Councillor Norris Questions and Answers session at NCVS
Attendees:
Councillor Norris – Portfolio Holder of Adult and Health
Nicola Perkins – Tagadere (a local charity supporting people with HIV)
Sandra Huss – Counselling Extra
Carol Fitch – Counselling Extra
Luke Goss – 58i (Charity run café supporting those in poverty)
Tim Hatton – Notts County Football in the Community
Emma Trent – Notts County Football in the Community
Andrew Redfern – Framework Housing Association
Ferg – NCVS
Tracy Laxton – Nottingham City Council
Summary:
Cllr Norris: PowerPoint and introduction on priorities and challenges of the
council, focusing on the budget changes in the health context.
Carol Fitch: We have a lot of resources in terms of volunteers. We offer low
cost and even free services to the community. However, we are underused.
Our clients are predominantly those in poverty. Struck by the bedroom tax and
recent changes, they’re not able to pay the £7.50 fee for sessions. I wonder if
there was any funding to enable us to continue training counsellors and
provide free services to the community.
Cllr Norris: My best advice is to get contracts with the bigger companies to
acquire funding. Ferg may have some information on that.
Ferg: Recently, many of the staffs from Eon are complaining about the stress
from having to deal with customers affected by the bedroom tax. Maybe this is
an opportunity where you can offer your services to the company.
Andrew Redfern: You talked a lot about the funding pressure. However, I think
there is much more that could be done. Recently there’s the big Lottery
program ‘Fulfilling Life’, which comes in three strands. Nottingham City Care
Partnership is progressing with the bid for two of them. The ‘Multiple Complex
Needs’ which would bring in 9.8 millions over a number of years and the
‘Better Start’ which would bring in forty to fifty millions of investment. I just
want to make sure you’re aware of this and ensure NCC have the best
chances of success.
Cllr Norris: Gave examples of good partnership with focus on early
intervention.
Tim Hatton: Can you tell us a bit more about the process of commissioning
and quality in communities?
Cllr Norris: Stated the understanding of the importance of activities for young
people as well as divergence activities for those at risk.
Tim Hatton: We’re offering a range of health services such as stop smoking
and managing overweight issues. Most of our clients use a system of self
referral but despite our effort, we’re finding it hard to reach targets in terms of
recruitment. Is their anyway you can help?
Cllr Norris: I will ensure the tightening up of the referral process. In terms of
self referral, I will raise this with the communications team and add this to the
range of publications we are already doing.
Nicola Perkins: We as a charity support those with HIV, and we are
concerned with the matter of HIV testing as Nottingham is one of the top ten
in late HIV diagnosis. There seems to be no mention of sexual health in the
strategy. Where do you see sexual health in terms of priorities? Are there
going to be any changes to the sexual health service as of next year? I have
been told about the expensiveness of diagnosis for HIV; will there ever be a
point where people will get turned away because it’s too expensive?
Cllr Norris: General focus on finding efficiency within systems to deliver better
services. In terms of change, I cannot say whether anything that will be
changed or anything that will not be changed. But I don’t believe there will
ever be a point where people get turned down for diagnosis.
Sandra Huss: You mentioned about the priority families, I wonder how our
organisation could get involved with that.
Cllr Norris: It is currently being worked on and if you want to contribute, you
can put your bid in. Give me your contact details and I will get to you with
more details.
Luke Goss: We are in contact with a very small minority of people. However
from what we see, we need a lot more social houses in the city. And how can
we as the voluntary sector help?
Cllr Norris: As a council, we’re building 500 social houses. This is no doubt far
from enough. However, that’s the best we can come up with in terms of
budget. The best I can advice is to make that claim at every government
consultation.