County Council celebrates ten years of East Sussex 1Space

In the same year that London hosted the Olympics and Curiosity Rover landed on Mars, East Sussex 1Space was launched by East Sussex County Council.

1Space is an online directory with a focus on care, support and wellbeing services for people who live in the county.

To mark the 10th anniversary, the County Council is running a survey until 28 February 2023 that will inform and guide improvements to the site. If you can spare a few minutes, please answer five quick questions telling us what you think of East Sussex 1Space.

Since its launch in November 2012, 1Space has grown from small beginnings of around 700 entries to now include more than 2,000 services.

On 1Space you’ll find information about organisations and groups offering services to East Sussex residents, including:

  • food banks
  • organisations who can help with money and housing issues
  • mental health
  • residential services
  • care in the community
  • activities for the less active
  • support groups, and much more

In November 2021, 1Space expanded to include East Sussex Local Offer services for children and young people with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND).

County Council thanks Homes for Ukraine hosts with payment increase

Residents hosting guests through the Homes for Ukraine scheme are now eligible for an extra £150 a month to help them cope with cost-of-living concerns.

The thank you payment from East Sussex County Council is to help hosts cope with increased living costs this winter and show gratitude to those who have shown continued kindness and generosity.

From October 2022 to March 2023, monthly payments for existing and new hosts with fewer than five guests rise to £500 while those accommodating families of five this rises to £650.

In addition, residents who host for 12 consecutive months and are willing to extend their placements beyond the 12-month period will get a one-off incentive payment of £1,000.

In East Sussex, 529 households are hosting Ukrainian guests, and more host families are desperately needed. More information on hosting and the support available to Ukrainian guests is accessible via the County Council’s website.

 

Competition seeks ideas to improve planetary health in Rother

A challenge has been set to the people of Rother to come up with ideas that can both improve planetary health and bring together people of all ages.

The competition aims to inspire quality connections between different generations by encouraging the mutual sharing of wisdom, knowledge, experience and skills.

The closing date is 2 January 2023, with the best ideas due to be funded.

East Sussex County Council will be holding design workshops in December to give people the chance to work up an idea, meet with others they can work with, seek advice and refine ideas.

Examples of the ideas being sought include:

  • Community allotments where cultivation skills and produce are shared
  • A repair café where a sense of community is developed, and practical skills are handed down to younger people
  • A Tuk Tuk or a trishaw to take older people with restricted mobility around their village, for example to a doctor’s appointment or along the seafront
  • Intergenerational cooking classes using local produce

The competition is being jointly held by the County Council, HAIRE and Rother Voluntary Action.

If you have a great idea and want to see it implemented in Rother or have an idea and would like help in putting together an intergenerational working group, email sue.dunkley@eastsussex.gov.uk by 31 December 2022.

Your email should include: your contact details, the idea with approximate costings, which part of Rother your design is for, and details of your inter-generational group.

County Council makes accessing cost-of-living resources easier with dedicated webpage

Accessing benefits and resources linked with rises in the cost of living has been made simpler following the launch of East Sussex County Council’s dedicated website page.

The ‘Support with the cost of living’ home page brings together key resources in one place to take the confusion out of finding advice, information and support to deal with increasing expenses.

Advice includes how to maximise benefits, tackle concerns around housing, pay essential bills, and gain access to mental health services to ease the worry this winter

The County Council’s ‘Support with the cost-of-living’ page assists people in the following areas:

  • Money, including help with benefits
  • Your mental health
  • Transport
  • Employment and learning
  • Your home

Learning Disability England also has accessible advice about saving money, keeping warm, grants and campaigns on its website.

NHS campaign urges residents to ‘Help Us, Help You’ keep well this winter

Using the right services if you need help, getting your winter vaccinations, keeping active, and having a well-stocked medicine cabinet at home are some of the things that can help you stay well this winter.

Residents are also asked to keep in touch with older neighbours, relatives, and friends that may need a bit of extra help this winter.

To prepare for the expected increase in need for health and care services this winter, NHS Sussex will:

  • Help people get urgent and emergency care as quickly as possible when they need it
  • Increase the number of GP appointments available, and at more times of the day
  • Provide more support to frail people to help prevent them ending up in hospital for care
  • Provide more support to people considered at high-risk of becoming ill to prevent them from getting worse, particularly those with conditions that affect their breathing, heart and blood vessels
  • Prevent more people from ending up in hospital by providing more care at home, or their place of residence
  • Help more people leave hospital quicker when they are well enough to return to their place of residence or go to a more appropriate place to get care

Find out more about the ‘Help Us, Help You’ campaign, along with information and advice about how to keep well this winter.

Additional funding will continue to support the service providing respite breaks for unpaid carers

Unpaid carers across East Sussex will be able to continue benefitting from regular respite breaks after East Sussex County Council agreed to continue supporting the service with additional funding.

The service gives unpaid carers across East Sussex a free respite break from their role by providing a carefully selected and thoroughly vetted volunteer to spend time with the person they care for on a regular basis.

The regular, three-hour respite breaks —­ usually weekly or fortnightly — are delivered by the Association of Carers, which is commissioned by the County Council.

Due to the pandemic, the number of volunteers reduced, and there are a significant number of carers on the waiting list for this service.

As an interim measure, the County Council funded paid support worker time for 12 months to deliver some of these carers breaks while the service worked to rebuild its volunteer base.

The use of paid workers has been very successful in providing breaks to those on the waiting list for a volunteer, particularly in the High Weald, Lewes and Havens areas where volunteer recruitment is a particular challenge.

Additionally, the use of paid workers has enabled the service to support some more complex situations and where there has been reluctance to accept a volunteer, a paid worker has been accepted.

To be eligible for the service, the carer needs to be over 18 and providing substantial levels of care.

Proposals to improve East Sussex cardiology and ophthalmology services

Improvements to cardiology and ophthalmology services in East Sussex – including new cardiac response teams for both Hastings and Eastbourne to ensure people get the specialist care they need straight away, and one-stop ophthalmology clinics – are progressing.

The East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust (ESHT) Board considered summaries of the decision-making business cases (DMBCs) for both cardiology and ophthalmology at its meeting on 11 October, and subsequently endorsed the proposals.

Full DMBCs and all other supporting information will go to the NHS Sussex Integrated Care Board (ICB) on 2 November for its decision.  All the documents are now publicly available to read and specific documents can be downloaded at the cardiology and ophthalmology home pages.

The proposals, and the ICB decision, will then be reviewed by the East Sussex Health Overview and Scrutiny Committee on 15 December.

Ophthalmology

For ophthalmology, the proposal is to improve care by consolidating the services currently provided at Eastbourne District General Hospital, Bexhill Hospital and Conquest Hospital into two sites at Eastbourne District General Hospital and Bexhill Hospital.

This would enable patients to have quicker access to tests and treatment and more input from the most senior clinicians. It would also enable one-stop clinics, reducing the number of appointments patients need to attend.

Cardiology

For cardiology, the proposal is to improve care at both the Conquest Hospital, Hastings and Eastbourne District General Hospital (DGH) by creating new cardiac response teams at the front doors and in the emergency departments (EDs). This would ensure that people are assessed quicker, when they first come into the hospital, meaning they would start receiving specialist care straight away.

In addition, the proposal also includes concentrating the most highly specialised cardiac services, needed by just 3% of the cardiac patients our services see each year, at one or other hospital site.

Find out more about the proposals to improve cardiology and ophthalmology services in East Sussex.

Carers Reviews will continue to be delegated to CftC through to 2025

A Carer Reviews pilot project between the Adult Social Care Team and Care for the Carers (CftC) will continue for the next three years after the project was found to provide an overwhelmingly positive experience for carers.

Carer Reviews are used to better understand the impact of the caring role on the carer’s life and their own health and wellbeing.

Normally undertaken by Adult Social Care as a statutory requirement, the project piloted reviews being undertaken by CftC, the Carers Centre for East Sussex.

The pilot project found that:

  • carers felt the process was smooth and well organised
  • having CftC as the single point of contact for reviewing their needs as a carer worked well
  • needs could be met in a timely, co-ordinated and responsive way and they could receive the support they need when they most needed it

The extension follows an assessment of the service among a random sample of carers who had received Reviews since the pilot began.

The pilot project followed a workshop on Reviews that identified how some Carer Reviews were not being routinely completed.

‘Living Well in East Sussex’ survey to inform adult social care plans

Together with its residents and partners, East Sussex County Council is developing a long-term plan, its strategy, for adult social care.

This will set the direction of adult social care for everyone who has — or will have — care and support needs within the county, the projects and services that support them and their carers and families.

The ‘Living Well in East Sussex’ survey, which ran in August and September, was the starting point for the strategy, and almost 500 people completed it.

According to the survey, residents are concerned about the cost of living; isolation or connection with others; not having enough care, support or adaptations in their home; and accessible services, facilities, and information.

Key themes to residents living a ‘good life’, highlighted by the survey, are:

  • having enough money
  • connecting with friends, family and neighbours
  • their home
  • having hobbies or volunteering
  • being active and looking after themselves

The survey responses are being reviewed, and feedback will help organisers plan discussions at a range of focus group events during the next two months.

A big ‘thank you’ to everyone who completed the survey and all of the County Council’s partners who helped promote and share the news about it.

Talks with East Sussex Adult Social Care staff, independent sector care providers, NHS colleagues and wider stakeholders will follow in the new year, informed by what people have said are their priorities via the survey and the focus groups.

Latest equality survey wants to learn about you to aid service delivery

Refreshed ‘About You’ equality surveys have been launched by East Sussex County Council to ensure its policies, services and activities are fair, accessible and inclusive to all members of staff and service users.

Confidential data collected through the equality monitoring surveys help the County Council understand who accesses its services (or not) and how experiences vary among the county’s different groups and workforce.

The County Council uses the answers from the surveys to:

  • Identify trends or gaps to compare the response with local population data, and review access to and outcomes of services
  • Ensure barriers to a service are removed, including holding meetings in an accessible venue or providing all written information in advance
  • Identify where there is a need for action, define what action is needed, implement it and then monitor whether it achieves the desired improvement