Your service, your say:- "Ambulance service ask public to shape its future"

WOULD you like a say in how your ambulance service is run? Could you represent the views and needs of your community?  Do you have ideas to improve the service? If so, the North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust (NWAS) wants to hear from you!

As part of the organisation’s bid to become a foundation trust, NWAS is hosting a series of road show events across the region where people can meet them, find out about how the service is changing and sign up as members to influence the trust’s future changes and development.

The road shows are running until the end of March 2011. Local residents are invited to meet ambulance staff at The Family Life Centre, Ash Street, Southport, PR8 6JH on 3 March 2011, from 5.30pm. There will be free sandwiches and refreshments for anyone attending.

In addition to providing information about their foundation trust application, ambulance staff will be on hand to showcase basic life support skills such as CPR, how to recognise an unconscious person, managing blood loss, the recovery position and operating a life-saving defibrillator.

Chairman of NWAS, Mary Whyham said:- “We’d like to invite everyone to our road show events so people can find out more about what we do, our future plans and to pick up some vital life-saving skills.  Please get involved, have your say and help to shape the future of your ambulance service.  Foundation trust status will give us the financial and operational freedoms to make the best possible use of resources in the current and future climate.  Becoming a foundation trust will not only give us the right platform from which to deliver our future vision, building on our excellent service delivery and quality of care, but will also involve local people in decision making and improve accountability.  We feel that providing our communities, staff and partners with the opportunity to be more involved in shaping the future of our services, is key to our success.”

Foundation trusts are still part of the NHS and are subject to NHS standards, performance ratings and systems of inspection. They operate according to NHS principles, free care, based on need and not ability to pay. The difference with a foundation trust is that it is run locally, with local people as members, having a say in how they wish their services to be developed.

Findings from the consultation will form part of the trust’s application to become a foundation trust, which will be assessed by independent regulator Monitor.

To find out more about the trust’s road shows, give your opinion or become a member, visit nwas.nhs.uk.

Liverpool residents urged to foster!

LIVERPOOL City Council is joining forces with 22 other local authorities across the North West for the first ever You Can Foster week.  In Liverpool, there will be a coffee morning on Wednesday, 2 March 2011, at Sefton Park Community Centre on Croxteth Drive, L17 3AG and from 10am until noon, people will be able to come and meet foster carers and fostering teams and find out more about whether it is right for them.

The week forms part of the You Can Foster campaign, which has recently been on TV screens and radios stations with the hope to find 150 new foster carers across the region by June 2011.

It stars real carers, including Liverpool's Brenda Walcott, with the message that there is no 'typical' foster carer.  So far over 2000 enquiries have been received across the north west.

Councillor Jane Corbett, Liverpool’s cabinet member for children's services, said:- "Every child has a right to a loving, happy and safe family environment.   That's why providing a home for a young person who cannot live with their own parents is one of the best things you can do.  We need to find happy homes for children of all ages. I hope our campaign will encourage many more people to come forward."

A suitable applicant can be anyone in their 20s upwards, single, renters or homeowners, married or living together, in same sex or mixed sex relationships or with or without their own children.

Chris Williams, Chair of the North West Fostering Forum, said:- “So far the campaign has been successful and over 2000 enquiries have been received. The real task is now converting these enquiries into actual foster carers and making sure we find 150 carers for the children who really need them.  By holding a full week of events across the region we’re giving more people the opportunity to come forward and find out about how they can make a difference to a child’s life.”

For more information visit:- youcanfoster.org or call the freephone number on:- 0800 634 7052.

The campaign is being supported by the North West Improvement and Efficiency Partnership.