Agenda and minutes

Venue: The Holding Room, The Guildhall, St. Giles Square, Northampton, NN1 1DE. View directions

Contact: Alice Morgan  01604 837795 e-mail:  alicemorgan@northampton.gov.uk

Items
No. Item

1.

Welcomes, introductions and apologies pdf icon PDF 185 KB

Minutes:

Apologies received from Suzanna Storey

 

2.

Minutes and matters arising pdf icon PDF 196 KB

Minutes:

Minutes of the last meeting were agreed as a true record

 

Matters arising

 

-           Pauline Woodhouse apologies not included.

ACTION: AM to include.

-          AR asked about the Community Wellbeing tender, an announcement was expected a month ago. VR commented that there is currently no update; a contract has not been awarded by NCC currently.

ACTION: Cllr Malpas asked for a statement to be give regarding an update and circulated with the minutes before the next meeting if possible.

 

3.

Healthwatch Northamptonshire

Minutes:

Healthwatch is a statutory organisation, established as a social enterprise to ensure the organisation can generate an income to fund activities. The objective of Healthwatch is to find out what people think about health and social care with a view to make improvements, making recommendations to commissioners and providers about how services and care can be improved. Healthwatch can go into most health and social care premises and observe what is going on, talk to patients, carers and staff – they will usually announce they are going to visit, inspecting surroundings and talking to patients directly, but can do unannounced visits. Healthwatch have 9 members staff and around 200 volunteers.

 

Healthwatch also run engagement campaigns, such as the current campaign Make Your Voice Count Too. They are working closely with the Northamptonshire Young Leaders, who represent each district and borough of the County, on a project focused on CAMHS. The Young Leaders are hoping to get around 20,000 young people to complete the survey, which they have designed themselves. Healthwatch try to engage with as many groups and communities as possible, to raise awareness of the organisation, their aims and objectives, and how people can get involved. If anyone is aware of organisations that would like Healthwatch to attend, please get in contact.

 

Healthwatch are always looking for volunteers, and would like to encourage more diversity in the volunteer base. Healthwatch are currently recruiting board members, and would like to encourage more BAME representation.  

The makeup of the board is as follows: three members will be elected by volunteer base, two members will be elected by Voluntary and Community Sector and two members will be elected by the local health and wellbeing fora. In order to be on the board, no particular health and wellbeing expertise is required, but the person must have an interest in health and social care.

JC commented that the title itself of ‘board member’ may put people off.  RN continued to explain what board members do, which includes improving strategy, setting out operational plans and overseeing their implementation. Full induction and training is provided for board members.

 

ACTION: RN to send details on becoming a board member to AM to circulate.

 

Healthwatch are recruiting board members now; details on how to apply can be found here : http://www.healthwatchnorthamptonshire.co.uk/are-you-interested-becoming-healthwatch-northamptonshire-board-member

 

 

AR commented that Inspirational FM is a good way to get message out to BME communities.

 

JR and RN talked about a Health Equalities group, which works to ensure equality and diversity legislation is being implemented in health and social care. ACTION: RN to send more information about this to AM to circulate.

Cllr Malpas raised with RN that there is only 1 person for the whole county registering people as Blind or visually impaired. This is provided by Olympus Care. ACTION: RN will take this back to look into this.

 

4.

Hate Crime

Minutes:

AR commented that NREC have had a number of clients who have enduring issues with Hate Crime that have not been resolved. The route they would take for this would be to take the issues to the HIRG (Hate Incident Review Group), however these have not met since February. There was a reassurance that these were being re-established. The only other route forward is to submit complaints, but AR felt that a satisfactory resolution has not been found. AR also commented that three NREC clients have claimed to have been told by the Police not to report. AR has been working with Luisa Jepson (Hate Crime Co-ordinator for Northamptonshire Police, and AR felt more support is required.  

 

 

Cllr Malpas questioned whether the situation is the same throughout Northamptonshire.  AR continued to state that one particular client has faced issues with both the Police and NBC, and therefore this is not solely a Police issue. AR felt that other bodies need to play their part also with hate crime and racist incidents.

 

VR commented that issues and individual cases need to be sent through to Mick Stamper, as he previously requested at the July forum meeting. AR advised that the above issues have been sent to Mick Stamper.

 

NS reaffirmed VR’s point - incidents need to be raised to himself or a senior police officer.

 

The forum agreed that a letter should be sent from the chairs of the forum with regards to the HIRGS, along with an offer of support in getting these sorted.  ACTION: VR to draft a letter.

 

The forum agreed that Hate Crime will be kept as an agenda item going forward until the issues have been resolved.

 

ACTION: AM to chase both Andy Cox and Mick Stamper regarding their actions from previous meetings.

 

5.

Action Plans

Minutes:

The forum discussed issues around BME organisations applying for funding. VR, AM and MT stressed that support is available in applying for funding for all organisations through VIN and NCF. 

 

JC commented that her suggestions for action plan items had not been included on the action plan. AM explained that these were included as items to discuss at future meetings, but as they were not full project ideas they had not been included on the activity plan. ACTION: AM agreed to include JC’s suggestions on the action plan for the next meeting.

 

5a

Project Diversity

Minutes:

Unfortunately Suzanna was unable to make tonight’s meeting. A working group has been set up, which includes Suzanna, BME SRP and VIN. This project has been developed. We are looking into submitting a bid to Heritage Lottery, focusing the documentary on ‘Why is Northampton your home?’, while celebrating the diversity we have in our town. The idea would be to share the documentary with schools to be used as an educational tool about how diverse Northampton is. BME SRP has suggested they are the lead for the project as they are the overarching body for BME groups. Suzanna would still like to be involved, her background is Film making. AR advised that, through experience, that bid would need to focus on 40 years back in order to fit Heritage Lottery criteria.

 

6.

Items for Discussion at the Next Meeting

NBC Budget Consultation – Cllr Bottwood

 

Minutes:

Cllr Bottwood – NBC budget consultation

 

7.

AOB

Minutes:

It was raised by a forum member that following input to consultation, the forum does not hear the results of the consultation. ACTION: AM agreed that the findings of consultations the forum have had input into will be brought to the attention of the forum at future meetings.

8.

Date Of Next Meeting

Thursday 15th January – 6:30-8:30pm

Minutes:

Thursday 15th January, 6:30-830pm in the Holding Room