During the Covid-19 pandemic, people who work in health and care services and the voluntary and community sector across the South West have offered new choices to patients and the public, for example, by making more use of online and telephone appointments.
With the initial peak of the Covid-19 pandemic now past, the NHS needs to reintroduce and revitalise non-Covid-19 services that have been affected. As part of this planning, health and care staff in both NHS England and NHS Improvement in common with the seven South West systems are looking to gather the views of patients, staff and stakeholders on their experience of health and care services during the pandemic.
Regional engagement leads, community representatives and colleagues from public health, the voluntary and community sector and social care have worked together to develop a regional survey to allow for feedback at a local level and on regional services. It will also mean those living on the edges of health and care systems are asked once for their views.
The survey is being hosted on a platform by NHS Gloucestershire and the anonymous results will be shared with NHS England and NHS Improvement who will analyse the results and share them with all seven health and care systems, in a collaborative approach. The results and analysis will be compiled into a report at both a local system and regional level and shared with health and care organisations and respondents who provide their email addresses in August.
The results of the survey will help inform health and care recovery plans and future commissioning intentions, enabling identification of what has worked well and how we can improve going forward.
If you have questions about the survey, please speak to your STP Engagement lead or Dr Lou Farbus, Head of Stakeholder Engagement, NHS England and NHS Improvement South West.
The survey is being promoted by the South West Communications and Engagement network to staff, patients and stakeholders. Please can we ask you to encourage those within your organisation and your networks to complete the survey to enable a rich picture of feedback from the South West population.
https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/Covid19SWExp/.
Many thanks in advance for your help.
Regards,
The Somerset CCG Engagement Team
Latest update from Somerset Waste Partnership
All “business as usual” materials are now being accepted at all 16 recycling sites in Somerset.
That includes cardboard as well as commercial waste and other waste you pay to dispose of – including tyres, gas bottles, soil and hardcore, vehicle parts, plasterboard and asbestos (card payment only).
Trailers and vans can access the sites at any time, as long as they have the appropriate permit.
Although sites have been busy, the recently introduced “shop-style” social distancing arrangements – floor markings and signs – have worked well.
However, please note, staff are unable to offer any assistance with unloading or handling any waste or items.
Unfortunately, no items brought to sites can be put forward for reuse at the moment. They will be recycled where possible until a safe way to handle them has been agreed. Anyone planning to bring items that are fit for reuse is asked to keep hold of them for the time being.
Once on site, safety restrictions remain in place, including:
- Gloves to be worn when outside the vehicle
- Maximum of two people per household
- Strict social distancing
- On busier sites traffic, may still be directed by staff
All sites are open for their usual summer hours. There have been long queues at peaks times, notably first thing in the morning, and we will continue to encourage people to only visit the sites when they really need. Quieter times tend to be 4pm-6pm on weekdays.
Queue cams are operating for Bridgwater, Chard, Highbridge, Minehead, Street, Taunton, Wells and Yeovil, and we would advise people to check these before they visit.
There have been significant improvements with collection services, with far fewer missed collections and quicker return visits when collections are missed. Customer services teams have also considerably reduced the backlog of requests.
Recycling sites: ‘shop-style’ social distancing on its way. See briefing for more information.
Date: 9 June, 2020
Electric Vehicle survey
Give us your views and comments about electric vehicles and you could win a £25 voucher! Whilst Covid19 remains uppermost in all our minds, work behind the scenes at Somerset Councils’ carries on. One exciting project, which was put on hold during the first weeks of the pandemic, was linked to Somerset’s Climate Emergency work.
A county-wide group of graduate support officers were asked to come up with an Electric Vehicle strategy, specific to the many diverse and varied parts, geography and communities of Somerset and gauge the potential influence that these may have on Electric Vehicle take-up across Somerset.
They have devised a survey that will give the councils an understanding of Somerset residents’ environmental behaviours and attitudes towards electric vehicles. An online survey will start on Monday 8th June and will close on Monday 22nd June and can be found at https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/s/electricvehiclesurvey.
If you would like to take part and would like a paper copy, please contact [email protected]
News Release
Date: June 9, 2020
Reintroduction of car parking charges in Sedgemoor District Council-owned car parks
As from Monday, 15th June, car parking charges in SDC-owned car parks, will be re-introduced, after their suspension on April 1. All SDC car parks operate a pay by phone option, should people not want to use the ticket machines. There will be an increased cleaning regime for ticket machines.
Car parking charges is a key source of funding for the services that councils provide, none more so than at this difficult time. All councils across the country are facing very challenging financial circumstances. Car parking charges are a very important source of income for Sedgemoor; one that without we will have significantly less resources to do work such as supporting town centres.
SDC is working with town and parish councils to be promoting our town centres, encouraging people to return to shop safely.
Signs have been put on the car park machines as well as other advisory signs in car parks.