Manchester Alliance for Community Care

Manchester Alcohol Strategy
Manchester health & Wellbeing Board is updating the city's strategy around alcohol. The key themes are:

A Volunteer Centre for Manchester at last!
MACC is delighted to announce that our new Volunteer Centre for Manchester is now open for business. This brings to an end the many years during which the city was without a generic volunteering agency linked to the national volunteering network.

Volunteer Centre Manchester will champion volunteering within the city and promote good practice to organisations which involve volunteers. The Centre is based in the MACC offices, part of the redevelopment of MACC as the lead infrastructure body for Manchester’s voluntary and community sector. Our intention is to achieve Volunteering England accreditation by completing Volunteer Centre Quality Accreditation alongside other centres in Greater Manchester.

The arrival of the Volunteer Centre in Manchester comes as a result of a lot of hard work by individuals from various organisations, such as the GMCVO-based Volunteering Greater Manchester project, Greater Manchester Youth Network and Manchester Youth Volunteering Project (now closed).

The new service will redevelop the existing volunteering pages on the Manchester Community Central website and volunteering opportunities will be advertised widely across social media, Do-it.org and discussed in one-to-one interviews with potential volunteers.

Introductory volunteering sessions will also be offered to local people considering volunteering, and these events, plus outreach drop-in sessions, will be held at local community venues to allow potential volunteers to make informal enquiries and arrange one-to-one appointments.

If your organisation works in Manchester and involves volunteers, we would encourage you to register with the Volunteer Centre via the link below.

For further information about Volunteer Centre Manchester, contact:
Jen Halfpenny (Development Worker) jen@macc.org.uk
Mark Pritchard (Manager) mark@macc.org.uk
Telephone 0161 834 9823

Link: Volunteer Centre Manchester

VCS Forum for Commissioning Arrangements.
The Manchester Adult Health and Wellbeing Board will be meeting late in September. The Board aims to provide strong leadership and drive the public health and health improvement agenda, facilitating input from relevant partners, including the Voluntary and Community Sector.

MACC is proposing the development of a VCS Forum to work at the strategic level in the evolving Health and Wellbeing commissioning structures. The main aim will be to give the sector an opportunity to be informed, involved and contribute to commissioning bodies to influence their plans and activities.

By supporting the sector’s involvement in the Health and Wellbeing Board, we will be able to;

•    Inform and contribute to current policy direction.
•    Engage with the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment and identify
     gaps in provision of services or areas of increased levels of need.
•    Highlight the contribution the Voluntary and Community Sector
   make in tackling health inequalities.
•    Provide a space to stimulate collaborative working, innovation and
    integration of services between sectors and within the VCS.

The Forum will be able to act as a catalyst for the sector in Manchester and give a mandate for our representative on the Board, who will continue to be Mike Wild, the Director of MACC. We are reshaping our Health and Wellbeing Forum to be a place where the local sector can discuss the work of the Board and provide a means to feed back and consult colleagues.

MACC will facilitate the Forum and ensure the continuation and sustainability of effective working links with existing Forums and Networks engaged with local communities in addressing health inequalities.

The Forum will also focus on building relationships with the Directorate of Adults, local Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS Trusts to broaden their partnerships to include the VCS.

The first meeting of the Forum needs to take place before the next Manchester Health and Wellbeing Board meeting on September 28th, so we have arranged a meeting for Tuesday September 13th.

For further information about the Forum, contact Mike Wild at MACC tel: 834 9823 or email mike@macc.org.uk.

Do you have a healthy interest in the NHS?
GPs in Manchester would like to hear from local people who want to become involved in designing the future of health services in the city.

National NHS reforms are changing the way health services in Manchester will be planned, arranged and funded in the future. Local GPs are forming ‘Clinical Commissioning Groups’ which will work closely with hospitals, community health services and social care services to organise and develop health services which improve the quality of care available in the city.

Manchester GPs want to involve local people in this work. Dr Phil Burns, who sits on the Board of South Manchester’s Clinical Commissioning Group, explains:

“We are lucky in Manchester to have a range of high quality health services. However, we believe we can further improve the services in Manchester despite the challenging financial times we currently face in this country. In order to do this we need local people to advise us of their views where necessary, tell us how to improve our plans.”

There are 3 ways people can get involved:

1) Apply to join Patient and Public Advisory Groups. Situated within the Clinical Commissioning Groups and reporting to the Board, these bodies will consist of approximately 12 people who will represent the views of the local community and comment on plans and
developments being considered. Members should either live in
Manchester or use Manchester health services. Meetings will be held monthly.

2) Join your GP practice’s Patient Participation Group. A number of practices across the city are setting up Patient Participation Groups to help them develop the service they provide and to feed up any local issues to the Clinical Commissioning Group for action. Some Patient Participation Groups will meet regularly, others will be more ‘virtual’ with people being contacted by email to share their thoughts and experiences. People should approach their own GP practice to find out more.

3) Contribute to individual pieces of work. Clinical Commissioning Groups are currently developing a range of different projects looking at specific areas of health care and are keen to hear from people who can inform this work.

For further information and to express an interest in any of the opportunities, email: communications@manchester.nhs.uk.
or visit: www.manchester.nhs.uk/news/newsitem.aspx?StoryId=4637

Public Health in Manchester
Below is an update we've received from David Regan, Director of Public Health about the changes to the Public Health services in Manchester. As previously announced, public health functions will soon move into the City Council. Click on the link to download the letter (PDF).

Download: public_health_transformation.pdf

The Joint Commissioning Board and the Greater Manchester Cluster
New governance arrangements have been put in place for NHS Manchester joint commissioning of mental health, childrens, prisons and other specialist services.

the attached document explains the role, purpose, membership and accountability for these arrangements and includes a map outlining the links between the different groups. It might be helpful to think of the GP consortia and the joint commissioning management board as equivalent to the old PCT and; The Greater Manchester Cluster ss equivalent to the Strategic Health Authority

Download: the_joint_commissioning_board_and_the_greater_manchester_cluster.doc

Give your feedback on NHS Manchester plans for urgent care
Local GPs and NHS Manchester have developed plans to transform arrangements for urgent medical care in Manchester: http://www.manchester.nhs.uk/talkinghealth/

Please find attached a document for you to read about the current arrangements and plans to improve them to better meet the needs of Manchester patients. They want your thoughts and opinions - good and bad - about this because these changes are important and could affect you.
Please promote this to your friends, neighbours, service users, members of staff or stakeholders.
You can let them know what you think by filling in their survey here: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/UrgentCareMCR

Download: our_plans_for_urgent_care.pdf

What is a GP Commissioning Consortia Pathfinder?
From April 2013, it is planned that GP commissioning consortia will become the new NHS commissioners of healthcare. A pathfinder programme has been initiated to invite emerging consortia to begin development from January this year. For more information on Manchester's Pathfinder see the summary below produced by NHS Manchester

Download: communication_and_development_-_summary_(3).doc

Equalities Duties Review
As part of it's 'Red Tape Challenge' the Government has launched a consultation to review the duties of public sector bodies under the 2010 Equalities Act. MACC is concerned that some hard-won legal protections for minority groups could be at risk of being dismantled when they have only just come into force: the description of this as an issue of "bureaucracy" rather than social justice is in itself disturbing. As with the consultation on the duties of Local Authorities (see the item below) we encourage all local VCS organisations to respond to the consultation. Click on the link below for more information and to find out how to respond.

Link: Equalities Duties Review

City Council Third Sector Consultation follow-up
The Directorate of Adults has now published online the documents circulated at the voluntary sector briefing session held at the Town Hall on 22nd March. These include:

Review of Local Authority Duties
Central Government is conducting a review of the statutory responsibilities placed on Local Authorities - including things such as the duty to carry out community care assessments, carers assessments, investigating suspicions about children who are vulnerable or at risk.

MACC strongly believes that this consultation puts up for question some of the essential rights for the most vulnerable people in society These rights must be clearly stated and easily enacted by individuals and those who support them. We encourage everyone to submit a response to this consultation.

The deadline for responses is 25th April - all the details are available on the links below. The "webform" link enables you to respond and comment on specific duties.

Link: DCLG Consultation
Link: DCLG

Voluntary Sector Cuts
A number of national bodies including NAVCA, NCVO, Volunteering England, Compact Voice and Voluntary Sector North West have launched a website to gather information about cuts being made to voluntary and community sector organisations across England. All groups are asked to supply some basic details of the cuts and the impact it will have on the provision of services and activities.

It's important to note that the information once uploaded is publicly available - read the "about" section for details.

MACC wishes to encourage all local groups to record their funding cuts on this site - it's important that public sector decision makers can be shown evidence of the impact of the decisions being made across the various funding bodies.

If your organisation is facing cuts and needs support in planning and managing, you can contact Manchester Community Central for useful information and support.

Link: Voluntary Sector Cuts website
Link: Manchester Community Central

Public sector bodies in Manchester have now completed the "Locality Joint Strategic Needs Assessments". These are documents which pulls together everything which is known about the needs of communities in the North, Central and South parts of Manchester in, for example, areas such as public health. They are produced by the local NHS and City Council Departments including social care and children's services. Evidence from the JSNAs should inform how services are planned and delivered in all these areas. Each also includes a "ward fact sheet" which can be downloaded separately from the Council website.

All this is useful stuff for local voluntary groups in seeing how they fit with or could add to tackling local needs - and is a good source evidence when putting funding applications together.

'‘Talking Dementia' Report
Following NHS Manchester's “Talking Dementia” event which took place earlier this year at Manchester Town Hall, a report is now available which feeds back on the discussions from the day.
Themes identified included:
• the key role that GPs play in identifying early symptoms, and a perceived need for improved training for GPs
• the need for better care in hospitals for those with dementia. Again a requirement for better training of staff was highlighted
• the need for consistency and reliability of home carers, backed up by a greater range of technology to be available to the patient
• considerable praise for the Admiral nurse service and a call to expand the service; and
• the importance of respite care and support for carers of people with dementia.
If you would like a copy of the report and presentation, please email val.bb@manchester.nhs.uk or telephone on 0161 765 4168.

Your Care, Your Say
Manchester LINk and MACC held a public meeting in October 'Your Care, Your Say' where we discussed the government's proposals for the future of long term care. The meeting focussed on the future funding of social care in England and the proposals for changing the way we fund the country's social care needs. Read our responses.
Download: response_to_the_green_paper_on_the_future_of_adult_social_care.pdf

Adults Plan 2009
The Adults Health and Wellbeing Partnership's Partnership Delivery Plan sets out how local agencies will work together to increased life expectancy and reduce health inequalities. You can download a copy from our reports section usng the link below.
Link: Health and Wellbeing - Reports

Personal Health Budgets
The Department of Health has published a new leaflet which aims to provide basic information about the new "personal health budgets" system and how to obtain further information.
Link: Department of Health

The Final Draft of Manchester's Dementia Strategy
Dementia is one of the biggest challenges facing the Health and Social Care economy.At the end of 2007 the joint Policy and Operations group for Older People commissioned a piece of work to produce a Dementia Strategy for Manchester. A multi-agency group was set up to do this work, including representation from the Manchester Carers Forum and the Alzheimer's Society.

Download: manchester_dementia_strategy_2009-2012.doc

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

MyManchesterServices
Manchester City Council has launched a new section on its website called "MyManchesterServices". This is aimed at adults who need advice, information, health and fitness activities, social opportunities or other services to help improve their quality of life. You can build up a list of services and opportunities near you. If you register with the site you can save your search and return to it at any time, making this your personalised directory.
(If you would like your organisation to be added to this directory you can contact the team by email at: mymanchesterservices@manchester.gov.uk.)
Link: www.manchester.gov.uk/MyManchesterServices

Campaign to fight the stigma of dementia
The Alzheimer's Society has launched a national campaign based on its research into the experiences of people with dementia. This is seen as a five year mission to bring dementia "out of the shadows" and draws comparisons with the way cancer was treated as a secret and shameful subject until only a couple of decades ago. Below are links to the campaign homepages and to the report on the BBC News website, both of which feature interviews with author Terry Pratchett about his own experiences of "coming out" following his diagnosis.
Link: Out of the Shadows campaign
Link: BBC News

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

The aims of the Commissioners review of older age services is to identify gaps and to identify inequalities in current service provision, both geographically, age boudaries and within different population groups, especially BME communities.

Draft Dementia Strategy
The Government has published details of its draft dementia strategy. There is a three month consultation period about their plans to improve services and they focus on raising awareness of dementia. The Manchester Older People’s Network have campaigned to improve services and support for people living with dementia, our last public meeting on this issue was in January last year following which we submitted older people’s views to the Department of Health. We will be holding another meeting to discuss the Dementia Strategy but would urge groups to look at the draft and send in their comments.
Link: Department of Health - Dementia Strategy