Notice Board

Survey About Chemists and Pharmacies
NHS Manchester is conducting a Pharmacy Needs Assessment. This looks at how people use community pharmacies (Chemists) and what people think of them. They want to find out if the services on offer are the ones really needed by local communities, and to help plan and develop the best services for the future.

The survey is online and should take no more than 10 minutes to complete. It’s quite straightforward, so people who aren’t very confident with English should still be able to complete it. They have also tried to make it work with online translation - all you need to do is paste the address (www.surveymonkey.com/nhsmpharmacies) into an online translation engine (e.g. http://translate.google.co.uk/) to view and use the survey in a wide range of languages. Automatic translation is imperfect, but the survey should still be clear enough to use.

Also available is a TalkingHealth Telephone Survey Line (0161 765 4040) for people who don’t want to fill the survey in online. This is a voicemail box to collect people’s names and contact numbers ready for us to call them back during the week of 5th to 9th July 2010 to conduct the survey over the phone. Because you are only asked to leave your details (and any preferred call back time), you would only pay for a local-rate call of typically less than a minute. You can also use this line to request paper copies of the survey - just leave your address details instead of your phone number.

Link: www.surveymonkey.com/nhsmpharmacies

Strategic Lead Update May 2010
The document below is a short update into our strategic engagement work on your behalf in the last couple of months.  It has been shared with the Child & Family Support Forum and the Strategic Reference Group.  It is very important that our work is guided by what you are experiencing and thinking and so we would encourage you to attend the Child & Family Support Forum Meetings here or contact us directly.  I look forward to hearing from you.

Nicola Shanahan - Strategic Lead Children & Families
Tel: 0161 834 9823 or email: nicola@macc.org.uk

Download: children_&_families_strategic_lead_update_may_2010.pdf

Queen's Speech 2010
Written by the government and delivered by the reigning monarch, the Queen's Speech sets out the legislative agenda for the year ahead and is the centrepiece of the state opening of Parliament.  The Queen's speech took place on 25th May 2010, where it outlined the new coalition Government's legislative agenda for the next 18 months.  In the speech, the Queen covered 23 Bills and one draft Bill proposed by the new administration.

Download: queen's_speech_-_may_2010.pdf

NICE Guidance for Patients and Public
NICE (National Institute for Clinical Excellence) is well known as the organisation which makes recommendations about which particular treatments should be available through the NHS. Since most of this guidance is for professionals, NICE also produces Plain English versions for patients, carers and members of the public. NICE has now introduced a search facility on its website for all these documents making it easier for people to find information they need to make informed choices about treatments. Follow the link below to view the search facility.

Link: NICE Guidance for Patients and Public

Children Young People and Families Strategic Lead Update
The attached document is a short update into our strategic engagement work on your behalf in the last couple of months.  It has been shared with the Child and Family Support Forum and Strategic Reference Group.  It is very important that our work is guided by what you are experiencing and thinking and so we would encourage you to attend the Child and Family Support Forum meetings here or contact us directly.

Download: 2010_02_02_vcs_children_young_people_and_families_strategic_lead_update.pdf

The Think Family Strategy
The Think Family Strategy is based on the assumption that in Manchester, all partners delivering services from universal to targeted, working with either individual family members or groups of family members will expect their staff to adopt a whole family, holistic approach to all of their customers. We want to make life easier for families and so create a community where it is much simpler to have aspirations.

We want to consider as partners how we might articulate the roles, competencies and skills of workers across the city and consider the range of outcomes across the continuum of needs that we would want this work to achieve.

The Think Family Strategy intends to provide a challenge to all partnership strategies in the City; are our services meeting the needs of the whole family?  Are we confident that we currently “think about families” when we design and commission services?  How we do evidence we do this?  How can we improve our performance in this area?  How will we measure this success?

In order to take this forward, we have worked with key colleagues to develop a Draft Think Family Strategy for Manchester. This will be issued in January 2010 and will be available for consultation for a period of 3 months.

Consultation Process
The Consultation will begin on Monday 4 January until Wednesday 31 March 2010. Consultation responses can be made using the Consultation Questionnaire (Appendix 1 of the Draft Strategy), send by

Email: familystrategy@manchester.gov.uk

Post: Family Strategy Team, C/O Martyn Buonocore, Manchester City Council, 2nd Floor, Overseas House, Quay Street, Manchester M3 3BB

For further information please Call: Martyn Buonocore (Project Manager) - 0161 234 8092 or Shirley Woods Gallagher (Head of Think Family) - 0161 234 7162.

Download: 2010_13_manchesters_think_family_strategy.pdf

Manchester Community Central
MACC is proud to announce the launch of Manchester Community Central, the new support service for Manchester's voluntary and community sector. This is a new service being delivered in a partnership between MACC, Voluntary Action Manchester and Community Network for Manchester. We believe this represents a big opportunity for improving the infrastructure support for Manchester's diverse voluntary and community sector. Click on the link below to download our first ever press release!
Download: manchester_community_central.pdf

Direct to Midwife in Greater Manchester
As soon as a woman finds out she is pregnant, it is a choice to contact their midwife direct. It could speed up access to maternity care and is a great start for mum & baby. Direct to Midwife is a telephone service available to all women in Greater Manchester on 0800 121 4400.

Download: direct_to_midwife_campaign.pdf

Commissioning Survey - Have Your Say!
On behalf of voluntary and community sector stakeholders, MACC and Voluntary Youth Manchester are in the process of carrying out an evaluation and review of the commissioning and tendering process in November 2008, carried out by Manchester City Council Children’s Services and Youth Service in relation to Parenting and Family Support and Youth Services in Manchester.

As part of this, we would like you to feed in your views by completing a questionnaire.  This is your chance to let us know, not just what went wrong or worked well, but how the process can be improved in the future.   We are particularly interested in hearing from you if you:

• accessed the commissioning tendering information but decided not to apply
• applied and were successful
• applied and were unsuccessful
• were affected by the process in any other way

Youth Work Training Catalogue
Manchester's City Council's Workforce Development and Planning team have released a new catalogue of their training opportunities for youth work. Click on the link below to download a copy.

Download: 2009_10_learning_and_development_programme_for_youth_workers.pdf

Children, Young People & Families Third Sector Strategy
In 2007 the Local Government Performance Management Framework set out a new indicator (NI7) to measure the "environment for a thriving third sector".  With this in mind, the Child & Family Support Forum (CFSF), in collaboration with Voluntary Youth Manchester, have undertaken to produce a children, young people and families Third Sector Strategy for Manchester.  This strategy has been written in consultation with members of the CFSF. If you would like to contribute your comments, please download the document (below) and send your views to maccoffice@macc.org.uk by Monday 2nd November 2009.

Download: 2009_11_enabling_manchesters_children_young_people_and_families_third_sector_to_thrive.pdf

Voluntary Community Sector Play Providers Questionnaire
From holiday play-schemes to Parktastic and to adventure playgrounds, voluntary sector providers deliver most of Manchester’s supervised play provision. The city’s Play Strategy makes a commitment to supporting this work – what should this mean in practice? If you’re a Voluntary and Community Sector (VCS) provider then please take a couple of minutes to complete and return this form. By completing this brief questionnaire you will give the Play Partnership a clearer picture of what VCS providers want and how this could be delivered. Your overall views will go back to the Play Partnership and also to other providers in Manchester.

Download: 2009_voluntary_sector_play_providers_questionnaire.doc

Children & Young People's Plan
As discussed at the Child & Family Support Forum on 20th October, the latest version of the Manchester Children and Young People’s Plan is now available for consultation. You can download a copy of the plan by clicking on the link below. The Forum will be drawing together a response from the voluntary and community sector to this plan. To contribute to this, please send any comments you wish included in the response to us by 2nd December 2009. You can email them to maccoffice@macc.org.uk or post them to Child & Family Support Forum, MACC, Swan Buildings 20 Swan Street Manchester M4 5JW.

Download: 2009_12_manchesters_children_and_young_peoples_strategic_plan.pdf

District Wider Leadership Teams - Vacancy for Voluntary Community Sector representives in Central West
With the move to district structures in Manchester, there has been ongoing development of strategic partnerships with voluntary sector representation. At a district level there is now a District Wide Leadership Team (DWLT). The DWLT representatives include the District Manager, Children's Services, NHS, Voluntary Sector and Police. In addition most districts have district partnerships which report to the DWLT, and have been in existence for a few years. 
The role of each DWLT is 'to coordinate and align the development and delivery of services for children within each district and to lead effective partnerships within each district, engaging all partners, and contribute to a district focus to city-wide priorities and plans.'
Each DWLT has to respond to both city wide and district priorities.  You can download a list of what these are <here>.

We are currently looking to recruit a Voluntary Community Sector representative to sit on the Central West district.  If you are interested and would like further information please contact Sarah Forster on 0161 446 2188 or by e-mail: post@saf4.net

Safeguarding Children - Updated Referral Procedures
Manchester Safeguarding Children Board has published revised guidance on making referrals around children or young people where there are concerns of harm, abuse or neglect. It is essential that staff in all organisations working with children, young people are familiar with the basics of this process. During the recent review of safeguarding practice in Manchester it has been noted that the quality of referrals has generally been poor - this new guidance seeks to clarify the process and provide useful definition of key terms.

Download: 2009_guidelines_for_reporting_referral_procedures.pdf
Link: Manchester Safeguarding Children Board - Useful Resources

Campaign against the abuse of adults
At the Manchester conference on adult abuse held in February, the Manchester Safeguarding Adults Board launched a local campaign to stamp out adult abuse. It has been endorsed by broadcaster Joan Bakewell and former Manchester City footballer Alex Williams. The former goalkeeper said: “All adult have the right to live their life free from neglect or abuse -the abuse of vulnerable adults is criminal."

In 2007/2008 there were 486 investigations of adult abuse across Manchester City with an anticipated rise of 20% in 2008/2009, which includes physical abuse as well as neglect, financial and emotional abuse. Victims include people with mental health problems, those with physical disabilities as well as the elderly.

Broadcaster and older people's champion Joan Bakewell said: “Many people don't realise that the elderly and other vulnerable members of our society can be subject to many different kinds of abuse, including emotional, physical, sexual and financial abuse and neglect." She added:”The aim of this campaign is to raise people's awareness of the potential for this abuse and ensure that they know how to help to prevent it taking place. It is essential that support and protection is available."

Councillor Basil Curley, Executive Member for Adult Social Care for Manchester City Council said: “The abuse of vulnerable members of our community is something that should never be tolerated. Raising awareness is key to stamping out abuse and I really hope more people come forward as a result of the campaign."

If you or someone you know is a victim of adult abuse call 0161 255 8250 (Adult Social Care) or 0161 872 5050 (Greater Manchester Police)

Manchester's Multi-Agency Policy and Procedures on Safeguarding Adults is now available in the Safeguarding Adults Resources section of the MACC website - click on the link below.
Link: Safeguarding Adults Resources

Third Sector Strategy Update
Work is progressing on the development of a Third Sector Strategy for Manchester. The group leading on this work has now produced a short briefing outlining the progress made so far. Click on the link below to download a copy. Alongside this, the first data have been released from the survey of voluntary and community sector organisations carried out during Autumn 2008 to establish a picture of what the "environment for a thriving Third Sector" might look like - including a "headline report" on Manchester. The briefing and the report are available to download on our Third Sector Strategy page: click on the link below to visit the page.
Link: Third Sector Strategy

Report on Small Voluntary and Community Sector Organisations
Children England (previously known as NCCVO) have produced a new report entitled Small Change - a survey about experiences of engaging with government initiatives, the impact of funding changes and the move to commissioning and the role in influencing strategic decision making.
Children England

Download: children_england_survey_report_small_change.pdf

Somebody Else's Child campaign
Do you know someone who is caring for somebody else’s child? If it’s for more than 28 days, they must notify their local council. Failure to do so is a criminal offence. Research released by the British Association for Adoption & Fostering reveals that nearly a quarter (22%) of people would miss a clear sign that a child may be at risk. Key findings are that:

• 22% of people would do nothing if an unrelated child suddenly appeared living next door
• 7% would not act if an unrelated child next door disappeared
  

End Child Poverty Campaign - Albert Square 19/02/2009
On Thursday 19th February, Save the Children will be collecting 'photo signatures' from people who want to lobby the Government through a petition to keep their promise to halve child pverty by 2010. They will be in Albert Square collecting 'signatures' between 12 - 2pm.

They are also able to vistit some organisations in central Manchester on the same day to collect 'signatures'from members of staff. It takes very little time to participate but the more people that sign up the greater the impact the petition will hopefully have on the Government. For more information please contact Rebecca Murray Protection Development Officer NW at Save the Children: r.jones@savethechildren.org.uk or call 0161 249 5134 / 0161 4348337

Link: Save the Children - End Child Poverty
Link: End Child Poverty Coalition

Free Resource - Gun, Gang and Knife Crime Prevention
Streetwise is a new crime prevention resource which aims to educate children and young people about the dangers of gun, gang and knife crime. For a FREE demo to view the resource please contact the Streetwise Team now. The presentation will take 30 minutes; following this you can view the Streetwise resource. To make a booking contact Mo Sarfraz saf@streetwiseinfo.co.uk or call 01484 314815.
Link: Streetwise

Manchester Joint Strategic Needs Assessment
The JSNA is a new document which gathers together a great deal of data about needs in Manchester. JSNA's are initiative started by Central Government - and is really about ensuring needs assessment has been carried out so that it informs the commissioning processes across both health and social services. 
It has been developed by the Joint Health Unit in partnership with Manchester NHS, Children's Services and Adult Social Care. As this is the first JSNA it really provides a baseline reference document - so it includes a policy update and local data. It also contains some initial recommendations. It's clearly shaped by the current Children and Young People's Plan and will inform future versions along with plans for Manchester NHS.  
For voluntary sector groups it provides useful data in terms of evidence of local needs and gives some insight into likely commissioning priorities over the coming years.
The full JSNA and a summary version are now available on the City Council website here:
Link: Manchester JSNA

NHS Manchester Commissioning Strategic Plan
On 26th November, NHS Manchester launched their first Commissioning Strategic Plan - this essentially sets out the big priorities for the local NHS over the next 5 years. These are at first glance unsurprising - life expectancy, reducing under 18 pregnancy, tackling childhood obesity, etc, - but the fact that these have now taken centre stage in the Primary Care Trust's plans and budgeting is a considerable shift towards a preventative health economy. The full document is now available on the NHS Manchester Website and includes some interesting initial observations about the need to engage local voluntary sector organisations in the delivery of these preventative services.
Link: NHS Manchester Commissioning Strategic Plan

Manchester Youth Council
Manchester City Council are setting up a new Youth Council in 2009 and want your views about how it should be set up and run to make sure it is representative of children and young people across the city, is led by them and contributes to improving outcomes.  Save the Children are supporting this process consulting with adults, children and young people from now until Friday 20th February 2009 and the results will be circulated in March 2009. This is your opportunity to share your ideas, voice your opinions and to get involved!  There are a number of ways you can do this depending on how much time you can spare:

• Email your views to mancypcproject@savethechildren.org.uk
• Complete a short questionnaire (only takes 10mins)
• Take part in an interview (30-40 mins)

Workforce Development Strategy
The Manchester Children's Workforce Strategy covers the public, private and voluntary sectors and there is now an opportunity to give feedback on the latest draft. It can be downloaded from the link below. Please feed your comments back to Ross Grant at Voluntary Youth Manchester.
Email: voluntaryyouthmanchester@googlemail.com or call him on 0161 832 0169
Link: Manchester Children's Workforce Development Strategy
Link: Workforce Development

CAMHS Training Programme 2009
Dates have now been arranged for the 2009 Programme of Child and Adolescent Mental Health Multi Agency Training. The training has been developed to suit all frontline workers from all establishments, including education, social services, health and the voluntary sector and all training is FREE. It consists of a one day introductory course which covers:
•    Children and Young People’s Mental Health and available services
•    Mental Health in the context of Child and Adolescent Development
•    Early Identification of Mental Health Problems and looking at how we respond.
The introductory days are followed, later in the year once again, by the programme of workshops looking at more specialised topics.
•    (0-11 Years) - 26th February 2009, Kings House, Oxford Road
•    (11-18 Years) - 11th March 2009, Forum Centre, Wy/shawe
•    (0-11 Years) - 24th March 2009, MANCAT 1 Central Park
•    (11-18 Years) - 31st March 2009 (to be confirmed)
For more information or to book a place, please contact Tara Davies, Project Worker, Public Health Development Service, Mauldeth House, Mauldeth Road West, Chorlton-Cum-Hardy, Manchester, M21 7RL. Tel: 0161 882 2307 or email Tara.Davies@manchester.nhs.uk

Worforce Development Funding Guide
Skills for Care, Skills for Health and Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) have produced a workforce development funding guide aimed at employers in the social care and health sector. Click on the link below to download a copy.
Download: nw_hsc_funding_guide.doc

CRB Checks for Volunteers
In June 2008, the Office of the Third Sector released guidance to make clear what groups using volunteers need to do about Criminal Records Bureau checks. This is intended as a reply to concerns that some volunteers are being put off by the CRB check process. Obviously, organisations do need to manage risks in people doing voluntary work with children or vulnerable adults and there are some legal requirements but this new guidance tries to explain where a formal CRB check fits with other steps such as interviewing, training and getting references.
Link: Guidance on CRB Checks for Volunteers (pdf)
Link: Criminal Records Bureau

Every Organisation Matters: mapping the children and young people's VCS
The National Council of Voluntary Child Care Organisations (NCVCCO) and the National Council for Voluntary Youth Services (NCVYS) have recently published new research mapping the size and scope of the children and young people’s voluntary and community sector. The executive summary, full report and press release are available to download from NCVCCO's website:

Link: Download the report form NCVCCO (pdf)

The Children's Plan
The Children's Plan is a ten-year vision to make this country a better place for children and young people. It aims to raise attainment and aspirations for this and future generations, closing gaps in educational achievement and ensuring standards of educational excellence for everyone.  The aim of the Plan is to:

• strengthen support for all families during the formative early years of their children’s lives
• take the next steps in achieving world class schools and an excellent education for every child
• involve parents fully in their children’s learning
• help to make sure that young people have interesting and exciting things to do outside of school
• provide more places for children to play safely.
  

A beginners guide to children and families workforce development (Aug 07)
Produced by NCVCCO and Homestart this publication is for individuals and organisations that are uncertain about what 'workforce development' means in relation to children's services.  This booklet introduces the main features of the children's workforce development agenda and explains why these are important.  It concentrates on the basics but includes information about where to go to find out more.

Link: Download the report from NCCVO (pdf)