Welcome to the February 2010 issue of Great Baddow Online Newsletter

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Introduction

For newcomers to the site, this newsletter is circulated monthly to registered site members and friends, to supplement information on the site itself. Please forward to colleagues and other interested individuals in order to publicise the site. If you are a recent newcomer to the site, welcome - your readership is appreciated.

News

Essex Later Life Expo

Last month on 20th January 2010,  Essex County Council organised a one day exhibition "the Essex Later Life Expo"  at Charter Hall in Colchester.

This event aimed to highlight the contribution older people make to our society and a number of exhibitors such as Age Concern and leisure organisations provided information to make older people feel they had an equal role in society. On offer were a wide variety of activities and interests in which they could find out more information if they wished to participate. The objective was to tackle any negative attitudes and outdated stereotyping around ageing, by bringing older people together to engage them in a positive view of later life.

This was the first event of its kind locally, and the number of visitors was substantial, at least a thousand during the day. Opportunity was provided to learn gardening tips from the TV gardener, Christine Walkden; watch cookery demonstrations and have a go at a range of indoor sports. Dave Monk of BBC Essex was on hand during the day to provide commentary, and the feedback was that overall it was a great success. It is hoped that consideration will be given to making it an annual event.

Consultation on NHS Constitution

Please note that the national consultation on two new rights to be added to the NHS Constitution ends on 5 February 2010. The attached briefing note (Constitution QA) provides a simple question and answer explanation of the NHS Constitution and the latest national consultation. Your local NHS hopes you will take the opportunity to have your say.  Details on where to send your feedback are included in the briefing note, and you may use the Constitution response form.

Constitution QA             Constitution response form

(Please note that I was only provided with information on this consultation a week ago, and although publicised on the site, individuals seeing this information for the first time in this newsletter will only have a couple of days in which to respond - apologies. The consultation below was publicised last month ).

Consultation - The Future of Community services in Mid and South East Essex

As you may be aware, Central Essex Community Services (CECS) and Community Healthcare (CHC) have recently been working together to develop proposals and plans to separate from their commissioning PCTs.

At a series of recent staff events we discussed four possible options for future organisational form including: staying as we are (though this would require consideration of a number of partnership/hosting arrangements); becoming a community foundation trust; forming a social enterprise; or becoming a part of an existing NHS trust.

For the next 12 weeks we will be running a period of more detailed engagement, where we will be discussing proposals with our staff and key stakeholders. The engagement period is supported by a discussion document, outlining the need and options for change, and a feedback form. Electronic copies of both these documents are available here.

Discussion Document      Feedback Form      (Acrobat Reader required - available here)

What are we asking you?

We really value the experience, expertise and judgement of our staff, partners, patients and public and want to hear what you think about the proposals outlined in the discussion document. Specifically, we want to know which type of organisation you believe offers the most benefits for patients and the public; provides the best solution for staff; and is the most viable option for our two provider organisations.

We are also keen to hear your views about our plans to bring together the community service provider arms of our two organisations, to create a single community health care organisation for mid and south east Essex.

How to get involved

We want to hear from as many people and groups of people to help us firm up our plans for community provider services in mid and south east Essex. There are a number of ways for you to get involved, find out more and let us know what you think:

• By completing and returning the feedback form included with this email.
• By attending one of the meetings we have already arranged across the mid and south east Essex area. See page 17 of the discussion document for dates and locations of these meetings.
• Getting in touch by email, fax or post. Full contact details are included on page 16 of the discussion document.
• Inviting us to talk to you. If you would like us to attend one of your meetings please ring 01245 459473 or email communications@midessexpct.nhs.uk

Thank you for taking the time to give us your views.

Published on behalf of 

John Niland, and Howard Perry,

Director, and Chief Operating Officer

Central Essex Community Services Community Healthcare

Delivering Healthy Communities

Finally, the third NHS document is provided by a link to the Mid-Essex NHS website  for Delivering Healthy Communities, the second edition of the five-year Strategic Plan, the product of a major review in which many local people in Essex were involved. This is the version that was submitted to the world class commissioning assurance process. NHS East of England will be assessing the Plan over the next six weeks.

www.midessex.nhs.uk/delivering-healthy-communities

Please note that this is a pdf document which needs Acrobat Reader to open it. Acrobat Reader may be downloaded here.

The PDF is designed to help you navigate through this large document. Navigation buttons at the top of every page allow you to click to each chapter. At the bottom of every page you can click back to the contents page and the page showing the Strategic Plan at a glance. From these pages you can click to sub-sections and each of the strategic initiatives. Please note that the Plan is still subject to strategic health authority approval.

Please note that I publicise these NHS documents and consultations when sent to me as I believe that many local people do not receive information about em in any other way.

Local crime update

I continue to receive notification about local crime in the Chelmsford area and again scammers are reported to be attempting to persuade people to part with their money, their belongings or both. Be cautious if you are telephoned or emailed soliciting personal information and if you do not know the person, decline to provide any information; in particular if personal details or banking information is requested, check with your local branch. Banks and other financial institutions do not request personal details over the phone.

It is also worth pointing out that some of the clothing collection schemes which operate in Baddow are also misleading with the information about the actual level of funding given to associated national charities. If you wish to give to charity why not give directly or take any household items to a bona fide charity shop.

Forthcoming events

Opera Dudes - A Life of Organised Croon

Villagers can look forward to another event sponsored by Essex on Tour to subsidise bringing professional shows to local communities. Taking place on Saturday 20 February at 7.30pm in the Parish Hall, the Opera Dudes comprise a posh former Cambridge scholar and an ex-builder turned international operatic tenor! Tim Lole and Neil Allen combine their musical and vocal pedigrees  to provide a show full of both humour and charm - as well as excellent singing!

Tickets cost £7.50 (concessions £6.50) Tel. Janetta Sosin on 01245 472448 or Chris Shaw on 01245 471633 to book.

Opera Dudes website

Keith Cilvert and friends

St Mary's Church hosts another concert with Keith Cilvert and friends this Saturday 6th February at 7.30pm offering a variety of musical styles from a number of local artist(e)s. Tickets available from Keith or St Mary's Office.

For more information, visit http://www.stmarysgreatbaddow.org.uk/

Sandon Women's Institute

Sandon WI has published its programme for 2010  and warmly welcomes visitors and friends to its monthly meetings, usually held on the second Thursday each month at 2pm in Sandon Village Hall. The next meeting to be held on Thursday February 11th 2010 is titled "Recycling" with guest speaker Mark Smith. Visit and find out more!

Great Baddow U3A

Our local University of the Third Age ("U3A") has also published its programme of activities and speakers at main meetings for the year ahead. A wide selection of regular weekly or monthly activities are held including languages, local history, walking and so on. See the programme for full details.

New Advertisers

Thomsons

Two new advertisers have taken up space on the site. Thomsons is a well known and established local family business which provides television and entertainment media and last year celebrated 50 years in business. More recently, the firm has extended its services into computing services and provides broadband, networking and other communication services. For more information see their advert on this site or visit their own website

Tiny Tots and "Salt"

The other new advertiser on the site is Alison Read of Sandon who runs a toddler group for pre-schoolchildren aged under 5 and their parents ("Tiny Tots"), and an afterschool group for 4-7 year olds ("Salt"). Both take place at St Andrew's Church , Sandon. See the website for times and detail. 

Unsubscribe - Please stop emailed copies of this newsletter

Because so many of us receive junk email, if on receiving this or any other issue you do not wish to receive any further editions, please accept my apologies; to stop future issues mailed to you, simply email me with the subject line “stop e-newsletter”, and I will delete you from the mailing list. If you have read the newsletter online and would like to receive it by email, please email me with the subject line entry “start e-newsletter”.

Chris Harvey
Site manager
2^nd February 2010
Email Chris Harvey