A major initiative designed to help restore public confidence in the City Centre, local high streets and to help promote independent retailers and businesses, is to be launched in Birmingham this week (October 3rd).

Devised by Birmingham City Council, the People Make Places campaign will help to promote local shopping areas in the wake of last month’s disturbances. The £310k cost of the campaign will be funded from the Government’s High Street Support Scheme to help cities affected by the recent disturbances.

Central to the Birmingham initiative will be the introduction of a free special card, known as the B Card, which will give Birmingham residents special offers at participating independent businesses during the month of October.

Participating stores will display ‘Backing Birmingham’ signs in their windows, with many businesses already signed up to take part in the scheme.

Cllr, Timothy Huxtable, Cabinet Member for Transport, Environment and Regeneration at Birmingham City Council who is launching the campaign said: “It’s time to take pride in our communities, to make the most of our strengths and acknowledge that it’s Birmingham’s people who make these places special. We hope that this campaign will encourage everyone to enjoy the great things that their community has to offer and, with the B Card initiative, encourage them to support their local independents.”

To support the promotion a series of posters and advertisements featuring local people taking part in the campaign will shortly start appearing on billboards, buses and poster sites as well as newspapers and radio stations throughout the city.

Leaflets promoting individual areas and their businesses will also be distributed across the City. Each leaflet will include a B Card and explain how the card can be used.

B cards are available to any resident of Birmingham, and for those not living in areas receiving the leaflet through their door; cards can be obtained by visiting www.BackingBirmingham.com or by cutting out the card on newspaper advertisements.

You can use your B Card in any outlet displaying a ‘Backing Birmingham’ sticker or poster and there will be a regularly updated list of participating stores at www.BackingBirmingham.com, where you also have the chance to win £100 to spend locally.

Any independent outlet who would like to find out more about the campaign can visit the website or call 0121 472 9009 for their free point of sale kit, while stocks last. There is no charge to take part and retailers / outlets can decide what special offer/s they would like to give to B Card holders.

The campaign is also getting Birmingham’s young people involved, recruiting them to help promote the scheme and spread the word to retailers

Lozells and East Handsworth Ward Advisory Board is a way that you can help improve your area through working in partnership with your councillors on issues and services that affect you in your neighbourhood. The Board usually meets once every two months and members contribute their knowledge and experience with assessing Community Chest grant applications and to highlight issues that affect residents such as highway maintenance and keeping the streets clean and tidy.

Representation is being sought from the organisations in Lozells & East Handsworth ward that represent older people, women, people with disabilities, an advice giving organisation, an organisation working with children up to the age of 16 or if your organisation does not represent any of those as long as it is a voluntary or community group your application will be considered.

All expressions of interest in writing to Yvonne Wager by email yvonne.wager@birmingham.gov.uk or by post to Perry Barr Constituency Office, Tamebridge House, Aldridge Road, Perry Barr, Birmingham, B42 2TX.

Please note the closing date for expressions of interest by Friday 28th October 2011.

If you are interested in finding out more about the Ward Advisory Board please contact Yvonne Wager on (0121) 303 9841.”

The new edition of the Hands on Handsworth magazine is now available. It is available at Handsworth library and other fast food shops, sweet centres and venues in Handsworth. If you can’t find a copy please email karlgreenwood@multistory.org.uk. A PDF copy of the magazine is here –  PDF of HOH 5th edition

National and Local Health Watch

With their White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS (July 2010), the government attempts to “strengthen the collective voice of patients and the public” by bringing forward provisions in the forthcoming Health Bill to create HealthWatch England.

HealthWatch will be a new independent consumer champion and a statutory part of the Care Quality Commission (CQC), to champion services users and carers across health and social care.

Through these proposals the Government wishes to create:

“a strong local infrastructure” that will enhance the role of local authorities in promoting choice and complaints advocacy, through the HealthWatch arrangements they commission”.

The government will look at existing mechanisms, including relevant legislation, to ensure that public engagement is fully effective in future, and that services meet the needs of neighbourhoods. They want to avoid cases where “patient and staff concerns were continually overlooked while systemic failure in the quality of care went unchecked”. As part of the new proposals, the Government will build on existing structures and “strengthen arrangements for information sharing”, whilst “local HealthWatch will also have the power to recommend that poor services are investigated”.

The HealthWatch proposals in the White paper seem to have been influenced by the experiences of the existing Kent HealthWatch. For more information visit: http://bit.ly/HealthWatchKent

The role of HealthWatch

At local level:

•  Local HealthWatch organisations will ensure that the views and feedback from patients and carers are an integral part of local commissioning across health and social care
• Local authorities will be able to commission local HealthWatch or HealthWatch England to provide advocacy and support, helping people access and make choices about services, and supporting individuals who want to make a complaint. In particular, they will support people who lack the means or capacity to make choices; for example, helping them choose which General Practice to register with.
• Local HealthWatch will be funded by and accountable to local authorities, and will be involved in local authorities’ new partnership functions, described in chapter 4. To reinforce local accountability, local authorities will be responsible for ensuring that local HealthWatch are operating effectively, and for putting in place better arrangements if they are not; and
• Local HealthWatch will provide a source of intelligence for national HealthWatch and will be able to report concerns about the quality of providers, independently of the local authority.

At national level:

• HealthWatch England will provide leadership, advice and support to local HealthWatch, and will be able to provide advocacy services on their behalf if the local authority wishes.
• HealthWatch England will provide advice to the Health and Social Care Information Centre on the information which would be of most use to patients to facilitate their choices about their care
• HealthWatch England will provide advice to the NHS Commissioning Board, Monitor and the Secretary of State and
• Based on information received from local HealthWatch and other sources, HealthWatch England will have powers to propose CQC investigations of poor services.

Phase One: ‘Sounding Out’

This initial stage of the transition to HealthWatch takes the form of an informal consultation process; attempting to seek ‘open’ views of a range of stakeholders as to suitable consultation and engagement arrangements relating to the establishment of Healthwatch and the review of consultation and engagement arrangements around care services and the wider wellbeing agenda.

As part of this process stakeholders are asked a few simple questions, these can be found below.

‘Sounding Out’ Questions

We are asking those citizens who are involved in their communities:

1. How are you currently involved?
2. What do you like about the ways you are involved at the moment?
3. Do you feel you have helped to improve anything, and if so how?
4. What don’t you like about the ways you are involved?
5. How do you think we could better seek views?
6. If you wanted to get involved in improving health and care services where would you start?

We are asking citizens who are currently not involved in their communities:

1. Do you want to get involved in developing public services?
2. Do you know how to get involved?
3. How would you like to get involved?
4. What currently stops you getting involved?
5. What would show you that you have made a difference?
6. If you wanted to raise a concern or find out how to influence health and care services where would you start?

Take part in the Sounding Out process, complete the questions online here: http://bit.ly/HealthWatchSO

We shall be following the Sounding out phase with a formal consultation on proposals for HealthWatch.  If you would like to take part in this process please contact: consultation@birmingham.gov.uk

The Hands on Handsworth Community Journalism project is still looking for people to contribute in any way they can. This can range from writing and generating content, taking photographs to distribution or just sending in stories. If you would like to be involved please call 0121 533 7195 or email karlgreenwood@multistory.org.uk