Islington LINk Event Report

LINk Fair 2012

Community event to share LINk achievements in 2011- 12 and gather views for the LINk Work Plan 2012-13

21 March 2012, 4.00 – 8.00 pm at the Resource Centr e, Holloway

Acknowl edgements Thank you to all the people who supported and participated in this event, and to those who took the time to give their views.

Summary

• 67 people attended this year’s LINk Fair to hear about the LINk’s work, discuss issues for the LINk’s work plan in 2012-13 and to hear from local service commissioners.

• 4 workshops were delivered on local issues within health and social care.

• New members were elected to seats on the Core Group, the group that plans and manages the work of the LINk (67 votes were cast – an increase on last year - in this year’s election, 17% of the membership voted)

• 32 comments on local services were collected which will be added to the LINk database.

• Next steps: The LINk will develop its work plan in April and May 2012 and also report to service commissioners on the comments received in 2010-12. The LINk will continue to work with the Local Authority to plan for Local HealthWatch.

For more information about Islington LINk, please visit our website – http://www.islingtonlink.org – or contact the LINk through its host organisation, Voluntary Action Islington, on 020 7832 5814 or LINk@vai.org.uk.

Contents

1. Introduction....................................... ........................................................ 1

1.1 About Islington LINk ...................................................................................1

1.2 About the LINk Fair .....................................................................................1

2. Islington LINk Achievements in 2011-12 .......... ...................................... 1

3. Panel discussion ................................... ................................................... 3

3.1 Presentations .............................................................................................3

3.2 Questions and answers from the audience ......................................................5

4. Workshops.......................................... ...................................................... 7

4.1 Choice of workshops ..................................................................................7

4.2 Workshop notes............................................................................................

5. Islington LINk Work Plan 2012-13............................. .............................. 12

5.1 Planning process......................................................................................12

5.2 Priorities for 2012-13 ................................................................................12

6. Useful resources ................................ ....................................................13

Abbreviations used in the report CCG - Clinical Commissioning Group LINk – Local Involvement Network NCL Sector – North Central London Sector (Barnet, Camden, Enfield, Haringey and Islington) PCT – Primary Care Trust

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1. Introduction

1.1 About Islington LINk

Islington LINk (Local Involvement Network) is an independent organisation, led by a network of elected volunteers from the local community (both individuals and representatives of community and voluntary organisations). LINks were set up in every local authority area in England in 2008, under the ‘Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act’ 2007.

LINks are a channel for the community voice on health and socia l care services and enable local people to engage in decision-making and scrutiny of health and social care services.

The Health and Social Care Bill 2011 proposes that LINks will evolve into local Healthwatch organisations, which will deliver the existing LINk functions but may also be commissioned, via the Local Authority to help people find services they are looking for and support people to make complaints if they are unable to do so.

1.2 About the LINk Fair

Each year the LINk holds its elections at its Annual General Meeting, the LINk Fair. The Fair gives local people an opportunity to hear about what their LINk has been doing, how their LINk has been responding to their concerns, and what their LINk has achieved as well as a chance to put their questions to the people responsible for local services. The Fair also gives people an opportunity to influence the work plan for the coming year. Attendees can raise issues and prioritise issues that have been raised with the LINk. LINk members also have the chance to vote for the LINk Core Group at this event.

2. Islington LINk Achievements in 2011-12

As part of the introduction to the Fair the LINk host outlined some of the LINk’s achievements in 2011-12.

During 2011-12 Islington LINk continued to build on the strengths and successes of its first year. The following achievements were made:

• Increased membership and profile, increased the amount of information stalls in the community and out-reach at existing events and the Citizen’s Advice Bureau.

• Has collected the views of over 1,000 people in the last two years (making over 2,000 comments on services they have used) as well as collecting people’s views through local surveys

• Visited care homes for older people, assessing activities, nutrition and access to healthcare, and visited Whittington Health to assess nutrition

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• Supported local practices with advice and ideas on setting up effective Patient Participation Groups at GP surgeries

• Carried out research into local people’s experiences of both Personal Budgets and adaptations to their homes.

• Continued to deliver relevant training to its members to enable them to be actively involved in LINk work.

For copies of any of the above reports, visit the LINk library at VAI on Pentonville Road, at the Central Library (Reference Section), Fieldway Crescent or the LINk web-site (see back cover for details).

During the year 2012-13 the LINk will:

• Take on new projects based on issues raised with LINk (including those raised at the Fair)

• Keep you informed of changes to services: Health services, social care services and the LINk itself as it develops into HealthWatch

• Ensure that it continues to listen to the local community, building on its 1,000 voices and reporting these views to the people responsible for services.

3. Panel Discussion

Islington LINk invited representatives from local health and social care organisations to give a brief presentation on their service and how the LINk has influenced their work in the past 12 months.

3.1 Presentations

Dr Gillian Greenhough, Chair of the Islington Clini cal Commissioning Group (CCG) and Dr Katie Coleman, co-Vice Chair of the CC G.

Gillian outlined the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) vision and mission. The group aims ‘to develop a new partnership between patients and their clinicians that together commissions health services of high quality and good value for money and meets the needs of the population of Islington’.

As practices we are committed to working together as a Clinical Commissioning Group to ensure our communities receive the best evidence based care possible within the available resources. We will strive to ensure that patients’ views are heard and that their journey through our local health system is seamless through integration and partnership working’.

The Clinical Commissioning Group, which will be in operation as of April 2013, is preparing for its role now. It has made progress in several areas. They have revised

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the governance arrangements setting out how the group is structured and made progress in developing as an organisation as well as developing key strategies around primary care and care closer to home. The CCG has supported the development of the shadow Health and Wellbeing Board and identified ways to progress patient and public participation.

Katie stated the Clinical Commissioning Group’s (CCG) commitment to involving patients in service design and engaging patients in managing their health. The CCG has developed a strategy for involvement with local people. All Islington GP practices have now signed up to running a practice patient participation group as part of the Patient Participation Direct Enhanced Service (a financial incentive for practices which set up a group). 3 locality patient participation groups also meet quarterly to share information. The Islington Health Panel has also been re-launched and is disseminating a quarterly newsletter, Islington Health.

Other work that the CCG is carrying out includes developing a communication strategy, working with practices to help improve access for patients, making sure self-management and care planning is at the heart of primary and integrated care. An information event for voluntary organisations will be held on 15 May 2012 – more information soon.

The LINk is represented on the Patient Public Participation and Equality and Diversity subgroup of the CCG and through the publication of its reports and representation and involvement the LINk has influenced the direction of travel of all the strategies, in particular the Patient & Public Participation, Equality and Diversity Strategy. Islington CCG committed to work collaboratively and provide ongoing support to the development of local HealthWatch.

Jennie Williams, Assistant Director for Nursing and Patient Experience at Whittington Health.

Jennie stated that the vision of Whittington Health is to be an outstanding provider of high quality joined up healthcare to local people in partnership with GPs, councils and other local providers. She outlined the recent changes at the Whittington. The Whittington Hospital Trust has now become Whittington Health, an Integrated Care Organisation. This means that the Whittington now includes a range of community services (such as community nursing and physiotherapy) in both Haringey and Islington.

The Trust has five main goals underpinning its work:

1. ‘No decision about me, without me’. The Trust aims to have patients (and where appropriate their carers) included in all decisions made regarding their care.

2. Seamless Care. The Whittington aims to offer care with no boundaries 24 hours a day 7 days a week and care that is closer to home so that it is more convenient for service users.

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3. The Trust aims to work to improve the health of the local population, and this means that its contact with patients and service users will also include discussions around maintaining and improving their health

4. The Trust aims to be more efficient ensuring that local people get the best value services for their money.

5. In order to ensure that the Trust can offer the highest standard of care at the best value they are committed to thinking creatively and working more flexibly to achieve these goals.

Services within the Trust are now divided up in to three divisions which bring hospital and community based services together under one management team:

1. Integrated Care and Acute Medicine

2. Surgery, Cancer and Diagnostics

3. Children Women and Families

Jennie then went on to talk about the impact of the LINks work on the services at the Whittington. She said that she was ‘astounded by the impact of the LINk’s reports on services’ and that the work of the LINk was a helpful tool in monitoring the standards and improving the quality of the service delivered by the Trust. The Enter and Review visit which looked at dignity and nutrition on the wards came shortly after the health and social care service regulator Care Quality Commission had highlighted areas for improvement. The LINk report led to existing the action plan for dignity and nutrition being strengthened.

The Trust is committed to involving patients and the public and Jennie in her role as Assistant Director of Nursing and Patient Experience she is keen to continue involving the LINk in other activity. She welcomed the involvement and contributions of LINk members Dave Emmett at the Quality and Safety board and Mark Slocombe, LINk representative on the Patient Experience Committee and urged members to be become involved in patient panels which the Trust would be setting up in the near future.

Sean McLaughlin, Director of Housing and Adult Soci al Care, London Borough of Islington.

Sean’s role spans Adult Social Care and Housing at the Council. He outlined some of the changes in housing such as changes to tenure and housing benefit rules, which will have a huge impact on our local population. He stated that there were opportunities within the Health and Social Care Bill for improving services by involving GPs more closely in decision-making because GPs come into contact with people and hear about their experiences every day.

Sean thanked the LINk for their work on Enter and View, visiting local care homes and day centres, for their report on young carers’ access to services, which has

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influenced local policy, and for their work on personal budgets and adaptations, which is being considered at the moment. He also praised the LINk’s work to help more people engage with services, through the Meeting Skills training course that LINk runs in partnership with the council and local NHS partners.

The Health and Social Care Bill sets out some changes for LINks as they become Local HealthWatch organisations. Concerns have been raised by some that Local HealthWatch will not have robust enough legal powers. He emphasised that he felt Islington LINk’s strength lay in the fact that it did not need to resort to its legal powers. He urged the LINk to continue to use its influence and that the council will continue to be open to that irrespective of the legislative strength of local HealthWatch (LHW). He hoped that LHW would continue the LINk’s good work and described the LINk as engaged, relevant, - looking at what matters – and most importantly, critical.

Sean then outlined the context in which the council is working. There is huge financial pressure on council budgets. Islington has an ageing population and a higher than average number of residents with Learning Disabilities needing to use Adult Social Care. At the same time the council continues to focus efforts on safeguarding of vulnerable adults in our community. Recent training and events have led to a big increase in alerts (many of which are not actually cases of safeguarding, but often simply enquiries about access to services. Nevertheless, the council is happy to receive these calls).

The council is still able to meet moderate needs for service users eligible for social care and is committed to preventative services for people who may not even have a moderate need, for example through day centres keeping people active and independent for longer.

In addition to this the council has been supporting local people concerned about changes to benefits and has supported 3,000 people to claim for over £6m worth of benefits that they were entitled to but had not been claiming. The council continues its work on personalisation and now 60% of its service users are receiving a personal budget, and the council has the highest number of users of Direct Payments (the most flexible way of receiving a personal budget) in London.

3.2 Question and answer session from the audience

In a panel discussion led by the LINk co-Vice Chairs Gerry McMullan and Bob Dowd members of the audience put their questions to the panel.

Q: When will the Clinical Commissioning Group include lay representatives?

A: The CCG is working on this at present and will let the LINk and the local community know more information as soon as possible.

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Q: You talk about a system of no decision about me without me but that is not always the case as a recent experience at the Whittington showed me. How can you be sure patients are involved in all decisions?

A: There is a new system in place and it may be that there are some glitches as it is early days. The speaker offered to continue this conversation with the audience member after the meeting.

Q: In the context of health inequalities, what strategies are in place for analysing and meeting the needs of newly arrived migrants?

A: The CCG has developed an Equality and Diversity strategy. The CCG is keen to work with the voluntary sector and is holding an information event on 15th May. Local groups with information to share are also welcome to come and present at the CCG’s Patient Participation Working Group.

Q: There seems to be some confusion about funding for GPs and for hospitals and in some cases it seems that GPs need to ‘sanction’ treatments. And what happens to this sanctioning if GPs run out of money?

A: There is a lot of bureaucracy about how services charge for their appointments, particularly in London where there are many specialist hospitals and consultants do need to check where and when people have been referred. However this is not about obtaining permission for treatment, but about tracking treatment of patients.

Q: Are Telecare (telephone-based care support services) and meals-on-wheels means-tested? How can we access social care and housing support?

A: There are two assessment processes for people accessing social care services. The first assessment establishes what your needs are and will come up with a suggested care package or Personal Budget (funding allocation for your care needs). The second assessment examines whether you can afford to pay for the support and if so, how much you should contribute. The Dilnot Commission’s 2011 report into social care funding highlighted the complexity of this system stating that it is not in the interests of the individual user or the country. However, reform would be controversial. For more information: http://www.dilnotcommission.dh.gov.uk/our-report/

Q: How is Whittington Health involving voluntary organisations?

A:

Katie: The voluntary sector provides opportunities for the Clinical Commissioning Group to commission ‘Non-Traditional Providers’ of services, which would likely be voluntary sector organisations.

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Jo: Joint working on the Health and Well-Being Board has identified a unity of thinking around looking at service provision differently.

Gillian: Islington has a good Public Health department and does work towards the principle of long-term improvements, for example free health checks have identified greater numbers of people with diabetes and these people can now be helped to manage their conditions.

Jennie: Whittington Health is committed to supporting health improvements in all interactions it has with its users.

Sean: The council recognises that, within health and social care, supporting people in acute settings such as prisons and hospitals is expensive and that prevention is very relevant for individuals and service commissioners. The aim of social care is to help people receive support within their communities. The voluntary sector is necessary in that.

4. Workshops

4.1 Choice of workshops

There were five workshops on offer at the LINk Fair. The LINk had selected workshop topics that they thought would give local people useful information on how service delivery is changing locally. The topics were:

1. Primary and Community care

2. HealthWatch

3. Whittington Health

4. Care Quality Commission

5. Health and Well-Being Board

4.2 Workshop notes

1. Primary Care and Community Services, Jo Sauvage co-Vice Chair Islington Clinical Commiss ioning Group Islington’s practices tend to be medium sized. GPs will be leading on commissioning some services and will be better able to communicate local needs within services.

The borough has an ageing population, putting pressure on systems. Systems will need to be critically reviewed to ensure that resources are not wasted. There are high levels of mental and physical need in the borough and high turnovers of the populations in need. The borough is aware that it needs to address inequality and provide equal access to and levels of services. The Commissioning Group is looking to work with other services to identify those most in need and to configure services around GP centres so that they are easier to access.

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There is a need to educate practices to ensure equality of care and collaboration in delivery as well as consider how best to provide community care with patients at the centre of decision making within a seamless service. There is a need for better sharing of patient information. Integrated care will aim to reduce duplication in the system, which will help to reduce costs.

Historically, Islington has had a strong dialogue between services for highlighting areas of inefficiency. For example it has a good record at prescribing generic drugs over brand named ones, saving resources, and GPs can discuss inefficient processes with other services such as hospitals.

Discussion

What about greater flexibility in GP opening hours.

We are looking at trying to improve how GPs can be accessed in ‘out of hours’ times. Practices could work together to cover these hours and greater GP provision in A&E could help. We are attempting to co-ordinate services better so people are accessing services appropriately. Listening to patients will be key to this integration of services.

What about Ritchie Street, it should be a walk-in, but uses an appointment system.

We are working with Ritchie Street to see how the system can be improved and developed. This aspect of quality will be reviewed by a third party.

What about accessing GPs out of hours.

You can either call your GP practice and be transferred through to the out of hours GP service (currently Harmoni) or, out of opening hours, access GP services through the Urgent Care Centres.

Are there any programmes for weight-loss and exerci se?

There is a new programme starting, which is to be run by Arsenal football club. People will be referred on prescription and a programme to meet their needs will be developed by Arsenal. They will be able to see many people.

Workshop 2. HealthWatch

Steve Holmes, Care Quality Commission and Rosemary Lamport, London Borough of Islington

As attendees that had booked on to this workshop were unable to attend the LINk Fair there are no notes for this section. However, a discussion will be had at a future Core Group meeting and copies of the presentation will be available on the LINk web-site.

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Workshop 3. Whittington Health (Integrated Care Org anisation)

Adam Smith, Fiona Smith and Jennie Williams

The Trust gave a brief introduction to services delivered at Whittington Health. This was followed by a discussion.

Over a holiday period an attendee had waited all day for a doctor to call back about her arthritis which had flared up. Then she had to wait a fortnight for treatment. It was agreed that the Trust would aim to get better safeguarding plans in place for the future. One attendee suggested that the Trust may need to develop a better way for sorting out problems and mapping out how it has been resolved. The Trust does carry out work to learn from patients concerns about where things may have gone wrong so that services can be improved. Whittington Health is now integrated with Islington community services so more help should be available to residents.

Communication about making of appointments within podiatry services could be clearer. It can be difficult to find out whether or not you have been referred and an appointment made. The Trust noted this and suggested that it may be an idea to check how reception is managing this information.

Sometimes it seems that patients are discharged too early and that there is no communication between the hospital and the patient’s doctor. The Trust stated that treatment has changed and that because of hospital infections attempts are made to get patients home as soon as possible as research proves this is best for the patient. It can seem uncaring to patients and relatives. The Trust does make contact with district nurses to make sure that things are properly planned for the patient. New computer systems, which should be working by the end of 2012, will link all the doctors and nurses working with a patient and this should improve communication.

It is not clear how decisions are made about provision of transport when patients are being transferred between hospitals.

The Trust stated that there is ongoing work with patients and carers to improve service users experience at the Trust and that all staff need to learn to work better together across the many services provided under the Whittington umbrella.

Workshop 4. Care Quality Commission Jane Ray, Compliance Manager, Care Quality Commissi on This was a well attended workshop with much interest in the work of CQC. Jane Ray, Compliance Manager, and Lea Alexander, Compliance Inspector, from the London Region spoke about the work of the CQC. Their presentation covered the nature and purpose of the regulation system; the areas regulated by CQC; the process of regulation and the standards expected. CQC is keen to focus on the experience of service users and uses information to target poor provision. Its remit includes adult

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social care, the NHS and independent health care, with the aim of identifying and stopping poor quality care. CQC welcomes information on services from relatives, users, LINks, local authorities, safeguarding alerts and self reports.

Questions and discussion included the following:

• The range of inspections – services rather than individual practitioners.

• How CQC maintains confidentiality of information.

• The number of inspectors covering the London region (95 but in the process of recruiting up to 110); and the size of each team (10 - 12).

• How CQC and local authorities share information with each other and the need to speed up this process.

• A welcome from CQC for Islington LINk’s recent Enter & View report on care homes which was praised as an example of helpful and informative work.

• The extent to which CQC covers complaints – it doesn’t investigate individual complaints but will inspect a service more readily if it receives information about particular problems.

• Announced/unannounced inspections – the majority of inspections are unannounced, visits can be during the day, at weekends or at night.

• Inspections of dentists are now taking place.

• How CQC plans to inspect domiciliary care – they are currently looking at the best way of obtaining feedback; considering surveys; visits to people at home; Experts by Experience.

CQC emphasised the importance they place on receiving feedback from service users and welcome all feedback on services.

Workshop 5: Health and Wellbeing Board, Sarah Price – Director of Public Health, LB Islington [There were 12 participants wh o were residents/patients]

The Islington Health and Wellbeing Board is a Statutory Board and a vehicle for strategic coordination of services with the aim of being open and accountable to residents. It has a number of key functions:

• Producing the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment – they want to make this more accessible to Islington’s communities.

• The Board will have to develop a Strategy to address the issues identified through the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment.

• The Board will work in Partnership, involving the NHS (including the Clinical Commissioning Group), Islington Council and voluntary and community sectors.

• It will prioritise resources in a way that will achieve the greatest impact for improved health and social care.

The Board will be a shadow Board for about a year. It is chaired by the Council Leader and includes other Councillors with key areas of responsibility. Departmental

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directors are also represented as is the NHS, Clinical Commissioning Group and LINk. Currently (as it is a shadow Board) it is not a public committee but this is likely to change when it is fully constituted. The shadow Board meets every 8 weeks.

The Islington Health and Wellbeing Board has identified its first three priorities for action:

• Making sure that everyone has a good start in life – focus on the first 21 months from conception to the first birthday and working across services in a more integrated way.

• Managing long term conditions – high percentage of residents in Islington have long term conditions such as high blood pressure and diabetes and the Board has identified as a priority working more effectively across services and ensuring that people get good care at the right time.

• Mental Health – the borough has a very high percentage of residents who experience mental health issues and the priority is to help and support people to manage their day to day problems, including through effective case management and preventive services such as those for alcohol misuse.

The priorities will be evaluated after a year to assess achievements etc.

Summary of the Workshop Discussion

One of the strengths of the Health and Wellbeing Board is that it crosses health and social care functions and it should help to promote better coordination and integrated services.

The LINk needs to identify how it can best provide information for the Board on the community’s views on priorities for health and social care. The LINk has a working group on the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment. It is important that there is involvement of local people at an early stage.

In any discussion about managing long term conditions, it is important to include self management – people can manage their own condition if they are given the tools and that includes having the Care Pathway explained to them. What is needed is a leaflet that provides information on how to self manage your condition; the voluntary organisations to contact; and what to discuss with and ask your doctor. It was said that many people are not aware that they have a long term condition but it was agreed that self management and providing information, etc., was a key factor.

There was a discussion about the waste that could result from repeat prescriptions and the need for General Practitioners to regularly check with patients their continuing need for and use of medication.

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Participants raised the need to access other services for long term conditions, such as physiotherapy – trying to access this and associated services could result in a long waiting time. It was said that it was often easier for the doctor to prescribe medication rather than take the time and trouble to give the patient access to a different response.

People living on estates in Islington that are experiencing unemployment, poverty, depression and poorer physical health need to have a voice on the Board. There is a vicious circle of poor housing, poverty and poor health. The Health and Wellbeing Board is to look at the wider issues including housing, training and work to tackle poverty. It was agreed that the issues are all very inter-related.

The structure for the Health and Wellbeing Boards has been developed nationally but is there sufficient flexibility to have voluntary and community sector representation on the Board? It has been agreed to accept the national model for the Health and Wellbeing Board but there will be an event held specifically for the voluntary and community sectors (likely in May 2012) to get their views on how the Board could best engage with organisations. For example, there could be a reference group with representation from different organisations – it would not be appropriate for the sector to be represented by only one person.

One participant felt that patients should have the same ‘weight’ as professionals in the discussions of the Board.

In response to the three priorities, it was asked whether the needs of new migrants and refugees were to be addressed. It was said that, although new migrants and refugees could have serious health issues, these were the same as those in the established communities and would be addressed through the three priorities.

The issue of resources for HealthWatch was raised and the need for the organisation to be sufficiently resourced to do the job that is required. Islington LINk is developing a new database to ensure that it will be able to influence the Board’s debates and decisions more effectively.

It was said that the Health and Social Care Bill will fragment services still further and it is crucial to ensure that this does not increase health inequalities and restrict access to services.

5. Islington LINk Work Plan 2012-13

The LINk work plan for 2012-13 will be available in May 2012.

5.1 Planning process

The LINk bases its work plan on feedback from the local community and other activity taking place in the local community. Feedback from the local community is summarised and then, at the LINk Fair, prioritised. The Core Group then considers

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these priorities alongside the work priorities of the Health Scrutiny Committee, Health and Well-Being Board, the Care Quality Commission (national regulator for health and social care) and local organisations.

5.2 Priorities for 2012-13

For information on the LINk Work Plan of priorities for 2012-13, keep a look out for your LINk newsletter, or on the LINk web-site.

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6. Useful Resources

Council Complaints and NHS Islington Patient Advice and Complaints Service

Islington Council – Customer Services

Customer Services Team Adult Social Services, 4th Floor, 338-346 Goswell Road, EC1V 7LQ By telephone: 020 7527 8046 Email: socialservices.complaints@islington.gov.uk http://www.islington.gov.uk/contact/

NHS Islington – Patient Advice and Complaints Servi ce

If you have a concern, compliment or complaint about a GP, dentist, optometrist or pharmacy, then you should contact them directly. If you need any support to complain or give your feedback then contact NHS North Central London PALS and Complaints service:

Freepost RSSE-SHET-UJTL PALS and Complaints service NHS North Central London 5th Floor, Stephenson House 67-87 Hampstead Road London NW1 2PL

Tel: 020 3317 3003 Opening hours: Monday – Friday, 9am – 5pm Email: pals.ncl@nclondon.nhs.uk

If you have a concern or complaint about a community service such as your local health centre, physiotherapy or podiatry service, then contact: Tel: 020 7288 5551 Email (complaints): whh-tr.whitthealthcomplaints@nhs.net Email (PALS): whh-tr.whitthealthpals@nhs.net

Islington Carer’s Centre

By telephone: 020 7263 9080 Email: islingtoncarers@btconnect.com http://www.islingtoncarerscentre.org/ By post/ in person: 53 Hargrave Road, Unit 1, London, N19 5SH

Alcohol and drugs misuse services.

Islington Drug and Alcohol Action Team (IDAAT) Telephone : 020 7527 3180 Drug and Alcohol Helpline : 08000 66 55 25 Fax : 020 7527 3098 Email: csputeam@islington.gov.uk Address: Room 205, Islington Town Hall, Upper Street, London, N1 2UD

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NHS Islington Stop Smoking Services Call 0800 093 9030 or email smokefree@islingtonpct.nhs.uk. Then NHS Islington can then let you know about your nearest groups, one to one advisors or drop in sessions. We can also answer any other questions you have.

GP Consortia Event report - For the latest information from the LINk on GP consortia developments, request a copy of the LINk’s GP Consortia Event report from February 2011. Available on the LINk web-site: www.islingtonlink.org

Contact the LINk link@vai.org.uk 020 7832 5814 www.islingtonlink.org

Islington LINk Membership Form

Contact details

Title First name Surname

Organisation (if applicable)

Address

Post code Email

Telephone Number

Mobile Number My areas of interest / expertise in health and soci al care are:

Primary Care (eg doctors, dentists, podiatry, eye tests)

Secondary Care (eg hospitals, specialist clinics) Social / Community Care (eg Meals on Wheels/Home Help/District nurse) Residential Care and Nursing Homes Emergency services (e.g. ambulance service) Other (Please state)

I am interested in services for:

Children & Young People

Older People Carers Disabled People People with learning difficulties People with mental health issues Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Other

Data Protection

Any information you have given us here will be treated as confidential. We will not share your contact details unless indicated below.

Please tick the box to share your contact details with other LINk members

How did you find out about the LINk?

Contact the LINk link@vai.org.uk 020 7832 5814 www.islingtonlink.org

Equality monitoring form

We would like to gather monitoring information so that we can understand the diversity of the people involved with the LINk to make sure that we are reaching out to the whole community. We are required by the Department of Health to record this data. You do not have to complete this form.

Please help us by answering these questions:

1. Are you?

Male Female Transgender Transsexual

2. Would you describe yourself as?

White British

White Irish

White Other: please specify

Black British

Black - African

Black – Caribbean

Black – other: please specify

British Asian

Indian

Pakistani

Bangladeshi

Chinese

Other – please specify

3. Would you describe yourself as having a disabili ty?

No

Yes – please describe in your own words:

4. Would you describe yourself as:

Gay man Lesbian woman Bisexual Heterosexual

5. Which age group do you belong to?

Under 18 years 18 to 30 years 31 to 45 years 46 to 60 years 61 to 75 years 76 years & over

6. Do you have a religion or belief?

No

Yes – please specify:

Islington LINk Voluntary Action Islington [Freepost RSEX-KHAA-ZERG] 200a Pentonville Road London N1 9JP Tel: 020 7832 5814 Email: LINk@vai.org.uk www.islingtonlink.org Copyright © Islington LINk 2011