Welcome to the Tower Hamlets CVS health and wellbeing bulletin. 

Welcome to the last Health and wellbeing bulletin for 2023. We hope that you are looking forward to restful seasonal break. 

The last few months have been very busy for THCVS supporting events and opportunities to connect with each other through the Connection Coalition, the VCS summit and the Ethnic Minority leaders event 'Silent Struggles'.

The Ethnic Minority Leaders, supported by Tower Hamlets CVS, have been working to shed light on the challenges faced by ethnic minority led organisations in securing funding, leadership roles, and overcoming barriers. Through attending meetings to profile the health inequalities faced by communities in Tower Hamlets, the programme ended the year with a deep dive into the challenges event at Granby Hall. The engaging event brought together VCS ethnic minority leaders and others working to tackle health inequalities. The panel discussions brought together speakers from Hackney and Tower Hamlets to connect the programmes, build on the work and plan for the future.

We hope you will join them to continue this vital and pivotal work in 2024 to continue to influence change for the better. As your voice and experience are essential to this conversation to make more inclusive future. The leaders are keen to connect with like-minded professionals, community leaders, and passionate individuals in order to expand your network and collaborate for meaningful change. For further information, contact info@thcvs.org.uk.

THCVS has been working with the Integrated Care System to develop the NEL VCS collaborative to support the sector to develop partnerships across North East London to address health inequalities. We are hoping to get this work happening in 2024 with the support of a Development Director who will be based in Tower Hamlets with the CVS, so that you are able to connect and support the new ways of working and opportunities we hope to build.

Working towards tackling health inequalities

Health inequalities are unfair, avoidable and systemic differences in people’s health outcomes across the population and between different groups. The term can also refer to the differences in the care that people receive, and the opportunities that people have to lead healthy lives – both of which can influence health outcomes.

North east London Integrated Care System have developed an e-learning resource that includes information on some of the approaches to tackle inequalities, and the action you can take in your sector and level of influence. Click here to read 'What are health inequalities' - North East London Health & Care Partnership.

The NHS integrated Care System would like to strengthen the involvement of the voluntary, community and faith sector in tackling health inequalities if you would like to find out more. Please sign up here.

We would like to highlight these reports from the Kings Fund - 'Transforming power relationships in partnership working' and 'Actions to support partnership: Addressing barriers to working with the VCSE sector in integrated care systems'. 

This report, 'Promoting inclusion: Tackling discrimination through place based action'  is useful when considering working at borough or neighbourhood level. Click here to find out more.

1/ Local Events and Opportunities
2/ Get involved - Have your say
3/ Training and Learning Opportunities
4/ Funding 
5/ Jobs

Tower Hamlets Cost of Living Support Booklets - Now Available

Tower Hamlets Council have produced a helpful booklet that outlines all of the support on offer to help people through the ongoing Cost of Living Crisis. If you attended the Tower Hamlets Inter Faith Forum's Inter Faith Week event, Vincent Wood, Senior Cost Of Living Officer in the Tackling Poverty Team, spoke about support in place for residents, and also mentioned the booklet that was in production. The booklet is now ready to go, including hard copies. It covers issues such as services that help with debt, advice on staying warm, housing, homelessness and mental wellbeing, plus more. 

Please email info@faithintowerhamlets.org if you would like a some hard copies to be sent out to you, with the following information: Organisation, contact name, email address, contact number, delivery address and estimated amount of booklets required

Just Say Hello

Just Say Hello is a new Tower Hamlets campaign about encouraging conversations and connecting with one other, by taking time out to say ‘hello.’ Partners, organisations or members of the community across Tower Hamlets are being invited to use the Just Say Hello resources in their own way.

Having a chat with an old friend or checking in on your elderly neighbour can make a big difference to their wellbeing. Even the smallest gesture can create a meaningful connection for someone, especially if they’re feeling lonely or isolated.

This Campaign is a collaborative piece of work with TH Council, The Connection Collation, Well One, The GP Care Group, Tower Hamlets Together and THCVS. We would really appreciate your organisation’s involvement: Tag your events #JustsayhelloTH

Click here to access the Loneliness Awareness Toolkit - free, customisable Just Say Hello media resources

Save the date: There will be a Connection Coalition event for Tower Hamlets organisations working on social isolation and loneliness on Tuesday 20 February from 9.45am to 1.30pm in Whitechapel. More details and the link to book will be sent out in January. 

Can your setting support the LBTH Severe Weather Emergency Provision? 

Can you provide space to protect some of our must vulnerable residents during cold weather? London Borough of Tower Hamlets (LBTH) is required to provide Severe Weather Emergency Provision (SWEP) during periods of extreme weather. This includes access to emergency accommodation for anyone rough sleeping in the borough when temperatures are forecast to be zero or below, as the threat to life is significant. The Greater London Authority (GLA) activates and deactivates SWEP in line with cold weather alerts issued by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). SWEP is primarily a lifesaving provision but has also been shown to be an effective intervention in ending someone’s rough sleeping, as many people are able to access more stable accommodation as a move on from SWEP.

For Winter 2023-24, concern has increased due to current rough sleeping data showing an increase in numbers due to a variety of factors: September 2023 saw 8% increase from Sept 2022 for number of people seen rough sleeping. October 2023 up 12% on October 2022. The street count in September was the highest in several years at 41.

Projections are suggesting that a prolonged period of SWEP activation would exceed the borough’s current capacity to safely move everyone off the street.

For more information or if you have a building that could support the borough’s SWEP efforts, or can offer support in other ways, please contact Mike Fill, Rough Sleeping Commissioner via mike.fill@towerhamlets.gov.uk.

International Women's Day Award Ceremony

The theme for next year's IWD 2024 celebration is "Inspiring Inclusion," and London Borough of Tower Hamlets would like to use this opportunity to acknowledge the accomplishments and achievements of women in Tower Hamlets.

The Women's Achievement Awards are dedicated to recognising and celebrating the remarkable contributions of women in Tower Hamlets who have excelled in various fields. The awards acknowledge six different categories, which are all open for public nominations

• Women Business Leader of the Year
• Young women of the year
• Unsung Hero
• Women Volunteer of the Year
• Women’s Community Group of the Year
• Women Carer of the year.
  

These awards represent resilience, leadership, and innovation. The event will showcase their accomplishments and provide them with a platform that fosters inspiration, inclusion, and empowerment. This will create more opportunities for female leadership within our communities. 

Please participate by nominating deserving women in Tower Hamlets who have made significant impacts in their respective fields. You can submit your nomination here. The nomination deadline is 19 January 2024.

The IWD 2024 event will be held on Thursday 7 March / 11.00am to 3.00pm at Atrium, 124-126 Cheshire Street, E2 6EJ. Please look out for an invitation through Eventbrite in the new year.

Health Literacy Awareness Training

Tuesday 19 December / 1.00 to 2.00pm

Nationally, 61% of adults struggle to understand health information that contains both words and numbers. In some areas of North East London the figure is over 80% (see Geodata - Health Literacy). This has huge implications for individuals and for our Integrated Care System.

This Health Literacy Awareness training session provides an introduction to health literacy, the impact of low-level health literacy on individuals, and some of the tools, techniques and resources to help support those with limited health literacy. It also provides an opportunity to think about how we can work to improve health literacy at organisational and system levels.

This training is open to ANY colleagues working within the North East London Integrated Care System including primary care, secondary care, acute sector, mental health, public health and voluntary, community and social enterprises (VCSE).

This session will be useful to anyone working in the health and care sector who provides health information to patients and carers or has a responsibility around planning and shaping population health services or reducing health inequalities.

This Health Literacy Awareness training is offered as part of the nationally funded North East London Library & Knowledge Services ICS Study and is provided by a collaboration between NELFT Library & Knowledge Service and Barts Health Knowledge and Library Services.

Click here to book your place.

North East London Employability Programme

This introductory programme is designed to support residents across North East London Boroughs, enabling them to gain essential employability skills in the NHS, and in particular General Practice Primary Care.

Learners will embark on a three week journey where you will learn key skills on becoming a receptionist/administrator in a GP Surgery. You will attend a 5 day classroom based training programme followed by a 2 week work placement in a Health Care setting. What will you learn:

• Customer service skills
• How to deal with Patients
• How to use the Clinical Systems
• Document Management
• Conflict Resolution and much more

For more information and to apply, please email farduse.islam@nhs.net

Foundations in Motivational Interviewing: a focus on Vaccine Hesitancy

Four half days / 9.30am to 1.00pm / Online
Session 1: Monday 15 January , Session 2: Wednesday 17 January, Session 3: Monday 22 January, Session 4: Wednesday 24 January 

In this lively and interactive training you will learn how to have supportive and effective conversations with others about vaccines. You will also learn about Motivational Interviewing in general which can be used in a range of situations and contexts such as; lifestyle changes, substance misuse, long-term conditions and child and family welfare. The 12 hour training will cover:

• What is Motivational Interviewing and how can it be helpful in situations such as vaccine hesitancy
• How to engage with people in conversations around change and considering vaccines
• Active listening skills
• How to identify when someone may be ready to make changes or decide to take a vaccine
• How to share information in a helpful way which supports partnership
• Collaborative change and action planning
• How to manage conversations when there are challenges in engagement or barriers to making a decision about vaccines

On full completion of this training you will get a certificate and the opportunity to complete more advanced training and development in Motivational Interviewing.

*Please note that this training is for staff who have had no previous training in Motivational Interviewing or have not completed training in the past three years. For those who have already completed a 12 hour Foundation Level MI programme in the past 3 years, a 3 hour top up MI programme with a focus on vaccine hesitancy can be offered. Click here to book.

Please contact s.dissanayake2@nhs.net if you have trained in MI and are interested in completing a top up MI programme in Vaccine Hesitancy. 

Please see the THCVS funding page for a full list of funds currently available.

Communications & Media Lead - Cycle Sisters / Deadline 1 January 

Centre Manager – Marie Lloyd Centre – Age UK East London / Deadline 5 January @9am

Community Organisation Development Officer (South) – Locality / Deadline 8 January @9am

Please click here to access our jobs page where you will find more current vacancies within the VCSE sector in Tower Hamlets.