Health and Care Action Group

Under the Health and Care theme, there are four areas identified for action:

HomeStart

With other local contributors, the Partnership has helped to fund the scheme in Christchurch. HomeStart (opens in a new window) is a voluntary home-visiting scheme providing friendship and support to families experiencing difficulties in their lives. The scheme recruits and trains volunteers to visit families in their own homes and provides parent-to-parent support.

Self-guided health walks and physical activity

Together with our Leisure Service, the Partnership has produced a pack of 10 health walks to encourage people to use nearby open spaces for physical activity. You can download these or pick up a pack from any doctor's surgery or other community outlets and take your friends and family for a walk!

Promoting healthy eating

The Partnership is working with the Christchurch Food Festival and the Christchurch Food Education Trust to provide cookery workshops for all ages.

Also under development is a Local Food Trail for Christchurch, which will allow families to visit a number of local farmers and producers to learn about food production and the benefits of local food.

Vulnerable old people

Reducing isolation and increasing mobility and confidence in vulnerable old people is a key action for the Partnership. We support falls prevention campaigns and fund the Community Transport service, Dial-A-Bus, for Christchurch.

The Partnership is currently developing a Friends of Dial-A-Bus service for Christchurch to provide support to our community transport passengers by assisting with shopping. Also under development is an "older people's befriending" service for Christchurch to help to widen social networks and reduce isolation.

The Health and Care Action Group meets quarterly to work towards their action plan.

Funding allocation

The Christchurch Community Partnership has been allocated the sum of £14,869 in the second round of the Communities for Health Funding. This funding is now available for projects which aim to

• reduce childhood obesity (see the leaflet 'Health inequalities in Dorset (pdf, 275kb) (opens in a new window) )
• support people with mental ill-health back to work or to continue in work
• enable active travel for adults and children

Kindly see the funding pack (pdf, 150kb) (opens in a new window) for the details of this fund.

In addition to the Communities for Health funding stream, the Local Transport Plan and Improvements Group of DCC have allocated the sum of £5,772 for capital project expenditure on action that supports the element of active travel under the C4H funding stream. No additional application is required for this component, but should be included and highlighted in the overall C4H project application, under the section 'Funding Requirements and Sources'.

The funding application forms have been submitted to the Communities for Health, Christchurch Community Partnership. If you have any queries please contact the Community Strategy Officer.

Current initiatives

Fit Christchurch Initiative - This project aims to increase the number of people in Christchurch who eat healthily, engage in physical activity and maintain a healthy body mass. The Partnership is currently working with Dorset Primary Care Trust, Dorset Strategic Partnership, Christchurch Borough Council and the Christchurch Sports Partnership to develop and deliver this initiative
For recent achievements please download the Fit Christchurch programme brief (PDF, 16kb) (opens in a new window)
For more information on current events and initiatives please download work plans and minutes of the meetings or visit our Current CCP Calendar of meeting dates 2010 - 2011 (PDF, 597kb) (opens in a new window)

If you have any contributions that you would like to make to the action plan, or are interested in any of the issues raised then please come and join the Action Group.