The afternoon will consist of

• A tour of the garden
• a brief overview of Working it Out program and what we are trying to achieve
• Light refreshments
• A chance to meet some of the gardeners and staff for a chat
• Looking at coursework that has been produced each week    

Please come along if you would like to know more about the working it out training and what it offers.  It’s free to residents of Westminster, Wandsworth, Hammersmith and Fulham. Working it Out is specifically for Londoners living with ill mental health. Assisting them to gain a City & Guilds Level 2 in Horticulture and offering access to employment advice and work placements.

The link below is a map of how to get to Thrive Garden

Thrive garden map

You are also welcome to bring along any referrals with you who may be interested in joining the program. Please let me know if you can join us on the 10^th by calling 0207 720 2212 or email isla.ferns@thrive.org.uk  If you could also forward this to your teams it would be most appreciated.

Hope to see you there, kind regards,

Isla

Sister Act Leaders Team aims to raise awareness of disability and encourage people to get more involved in the Wandsworth community. We run small groups and advise the council, PCT and local organisations. We all have learning disabilities. We would like to run a drop in support centre for people who have any kind of learning difficulty or disability. We can give face-to-face advice, information and training that is easy to understand.  The drop in centre will be a welcome place where people can have a cup of tea, talk to a friendly person and learn how to be more independent.

So instead of shopping at Tesco, Asda or Sainsbury’s this month, why not go to Waitrose Balham? Drop your green token for Sister Act and help them earn money toward their dream: To provide a face to face advice support and training service for people with learning disabilities by people with learning disabilities.

A major item on the agenda of the OSC was the approval of the closure of Hartfield House, a residential respite centre for Adults with a Learning Disability.  Councillor Clare Clay, as the Carers’ Champion gained an agreement from the Committee that Hartfield House would not close until its replacement services were in place, that these services would have sufficient capacity for friendship groups to be able to have their respite stays together and that the total respite resource would be large enough to accommodate emergency placements which had been steady at around five people at any time without impacting on the respite service.

Changes in the arrangements for the mental Health Resource Centres were also approved.  These signalled a move away from building-based services towards a more one-to-one support service to help users who had suffered from mental illness to return to normal life and employment.  The LINk representative made the point that the availability of social outlets for people recovering from metal illness was still an important part of the recovery process for many and that this need should still be addressed.

For the full details of the reports discussed at the meeting go to

http://www.wandsworth.gov.uk/moderngov/ieListDocuments.aspx?CId=498&MId=3506&Ver=4

roger

The National Media is plagued with stories of vital charities having their budgets cut by Local Authorities, and Wandsworth is no different. The Council, in what many will see as a misguided attempt to meet budget cuts, have just slashed ¼ million pounds from the funding for some of the Boroughs most valued Voluntary Sector Organisations.

The cuts, which will come into place in April, will see Age Concern losing £83,000 from their budget, Wandsworth Community Transport standing to lose £20,000 and the Care’s Centre will be without £5,000, if proposals go ahead.

The implications of cutting the vital services these organisations provide has far reaching implications as Jenny Weinstein, the Chair of Wandsworth LINk, which is a voice for care users, carers and patients has pointed out:

‘These are very substantial cuts for the Voluntary Care Sector and they will directly impact on some of the most vulnerable people living in Wandsworth. In LINk’s view cutting voluntary sector budgets that provide vital preventive services is short sighted.  It will not only hurt the most needy people in the Borough, but, in the longer term, it will put more pressure on expensive statutory social care and NHS services which are also seeing their budgets slashed… `

Central Government says it wants charities to start providing more services as part of it’s ‘ new ‘Big Society,’ and its right to believe that local and voluntary organisations are often more effective than the State in tackling social problems. But, if cuts like this continue, they will destroy the very organisations which could and should, form the foundations of this new ‘Big Society’.

By Nick Bostock, 26 January 2011

In an exclusive interview with GP, national clinical commissioning network lead for England Dr James Kingsland warned that the government’s NHS reform plans would fail without a ‘cultural shift’ among GPs.

To save £5 billion a year, the NHS needs to save around 40p per patient every working day of the year, Dr Kingsland said.

‘For a practice of 6,000 patients, that’s about £2,500 per day you need to save by doing something remarkable in your prescribing, in urgent care, in long-term condition management,’ he said.

GPs need to apply the management skills they use to run their own practice finances to their use of wider NHS resources, Dr Kingsland said.

‘That’s where it starts – within consultations, recognising that you align your clinical decision-making with the resources that are deployed.

‘If we don’t get that right in every consultation, in every general practice in England, the reforms can’t work.

‘Every GP needs to recognise that when you make a referral that is a commissioning act.’

 Wandsworth LINk supports the ‘pathfinder’ bid by local GPs and the Wandsworth PCT. If successful, this would enable the new NHS reforms in the NHS White paper to be trialled in Wandsworth so that GPs can take the lead in Commisioning health services.

 Jeremy Ambache asked, on behalf of Wandsworth LINk, if the concept of patient representation and a strong ‘patient voice’ can be included within the bid. Also, it was suggested that this will include full patient participation in all the Commissioning groups of the new emerging organization.

The 46 GP practices in Wandsworth, who intend to work together to form one commissioning Consortium, with three strong localities, have submitted their application for approval with an intended start date of 1^ST April 2011.

The application gives details on the vision of the consortium,  how the consortium will work with its constituent GP Practices and key pertners, a proposed process for decision making within the consortium, including identification of who will hold accountability within it.

Click on the link to read the full Wandsworth’s Pathfinder Application

To see the full PCT Board papers follow this link

www.wandsworth.nhs.uk/About/board/Pages/NHSWandsworthboard.aspx

The man responsible for running the borough has unveiled a “revolutionary” plan to give residents control over a raft of council services.

Council leader Edward Lister claims the plan – dubbed the Wandsworth Challenge – will give service users an opportunity to change the way they access services currently run by the council.

Councillor Lister, who has held the position of council leader for 16 years, went on to suggest that the level of user involvement would become so great that residents would soon be shaping the services themselves.

He used the example of the controversial Bolingbroke Hospital school project as an example of community members taking on a responsibility traditionally associated with Wandsworth Council.

The authority has just bought the site for an estimated £13m but, rather than establish a school itself, is taking on the role of landlord and handing the running of the establishment over to a group of parents living in Battersea.

Coun Lister said: “It’s not us saying ‘it’s not our responsibility’ – we are not saying that because it is – but we are saying if you can do it we will support you. You might be able to do it better than us.”

In addition to schools, Coun Lister cited the Battersea Arts Centre and Wandsworth Museum as examples of the council cutting costs by giving the power over running institutions to other organisations or trusts.

He admitted, in theory, York Gardens Library – currently earmarked for closure – could be saved through such a process, if money could be brought to the table with which to invest.

Each council department has been asked to put together a report looking at the possible impact of the Wandsworth Challenge. The move comes in response to last year’s Government spending review, which has forced the council to skim £55m from its running costs over the next two years.

Coun Lister said: “The cuts come in because we are no longer going to be the provider of the services, we are going to be the commissioner of them.

“We’ve got to take out the back office costs in all this and spend less on bureaucracy and administration.”

He added job losses would be “inevitable” in the wake of the “revolutionary” Wandsworth Challenge, but said they would be “kept to a minimum”.

Coun Lister said changes to adult and children’s services would soon be seen, with any user capable of supporting his/herself being asked to manage their own budgets and or care.

He said: “We are not going to give you a meal, we are going to give you the money to buy a meal.

“We are not going to provide a day care facility, we are going to help you get to one.”

Under the Wandsworth Challenge, the council will also be taking on new public health responsibilities and is now in discussions with GPs about fulfilling commissioning for them in the town hall.

Up to 50,000 people with dementia may be forced into care homes early at a cost of £70m a month because services are failing to support them at home, a report has warned.

A highly critical report by the Alzheimer’s Society has found substandard care was resulting in patients being admitted to care homes sooner than necessary.

There are 500,000 people living with dementia at home currently, but a report has suggested that up to one in ten of them may end up in a care home early. For each extra month they spend in care, rather than in their own home, it costs the taxpayer £70m, the report said.

Tens of thousands more patients are admitted to hospitals unnecessarily, adding even more costs, it warned.

The report Support Stay Save Care found that half of carers who said patients were not well looked after at home, reported they were being left bedridden, in unchanged incontinence pads and were malnourished.

The survey suggested more than half of carers were also being put at risk of stress, depression and other serious illnesses because they were being left to struggle unsupported.

In the current environment of spending cuts, Alzheimer’s Society predicts the situation is set to get much worse.

Jeremy Hughes, chief executive of Alzheimer’s Society said: “It is an absolute travesty that so many people with dementia are being forced to struggle without the care and support they need. The consequences of this represent an unacceptable human and financial cost.

“Half a million people with dementia live in the community and many will need help with everyday tasks such as eating meals, washing or going to the lavatory. This help not only maintains dignity but prevents serious health issues. While staying at home is not right for everyone we know many people want to remain in the familiar surroundings they are used to with family or loved ones. Only with the right support will this be possible.”

Care Services Minister Paul Burstow said: “The Alzheimer’s Society is right to turn the spotlight on home care for people with dementia. While there are some outstanding services, as this report demonstrates too many people with dementia and their carers feel let down.

“What needs to be done to put things right is not rocket science, it requires compassion, common sense and a determination to treat people as people, not boxes to tick.

“This is not about spending more it is about spending better. We know we are already spending at European levels but not achieving the right results. As this report shows there would actually be savings made if people were helped to stay at home for longer.”

  Candidate                                       

Jeremy Ambache -  45

Roger Appleton -32

Joy Miller -  32

Abdul-raheem Saalwu - 7

Jenny Weinstein - 54

Barbara Willerton - 50

It seems fitting that the person to receive the highest votes has also been nominated as the new LINk Chair, congratulations to Jenny Weinstein.

 Under the current agreement the elected candidate will serve for 3 years until January 2014.