Get involved: your views wanted on children’s services

Residents, community groups and health and social care professionals are being invited to share their views on how children’s services in Bury can be improved.

Bury Council and NHS Bury Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) are looking to shape services to ensure that young people have happy and healthy childhoods that ultimately lead to happy healthy lives as adults.

While most of Bury’s 45,000 young people thrive and do well in life, others still live in poverty and do not achieve as much as they could at school. They are also admitted to hospital for preventable conditions such as tooth decay and asthma, or need to be taken into care.

The council and CCG say that Greater Manchester Devolution has created an opportunity for agencies to work more collaboratively and to think radically and differently about how services are provided, with greater emphasis on prevention. There is a Greater Manchester Transformation Fund to help make this happen.

The aims are to:

• Build on the strengths that exist in families and communities by putting children, young people and their families/carers in the driving seat.
• Reduce inequalities and improve outcomes for children, young people and families in Bury.
• Procure service providers to help develop and deliver innovative, person-centred services for children and young people.
• Align health and social care services in Bury by sharing systems and data to reduce duplication.
• Make full use of support and services already available in the community.

Lesley Jones, Bury’s director of public health, said: “We want to hear from as many people as possible to inform and influence our plans. The views of residents, service users and partner agencies in Bury are extremely important to us and we want to establish what works well and where improvements could be made.”

Residents and professionals can give their views by taking part in an online survey - go to www.theburydirectory.co.uk/transformingchildrensservices and scroll down to the survey.

The council is also hosting three events for health and social care professionals who work with children and young people. All views expressed will influence the design of a new service model and an application for Transformation Funding.

These events will take place at the Elizabethan Suite in Bury Town Hall on Monday 16 January (6-8pm), Tuesday 17 January (1-4pm) and Wednesday 25 January (1-4pm).

To book a place at one of these events, email publichealthconsultation@bury.gov.uk with the date you wish to attend, your name, job title and organisation and contact email address; alternatively, call 0161 253 6743.

ENDS

Press release issued: 21 December 2016.