Regional & National

1) Community Matters FREE Consultancy Roadshows

Community Matters are currently taking bookings for in house, face-to-face support through our Consultancy Roadshow, running from Jan 23rd to Feb 25th in London and the South East and 30th Jan - 3rd Feb in the Leicester area.

Contact Community Matters, giving details of your organisation and the specific areas or issues you would like support with at kierra.box@communitymatters.org.uk with the subject line ‘Roadshow’. The Community Matters Youth team will reply to your query within 48 hours, offering advice, resources and suggestions on where to go next. They will put you in touch with one or more members of the consultancy team, who will discuss further how you might proceed. This might include registering you onto FREE training, discussing your problems or ideas over email, or speaking to you on the phone. While you are in contact with the consultancy team, they will identify a suitable time for an organisation visit. Priority will be given to those interested in participating in the Roadshow, although there may be opportunities to arrange support outside of this.

They will request relevant documents from you (i.e. annual reports, organisational structure charts, needs analyses or business plans) to inform our consultants and help them to familiarise themselves with your organisation. The consultant will visit your offices for between one hour and one day to offer bespoke support to yourself, the wider staff team, trustees or volunteers. If you only require a short session initially they may be able to offer a ‘top-up’ opportunity at a later date and will follow up from this visit with further information and on-going support.

Roadshow Locations:

The roadshow will be visiting five areas over January and February 2012. These are:

23rd – 27th Jan: London/South East
30th Jan - 3rd Feb: Leicester
6th – 10th Feb: Leeds
13th – 17th Feb: Manchester/Liverpool
20th – 24th Feb: Birmingham/Taunton

If you are interested in getting involved but are not located in one of the areas listed we will be able to offer free 1-2-1 consultancy support to a limited number of organisations from early 2012. Please contact Kierra Box at kierra.box@communitymatters.org.uk for further information.

2) Healthier Together Programme Stakeholder Event

You are invited to the launch the engagement phase for Healthier Together, a review of health services across Bedfordshire, Luton, Milton Keynes and Northamptonshire. Healthier Together aims to improve the quality, safety and affordability of the services that local people receive and ensure that your
health services keep up with the challenges around, and opportunities for, improvement. All this at a time when public funding is under pressure and demand for services keeps rising as our population grows and ages.
Over the coming months clinicians, patient representatives and the public will be discussing how services could change, improve and be sustainable for the future. For example there are many services that could be offered
closer to people’s home in local and community settings. There are others where, in order to ensure the best possible outcomes for patients, specialist treatments and ‘one off’ procedures could be offered by specialist
teams.

This event is a key opportunity for you to:
• learn about the factors that are driving change in the local health system
• help develop the principles which will guide the changes to services
• influence the shape of future service models in the following six areas: long term conditions, maternity services, children’s services, planned care, cancer services and emergency services.

Date: Friday 10 February
Time: 12.00pm-4.00pm
Venue: Kents Hill Park, Timbold Drive, Milton Keynes MK7 6BZ

If you would like to attend this event, please email healthiertogether@miltonkeynes.nhs.uk or call Louise Chaffey on 01908 278735 as soon as possible.

3) Promoting the Dialogue between Commissioners and VCS Organisations in the East of England

MENTER would like to invite you to a FREE regional event which aims to develop the dialogue between commissioners of public services and VCS service deliverers, to identify opportunities for improved VCS involvement in all stages of commissioning processes and explore new payment structures, contract arrangements and social investment sources

This event is being held specifically for local authority commissioners and voluntary and community organisations involved in three sub sectors particularly affected by changes in funding and increased use of commissioning: advice provision; children and young people’s services; and employment and skills (specifically the Work Programme).  Attendance at the event is by invitation. Please see the attached draft agenda for the event.

The event will enable delegates to share knowledge and awareness about the opportunities and pressures of working in the new environment and help local authority commissioners and voluntary and community organisations to engage with each other in the process.  We are keen to ensure the event is practical, with participants willing to share their experiences, talk about examples of commissioning and their involvement in the processes and learn from others across the region.

Date: Monday 27 February 2012
Time: 9.30am-4.00pm
Venue: Arbury Community Centre, The Centre, Campkin Road, Cambridge CB4 2LD

If you would like to attend this event, please complete the booking form and return the by Tuesday 7 February 2012 by email to beatrice@menter.org.uk.

4) Commissioning Learning Event for East of England
Ensuring Comprehensive Emotional and Mental Health services
Tiers 1 & 2

The aims of this event is to provide commissioners with an opportunity to explore further the challenges and developments emotional and mental health services tiers 1 & 2 face in the context of local pathways and developing commissioning arrangements. Ensuring delivery of comprehensive emotional and mental health services at tier 1 and 2 within current financial restraints is a key challenge facing localities. This event will be an opportunity for commissioners to consider the challenges and solutions. It will also be a forum to share learning from the TAMHS projects and hear more about the development of the IAPT programme and associated pilot sites’ progress.

Date: Wednesday 29 February 2012
Time: 10.00am-3.00pm
Venue: The Palace, Palace Street, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 8E

To register for this event please click here.

5) Children Matter East - Families Policy Session

T his session is the second families policy event for the Eastern Regions and will provide an update on the new work of the 'Troubled Families Unit' and also an overview of how Payments by Results is working across families provision. Further details and the agenda for the day will be circulated shortly but please contact me if you are interested in attending. The session is open to all statutory and voluntary sector partners delivering services to families across the region, places are limited so please book in advance.

Date: Wednesday 14 March 2012
Time: 9.00am-12.00pm
Venue: Orchard Community Centre, Cambridge, CB4 2EZ

Click here for further information and booking details.

6) The Future of Children's and Young People's Mental Health Services

The Government's new Mental Health Strategy emphasises the crucial importance of early intervention in emerging emotional and mental health problems for children and young people. As part of the BOND Consortium (Better Outcomes, New Delivery), we would like to invite you to a FREE Best Practice Exchange on how commissioners can make better use of the voluntary and community sector in the future delivery of mental health services for children and young people. This event will: 

• Update you on what is happening to emotional and mental health support services for children and young people across the country, including early intervention, new ways of commissioning and providing services.
• Share examples of best practice in relation to improving children and young people's mental health and wellbeing, including what was learnt from the Targeted Mental Health in Schools Programme (TAMHS) and how it can be applied across different settings and contexts.
• Identify practical, cost effective ways for developing and delivering future support.
• Facilitate learning and partnership working. Elicit feedback that will build upon the emerging evidence and provide baseline themes. 

The event is aimed at commissioners of emotional and mental health support services as well as those responsible for services which support children and young people in schools, colleges and informal settings. These events will provide an opportunity for commissioners and providers to have a dialogue and to include the voluntary and community sector in thinking about the future.   

To book your place please click here or, for further information here.