Put forward your views about the commissioning of local healthcare services in Portsmouth

Healthwatch Portsmouth is assisting NHS Portsmouth Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) with a research project into how it consults with members of the public and on the CCG’s its priorities for the next five years.

Portsmouth CCG is a NHS organisation responsible for buying healthcare services in Portsmouth. The group is led by five local GPs who are elected to represent all the GP practices in Portsmouth. Its job is to make sure that Portsmouth residents have access to the best healthcare possible.

Healthwatch is holding a focus group on the 30 April for Portsmouth residents to meet the Healthwatch Portsmouth team and share feedback regarding Portsmouth CCG and how its work affects healthcare services in the city.

The main purpose of the focus group will be to look at:

·         How Portsmouth CCG consults with the public before changes are made to local healthcare services

·         The healthcare services that matter most to you and improvements you would like to see to existing services

·         Portsmouth CCG's priorities for the next 5 years

The team would especially like to hear the experiences of people who have been affected, good or bad, by changes to local healthcare services in the city.

Where: The Entertainment Hall, St James Hospital, Milton, Portsmouth, PO4 8LD

Date: 30 April 2014

Time: 3.00pm to 5.00pm

If you would like to attend this event you can register your attendance by clicking: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/review-of-nhs-portsmouth-ccg-focus-group-event-tickets-11197033629

Free child car seat safety checks

Car seat safety experts will be on hand in supermarkets and stores across the city from Thursday 1 May to advise car drivers on whether their children's seats are correctly fitted.

The free child car seat safety checks, which have been organised by Portsmouth City Council, are carried out by IOSH trained staff from Baby 2000.  

The free checks take place between 10am and 3.30pm on the following dates and locations:

On	At
Thursday 1 May	Tesco North Harbour
Thursday 5 June	Asda Fratton
Thursday 3 July	Sainsbury’s Farlington
Thursday 7 August	Baby 2000, Copnor Rd
Thursday 4 September	Baby 2000, Copnor Rd
Thursday 2 October	Baby 2000, Copnor Rd

For more information call 023 9268 8582
Or search child car seats at portsmouth.gov.uk 

Questions to ask when you buy a car seat

Friends of The Learning Place

The Learning Place have designed a new scheme called 'Friends of The Learning Place’ whereby people can receive:

• Up to date course information 
• Early bird enrolment opportunities 
• Discount/offers on courses 
• Monthly newsletters 
• Chances to attend feedback sessions 

If you would like to become a friend of The Learning Place, please don't hesitate to contact them at: thelearningplace@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Easter Eggstravaganza

Events and activities at the City Museum this Easter bank holiday weekend

Click on the poster below for more details

Action News Portsmouth

The latest issue of the newsletter of Community Action Portsmouth is now available on line by clicking here.

It gives information about forthcoming events, consultations, funding and awards, training opportunities, resources, campaigns, advice and volunteering.

Email either Jacky or Hollie at Community Action in Portsmouth to be added to the email distribution list, or with information, comments or suggestions for future editions.

Free performances

Booking for these free events is essential, click on the poster below for details.

Finding Your Feet

A FREE 2-day programme of workshops and discussion sessions to support people adjusting to sight loss and those close to them. 

Venue: Holiday Inn Portsmouth, Pembroke Road, Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 2TA 

Dates: Friday 25th and Saturday 26th April 2014 

From: 9:30am - 4:30pm 

For more information and to book a place contact: 

Salisbury team: 01722 345440 

Or salisbury@actionforblindpeople.org.uk 

Action for Blind People

Salisbury Team

Tel: 01722 345440

Website: www.actionforblindpeople.org.uk

Registered Charity No. 205913 (England and Wales) SC040050 (Scotland)            

New cookery courses at the Learning Place

Cookies & Cupcakes
Wednesday 23rd April 2014
6:00pm - 8:30pm
Course fee: £67.50
Reduced fee: £36.00
4 weeks

Cake Decorating - Fairy Tale themed

Monday 28th April

9:30am - 12:30pm

Course fee: £26.00

Concession: £16.50

All ingredients included

Cake Decorating - Jungle themes
Monday 19th May
9:30am - 12:30pm
Course fee: £26.00
Concession: £16.50
All ingredients are included

Great British Bake-Off

Tuesday 20th May 2014

17:30pm - 20:30pm

Course fee: £26.00

(Reduced fee £16.50)

To sign up for these and many other courses please contact

The Learning Place, 6 Derby Road, North End, PO2 8HH

Phone:  (023)9262 1860

Email:   thelearningplace@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Web:     www.learnportsmouth.ac.uk 

Portsmouth In Bloom 2014 - open for entries

The Portsmouth in Bloom gardening competition is free to enter for residents, businesses and schools. 

There are 15 categories to choose from and you can enter up to two. 

Judging will take place during July, or earlier for schools. There are two new categories this year: ‘Eat my street’ and ‘Eat my school’ encouraging groups of neighbours, or a school, to grow fruit and veg in an innovative, environmentally-sustainable way. 

This year the competition is being run by community garden group Southsea Greenhouse, Aspex Gallery, parks charity GreenSpace and the council. 

If you’re new to gardening Southsea Greenhouse and other partners are holding workshops to give you inspiration and encouragement. 

Entries must be received by 30 May. 

For more details or to download an application form please click here

The Lost Hour - this Saturday

Please click on this picture for more information

Eastney Meets 8th April 2014

Tendering for public sector contracts – the essentials

A free event at

Portsmouth Civic Offices

Guildhall Square

On

25 April 2014 

from 

09:15 to 16:00 

Led by Alistair Little, Portsmouth City Council’s Procurement Professional for People, this one day training event is tailored to individuals from the voluntary and community sector with limited or no previous experience of writing or submitting tenders for public services. 

Working though a practical example, the session aims to improve the learners’ understanding of the essential elements required to successfully tender for services. 

By the end of the session participants should expect to develop an understanding of: 

• how to interpret a tender specification and identify the key points to address in a tender response 
• how tenders are evaluated 
• the basics of current regulation – and forthcoming changes

Registration is essential, please sign up for you free ticket by clicking here

Alistair Little is a chartered member of the Institute of Purchasing and Supply with 8 years’ experience of public sector procurement across Hampshire & Sussex covering health and social care, ICT, property and professional services.

An event run in partnership with 

Citizens' panel

Have you got something to say? Join our citizens' panel and be part of the conversation.

If you join the panel, we'll take your details and contact you at least four times a year to ask for your views.

There will also be other opportunities to take part throughout the year.

Information provided by the citizens' panel will help the council to shape services that are right for our residents, and will inform decision-making.

We will make sure you get feedback on how the views of the panel have been used.

If you decide you want to stop all you need to do is let us know.


For more information email marketresearch@portsmouthcc.gov.uk or call 023 9243 7996.

Portsmouth Festival of Ideas

Thursday, 3 April 2014 (10.15 – 16.30)
Action Stations, Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, PO1 3LJ

Come and be inspired and challenged!

A packed day-long event bringing together our City’s Voluntary & Community,Social Enterprise, Private and Public Sectors, to network and generate new ideas to tackle some of the deep-rooted complex issues facing us all today.

Keynote address:
John Willis & Francis Davis
Leading social entrepreneurs and social change drivers will share their views on the innovative approaches communities and organisations are taking to find lasting solutions to difficult issues.

Also...

• Market Place – meet service providers
• Collaboration & networking opportunities
• Developing new partnerships and ideas
• Workshops to tackle old problems, gain new insights

The Universities of Portsmouth and Winchester, together with local social entrepreneurs, are developing an exciting and stimulating workshop programme that will introduce creative thinking techniques to stimulate participants’ vision of how issues can be tackled and moved forward.

Who should attend?

• Voluntary & Community Organisations
• Social Enterprises
• Local Commissioners
• Local Businesses
• Funding Bodies
• Service Users

BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW!
https://portsmouthfestivalofideas.eventbrite.co.uk
Booking for this event is essential.

The Festival of Ideas is hosted by the Portsmouth Voluntary and Community Network and sponsored by Create at First Wessex and the Cathedral Innovation Centre.

Charity Pulse 2014

Take part in Charity Pulse 2014!

Charity Pulse is an annual voluntary sector-wide staff satisfaction survey run by Birdsong and Third Sector magazine. It is unique because it is open to anyone working for a UK charity.

Each Spring people working for charities are asked to complete an online survey. They are asked to give their views on how they feel about their work/life balance, the quality of internal

communications in their organisation, the effectiveness of their management and their

development and reward.

This is the eighth year that the survey has been run. Typically people from over 150 different

UK charities take part.

The questionnaire only takes ten minutes to complete and anyone taking the survey can

enter a prize draw for three free coaching sessions with Birdsong.

New

http://bird-song.co.uk/charity-pulse-2014/

COUP#4-' Own it? But, who is going to do it all?'

Giles Piercy - Director, Locality Matters & Chair, White City Enterprise (WCE). Locality Matters is a new business which has been set up to help Local Authorities devolve power, budgets and control to communities. 

This session looked at:

• How statutory bodies can work together to pool and share budgets
• How mutuals and social enterprises can undertake aspects of service delivery
• Opportunities and concerns from the 'right to challenge'

Giles has also been heavily involved with White City Enterprise (WCE) which is a community run social enterprise set up to take on the delivery of public services within a deprived community in West London (Hammersmith and Fulham), with a population of 5,000 residents and public spend of over £50m every year.

A copy of his presentation from the session can be found below:

Portsmouth presentation 11th march 2014 (v2) for blog

Social Care Opportunity Exhibition

Do you want to find out about social care services?

Are you interested in career paths and opportunities working & volunteering in social care?

FREE BUFFET LUNCH, QUIZ and CHILDREN'S ACTIVITIES/CRECHE PROVIDED

Lots of information from the public, private & voluntary sector

on

Thursday 20th March 

drop-in between

11:30am - 2:30pm

at

Oasis centre in Arundel Street, 

Portsmouth

(Map: http://goo.gl/maps/EQYq3)

Organised by Gateway and Portsmouth City Council Social Care 

ESF Community Grants programme

A new phase of the ESF Community Grants programme is now open for applications, with the first deadline coming soon at 1pm on Monday, 7 April. The programme is all about funding small organisations to develop the skills and employability of people who are currently unemployed. Applications are welcome from smaller organisations for work with disadvantaged people living in Hampshire, Portsmouth, the Isle of Wight or Southampton.

Organisations can apply for up to £15,000, with priority given towards work with these groups of people: lone parents, women, people with health or disability issues, people aged 50 or above, and people from diverse communities (including ethnic minorities).

Please see the Community Action Hampshire (CAH) website for full details:

http://www.actionhants.org.uk/index.php?id=727

CAH are also running several pre-application workshops if you are considering an application. Each session will include an explanation of the detailed monitoring requirements, an outline of some successful projects from previous programmes, and an opportunity to ask questions about your application. The dates are:

• Thurs 13 Mar, 2-4pm: Winchester, Badger Farm Community Centre
• Thurs 20 Mar, 2-4pm: Portsmouth Guildhall
• Fri 21 Mar, 10:30am-12:30pm: Alton Community Centre
• Isle of Wight - to be confirmed
• Southampton - to be confirmed

Please see the CAH website for further details and instructions on how to book a place at one of the workshop sessions: http://www.actionhants.org.uk/index.php?id=727

The ESF Community Grants 2014-15 programme is part funded by the European Union through the European Social Fund. Surrey Community Action are the regional managers of the programme, working with CAH in the Hampshire area.

Wheels for All

Find out more today

The Wheels for All initiative is a nationally recognised programme that embraces children and adults with disabilities and differing needs, to engage in a quality cycling activity.  By using specially adapted cycles, the activities are both physically and mentally stimulating and above all fun for everyone involved!

To keep the programme running long term we need volunteers.  If you would like to volunteer or to find out more please call 023 9284 1560, or email
asha.lal@portsmouthcc.gov.uk

Portsmouth Local Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment.

You can cook

Portsmouth City Council are running free cookery courses throughout the city at various times, dates and venues. Each course consists of 3-4 two hour sessions.

You could also volunteer to be a cookery champion to run your own cooking courses in the community. You don’t need any experience as all training will be provided.

Please call 023 9284 1560, or email asha.lal@portsmouthcc.gov.uk to register your interest in attending a cooking class or to be a cookery champion.

Portsmouth Local Authority is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of vulnerable adults, and expects all staff and volunteers to share this commitment. DBS Disclosure at Enhanced level will be required prior to any offer of employment.