Meeting documents

Apologies were received from Tim Williams.

Members discussed who should be attending the Partnership Board and it was noted that the membership should consist of no more than 15 people eight of which should be service users or carers.  Two representatives of the PB should also sit on the Executive Partnership Board, one of whom should be a service user or carer.  The other would be the Chairman of the Partnership Board.

The Board agreed that whilst the membership may be limited to 15 people, other representatives could be invited from time to time to make an input.

Concern was expressed about the amount of work that could be undertaken by service users on behalf of the Partnership Board.

In this connection Debi Game and Ann Whiteley talked about the work of the ULO (User Led Organisation) in supporting and mentoring service users and carers.  One of their priorities would be working with service users in general and particularly those who become members of Partnership Boards.  Ann said they were meeting with Nadiya Ashraf to discuss how to take this work forward.  Ann also said it was crucial that people knew the reasons why they were attending Partnership Boards, which was to represent the wider organisations and not their own concerns.  Pat Milner said that in many cases, more could be achieved if service users could be part of sub-groups of Partnership Boards, working with people in a good environment.  It was noted the Carers Partnership Board does have sub groups.

It was agreed that Kurt Moxley would put together a suggested membership for the Partnership Board and circulate it for comments.

Action:  Kurt Moxley

All members agreed there needed to be a clear remit for the Partnership Board.  Once the priorities had been identified and a work programme was in place this would give the Partnership Board a definite purpose.

Kurt Moxley circulated a paper containing the objectives of the National Mental Health Strategy which had been put together using the National Strategy and the guidance document behind it. 

The members agreed to look at the document and comment on whether each objective was relevant to the Partnership Board, what services they considered were already in place to cover that objective and what was already being done locally.  This would then be used to put together a local Mental Health Plan.  It was suggested that service mapping would also aid the work on this initiative.

It was agreed that Kurt Moxley would send out the paper to the wider membership, asking for the relevant information to be returned within a specified deadline.  This work would feed into the work plan for the Partnership Board, which would then identify the priorities.

Action:  Kurt Moxley

This item was taken in conjunction with the previous item.

April Brett gave a briefing on ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’.

One of the key objectives in the National Mental Health Strategy is about trying to improve the mental health of the general population, not just those with mental health problems. Five Ways to Wellbeing is a way of promoting positive mental health, to create a population shift towards more positive or ‘flourishing’ mental health. The Five Ways to Wellbeing are:

·           Connect, with people around you, including family, friends and colleagues and neighbours. Building these connections will support and enrich you every day.

·           Be active, by doing form of exercise such as walking or running, and by identifying a physical activity which a person enjoys and which suits their level of mobility and fitness

·           Take Notice, be aware of your surroundings and what you are feeling in order to appreciate what matters to you.

·           Keep Learning, try something new or rediscover an old interest.  Set a challenge which you will enjoy achieving.

·           Give, do something nice for a friend or stranger.  Seeing yourself, and your happiness, linked to the wider community can be rewarding and creates connections with those around you.

April said that this campaign would be promoted to the general population and organisations through the Healthy Communities Partnership from the beginning of April.  Supporting materials and a toolkit were also being produced.  It was noted that District Councils have signed up to this campaign and there will be internal briefings in all organisations to make them aware.  There is also a web page with links through the District Councils and links with Healthy Minds.  Pat Milner asked that it be linked into the County Council website too.

Ann Whiteley asked how this would help carers who may have no choice about their situation.  Dignity in Care was an important national issue but Buckinghamshire was making it local.  There would be more information about this soon.  Dignity in Action day was 1 February 2012.  Kurt Moxley said that Chris Reid was leading on this.

All meetings start at 2.15pm until 4.30pm and will be held in Mezzanine Room 1, County Hall, Aylesbury:

14 March 2012 (Addendum; subsequent to the meeting this date was changed to 21 March 2012)

16 May 2012

25 July 2012

19 September 2012

14 November 2012