed electronically for all our members to share widely.
• pull together information to share with public sector partners and give them "real time evidence" of how the VCSE is coping with changes. 
• inform the Shropshire evidence base for the VCSE.
• collate information from other areas in order to create a picture for the whole of the Marches LEP. 
• design infographics for use by all membership organisations. 
• provide "real time evidence" with Senior Local Authority representatives ahead of the visit from Minister, Greg Clarke 
• compare findings with previous years. 
• use the findings to shape conversations going forward between the VCSA Board and public sector partners.

However, we can only do all of this if as many Shropshire VCSE organisations as possible complete the State of the Sector Survey 2016. 

Only one person from each organisation/community group/specific team or service needs to complete the survey which should take approximately 15 minutes. 
Please share with your colleagues and contacts and encourage others to complete the survey.

We really appreciate your support!  

Shropshire hospital trust presented with  International Award from Unicef

The Trust which runs Shropshire’s two acute hospitals has been presented with its prestigious international Baby Friendly Award from Unicef (United Nation’s Children’s Fund).

The award means pregnant women and new mums using services run by The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SATH) are receiving more help and advice than ever before about feeding their newborn babies.

It follows several years of training and dedicated work with Maternity Services.

The Baby Friendly Initiative, launched by Unicef and the World Health Organisation, is a global programme which provides a practical and effective way for health services to improve the care provided for all mothers and babies. 

In the UK, the initiative works with UK public services to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and to strengthen mother-baby and family relationships. Support for these relationships is important for all babies, not only those who are breastfed. The award is given after an assessment by a Unicef team has shown that recognised best practice standards are in place.

SATH reached Stage 1 accreditation in the initiative, which aims to protect, promote, and support breastfeeding and to strengthen mother-baby and family relationships as well as encourage Trusts to meet international standards, in July 2013. This meant the Trust showed its commitment to writing policy documents and a curriculum to provide further training to Maternity staff in breastfeeding management.

Stage 2, which the Trust reached in January 2014, involved ensuring the curriculum and guidelines are in place, as well as delivering breastfeeding management training to all staff providing care to pregnant women and new mums – such as Midwives, Neonatal Nurses and Maternity Support Workers.

At Stage 3, the focus is on ensuring that the Baby Friendly standards are implemented for all pregnant women and new mothers. The Trust has now achieved Stage 3, which means it now has full accreditation.

Sure Start Children's Centres

Why not go along to a free session about Understanding Your Child

Baschurch CE (A) Primary School

Eyton Lane, Baschurch, SY4 2AU, Oswestry

Starts Tuesday 3 May 2016, 9.15am - 11.15am

Runs for 10 weeks

 Please note, limited free creche places available 

Shropshire’s Early Help Strategy

We're pleased to be able to publish a refresh of the Early Help Strategy for Shropshire for 2016-2018.

The refresh:

• reflects the changes and further developments to systems for identifying, assessing and providing early help and a whole family approach
• takes into consideration transformation of services and ways of working, both in the organisation of children’s services but also of other stakeholders and organisations including business and financial strategies of public services
• takes into account our learning from: understanding of effectiveness, quality assurance and lessons from wider research and learning including points raised in the Ofsted National Thematic Inspection of Early Help.

If there are any queries or feedback about the strategy these can be emailed through to EarlyHelp@shropshire.gov.uk

Got some news to share?

If you have a topic or article that you would like to feature in this newsletter, please contact us by email: shropshiretogether@shropshire.gov.uk or telephone: 01743 253972.

Health and Wellbeing Board - Next Meeting:

The next public Health and Wellbeing Board meeting will be held on Thursday 9th June 2016, starting at 9.30am at Shirehall in Shrewsbury.

The agenda and relevant papers will become available on the Health and Wellbeing webpage prior to the meeting. Please see the attached link below to access previous meeting agendas:

Health and Wellbeing Board