Health and Wellbeing

Social prescribing has become a key agenda. VSNW think that social prescribing could provide an important way to drive change, for the benefit of local people, that focusses on the strengths of our sector.

In order to help VSNW make the case for the sector’s role, they would like to find out what’s happening, what’s already being commissioned and who would like to be involved in this agenda as it develops. In order to do this, they have set up a short survey.

Manchester is one of the most linguistically diverse cities in Europe, and is home to over 150 different languages. Working closely with multilingual GPs, a new approach has been developed by the Manchester Clinical Commissioning Groups to help reach these audiences. Local GPs have supported the production of videos, which are in Arabic, Bengali, English, Punjabi and Urdu. The GPs explain what to do when you’re feeling unwell and which NHS services to use.

The Gaddum Centre, in partnership with Better Things (formerly Manchester Mencap), has been working hard to put in place arrangements to launch the Manchester Advocacy Hub in April. They are working to a comprehensive Hub Implementation Plan, which is reviewed and updated weekly in consultation with Manchester City Council Commissioner Paul Johnston and would like to report to you on the following progress made to date:

Manchester City Council have  published their Market Position Statement for Care and Support 2015/16 and anyone with an interest in the future of care and support in Manchester should read it. Manchester's aim is "to forge a new relationship with its partners to benefit all who need care". The Market Position Statement describes the commissioning approach, the context for commissioning and some of the key issues that Manchester needs to address.

Community Catalysts recently learned that the rise in self-employment accounted for 90 per cent of all jobs growth during the recessionary years of 2008-13. Should these rates continue, the Royal Society of Arts predict that the number of people in self-employment could outgrow the public sector workforce by 2018.

Public Health England are developing practical resources to help enable patients with tuberculosis (TB) to access appropriate housing so they are more likely to successfully complete treatment, and to enhance the role housing can play in the diagnosis and prevention of TB in at risk groups.

• Do you have experience of working with people with, or at higher risk of TB
• Do you have experience of working with health professionals on raising awareness about TB or other communicable diseases?
• If not, would you like to know more about this issue?

Living Longer, Living Better describes the ambitious programme of work aimed at ensuring local people receive high quality, personalised services which support them to manage their own health and wellbeing and live long healthy lives.

This integrated care will be delivered by health and social care professionals organised around 10 to 12 hubs across the city, each serving 40-50,000 people. This arrangement, and the organisational changes needed to make it happen, is being called One Team.

The Macmillan Supporting You to Help Others Grants Programme helps give people affected by cancer the opportunity to use their experiences to support others, while also receiving support themselves. They especially welcome applications that contribute to achieving Macmillan’s Inclusion vision of a health and social care system where equal access to, and delivery of the best cancer services are available to everyone living with and beyond cancer.

Are you approachable, dynamic, focused and creative; a strategic independent thinker with excellent judgment? Can you assist in providing direction and leadership to a dynamic and innovative charity?

BHA for Equality in health and social care works with BME, marginalised and disadvantaged communities enabling individuals to improve their health and wellbeing. BHA have over 20 years of experience in delivering public health messages and offer support and practical assistance to people disproportionately affected by health conditions.

As part of the Age-friendly Manchester programme, the Lord Mayor Sue Cooley has launched the Age-friendly Manchester Challenge. The challenge is to Manchester organisations, residents, groups, companies and others who would like to make the city more age-friendly and pledge action to carry out across 2015.

This could be to develop a new project with older people, to work with older people in new and different ways or to change work practices so they are age-friendly.