1. Bath and North East Somerset
September Issue 6
This issue’s Top Topics
Introduction
Update on Transformation Plans
You Said, We Did
Feel The Difference Fund
Friends and Family Test
Take our survey about our proposed health and care portal
Introduction
Welcome to the September edition of the Bath and North East Somerset Citizens Voice – your Citizens’ Panel newsletter. You are receiving this newsletter because you have signed up to be a member of the Bath and North East Somerset Citizens’ Panel. The newsletter will also give up to date information on progress that has been made in transforming health and social care in our area.
Update on Transformation Plans
Please see attached update

2. Friends and Family Test (FFT)
Service users who receive our services are asked if they would recommend us to their family and friends if they needed similar care or treatment. This is called the Friends and Family Test. During July and August 97% of respondents said they would recommend our services.
Sample quotes:
Adult Bladder and Bowel Service
I was treated with great tact and sensitivity. I was made to feel relaxed, there were no embarrassing moments. Very good and sound advice.
Health Visiting, Chew Valley
All the Health Visitors are very helpful and friendly. They are always willing to listen to any queries and give helpful advice.
Social Care, North East Somerset
Kind, thorough, diligent, compassionate care
You Said We Did
You Said We Did is a national Virgin Care programme that provides local evidence of how service user and carer feedback feeds into service improvements.
Examples:
Complex Health Needs Service
You Said: You wanted information in accessible formats
We Did: We gave advice to the District Nurses on their tissue viability / pressure ulcer leaflet and updated the Complex Health Needs Service leaflet.
Children’s Audiology
You Said: A recent families survey conducted by our service identified that families would like text or phone reminders a few days in advance of their appointments.
We Did: Our admin team now routinely telephones families a few days in advance of their appointments as a courtesy call to remind them.
Ambulatory Care
You Said: You would like a confidence-building exercise group to help you manage your falls better.
We Did: We set up a pilot group to see if this would be of benefit to our service users.

3. Feel The Difference Fund
Each year Virgin Care sets aside £100,000 to fund projects designed, developed and implemented by colleagues delivering services across the country, as part of our commitment that everyone feels the difference. The Citizens’ Panel votes on the B&NES applications monthly.
July
There were no successful applications in July
August
Lego Therapy for the Complex Health Needs Service
Back in January the Feel The Difference Fund Panel accepted an application from the BANES Paediatric Speech and Language Therapy Service to fund resources for lego-based therapy for children with autism and other communication difficulties. After seeing the success of the therapy with children, colleagues in the Complex Health Needs Service at St Martins Hospital have also succeeded in gaining funding for the evidence-based programme, this time for adults with autism and other learning disabilities. The programme intends to improve social communication, positive interaction and multi-sensory learning for users in a fun and creative way.

4. What do you think about our proposed health and care portal
What do you think about our proposed health and care portal? Take our survey and let us know.
Virgin Care are committed to working with our partner health and social care providers across Bath and North East Somerset to deliver on our vision of the service user only having to tell their story once. Part of our strategy to help us deliver this vision is the introduction of one BANES health and care record, which will take relevant service user information from all the different health and care systems across BANES, eg GPs and community services, to allow health and social care staff to deliver joined up service user care. One BANES health and care record will allow service users to view a limited set of their own records via a secure health and care portal.
A health and care portal is a secure, online website that gives service users convenient, 24 hour access to personal health and care information from anywhere with an internet connection. Using a secure username and password people will be able to view health and care information, which could include notes of recent doctors visits, discharge summaries, medications, care plans etc.
We need your help in designing the portal to ensure it works as well as it can and is as user-friendly as it can possibly be. We are consulting with our service users, GPs, children and young people, the general public and our third sector colleagues but we also wanted to know what you think.
Please complete the enclosed survey.
If you want more copies or an easy read version of the survey then contact Martha.   
Want more information?
If you would like more information about anything mentioned in this newsletter, if you have any ideas about items we could feature or have any feedback about the Citizens’ Panel then please contact Martha Cox, B&NES Engagement Lead on or
Website
Have you had a look at our website recently?
You will find more information about what we are doing on there.