Agenda item
Community Intelligence: Tower Hamlets Community Intelligence
The report provides a short summary, key findings and recommendations from the 17 community intelligence reports completed by community and voluntary and sector organisations under the Community Intelligence Bursary Programme.
Lead for item: Dianne Barham, Healthwatch Tower Hamlets
Minutes:
Dianne Barham invited community researchers (also residents of the borough) to talk about `Up for a Challenge` which is a community project they took part in. They explained how they interviewed members of the local community about their views on health and wellbeing services provided in Tower Hamlets, their needs and their suggestions for improvements on health services. The priorities included
· carers – the views of carers on what support they needed to continue their role, in particular, young carers , carers of people accessing community health services and carers of people with disabilities;
· older people – the views of older people on the type of health and social care services that they would like to be made available to them, should they need care ;
· children – understanding the causes of childhood obesity;
· young people – how young people could be supported to express their understanding of what mental health and good wellbeing were; and to promote a social action campaign;
· cancer services - the experiences of cancer patients and how services could be improved in that area;
· GP Practice - how GP practices could play a vital role in being a link with health programmes and services, community services, welfare support, and access point for advice;
· integrated care – Views of patients on family centred health education;
· Eastern European community; the needs and expectations of the growing eastern; and
· dual diagnosis – the experiences of people with mental illness, substance misuse and the issues they had in accessing services
It was noted that the volunteers were recruited from 17 different organisations from across the Borough, who were then trained up in research skills by Queen Mary University and Tower Hamlets Citizens by a series of workshops and mentoring. This created a network of community researchers who not only had the skills but also had the contacts to carry this research out. There were a total of 33 researchers who were either staff members, volunteers of users from the different organisations. They were awarded certificates for their skills, experience and work following the training.
Diane Barham underlined two overarching issues: building knowledge (which related to sign posting, where and how to access information, expectations and being prepared setting up a single directory) and building capacity (supported self-care, wellbeing not health and the role of the extended family).
It was noted that the aim of the community intelligence was to help shape the priorities and commitments for 2016-17 of Tower Hamlets CCG, Healthwatch, THCVS and the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and work with key partners, including the Health and Wellbeing Board. It was also noted that individual reports including recommendations outlined would be reported back to the key stakeholders in the community.
The Board welcomed the presentation and commended officers for their originality in the bid to involve the local community and acknowledged this as a good example for community engagement. Members also considered that this was an opportunity for health organisations to take on board that volunteers are a great resources for projects on schools, IDEA stores etc.
The Chair thanked the community researchers for their work and commented that the project was an excellent piece of work, a demonstration of members of the community assisting with community projects for the good of the wider community.
The Board agreed that Healthwatch related projects and research findings will be better aligned to Health and Wellbeing Board agenda meetings and forward programme.
Action: Dianne Barham, (Chief Executive of Healthwatch Tower Hamlets)
Supporting documents:
- Item 5 - Community Intelligence Ext v1 (15.09.2015), item 6. PDF 22 KB
- Item 5 - APPENDIX 1 Community Intelligence Report (15.09.2015), item 6. PDF 2 MB