Update: Sustainable Community Strategy

Notes from the SCS (Sustainable Communities Strategy) consultation meeting of all the profile’s – ‘11th July meeting’ by Jane Howie on behalf of HealthNet

Tony Reeves, Chief Executive of Bradford Council opened the event. He stated that class is a biggest barrier to cohesion than race. Bradford could be set to have as big as a 22% growth in employment. 67 languages are spoken in the district and there is huge potential for Bradford. Stan Kidd, Interim Director – Policy and Performance, Bradford Council, spoke next. He mentioned the Local Government White paper? He said Bradford can be not only ‘A great place in which to live, learn, work and play – with motherhood, apple pie, milk and honey freely available’. Stan went on to mention the ‘intractable diseases of dysfunctional lifestyles’, social immobility and empowering citizens to co-create public values.

Roz Hall, Head of Service Local Area Agreement had the last few words about the SCS before we split into workshops. She posed some questions that we could think about at the workshops:

Are the critical issues the right ones?
What are the long-term aspirations?
What actions do ‘we’ – the partners across the district – need to take to work towards the aspirations?
What are the restraining forces? – and how can they be removed?

Healthier Communities Workshop – lead by Amanda Fletcher and Roz Hall Amanda went through the critical issues for the healthier communities’ profile, and Roz took questions afterwards.

On behalf of HealthNet I asked why Carers are not mentioned in either the healthier communities or the older people’s profile and why disability is not covered in the 60-page Healthier Communities profile? I said surely these were critical issues that need to be taken into account. I was told (by Roz) that we need to think about disability as a barrier that cuts across all themes. I said that if issues like disability don’t have a home and we divide people across services, they will be in small pockets and then be in such small numbers, they will decrease in priority. I told them that HealthNet and the VCS would have liked to have been consulted earlier on, as they feel they have something to give. I handed over a copy of the comments from the HealthNet/VCS SCS training day last week to Roz and Amanda.

At the feedback session after the workshop when all workshop leaders said a little something – Roz said that the workshop had found that the gap between ill health and bad health has not narrowed. That there needs to be more work in localities, with multiple partners. Health assessments on the impact of all the other themes could help to identify areas where different partnerships could work together.

(after this workshop I was approached by Jenny Scott from the Patient and Public Involvement Forum who offered to come and speak to HealthNet if we want her to – jennyscott@blueyonder.uk)

Older People’s Profile Workshop lead by Wendy Hall, Neville Roland and Andrew Jones (? I think)

The critical issues for the Older People’s Partnership were clearly stated and the proposals that went with them. Everyone was given a chance to have their say about these. On behalf of HealthNet I asked if the cross cutting theme of disability had any critical issues? Neville said that the Strategy and Disability Partnership is trying to link issues to the ten themes. I said that HealthNet feel it is a bit late in the day to bolt on disability to the ten themes. I was told that today is the ‘first cut’ of overlapping themes before bringing in the rest of the complexity.

Jo Miller, the Deputy Chief Executive of the council closed the afternoon session when we all got back together again. She said this was the ‘first cross partnership take’ on what the partnerships are saying. A significant rewrite is to follow linking themes. She reminded us that the SCS is not the council’s plan it is a plan for the people of Bradford, which will narrow the gap for people and place.