March 2024
The Bangladeshi Women’s Association (BWA) provides residents of Tipton with access information, advice and training, giving all communities the opportunity to feel connected, empowered and confident when it comes to the future and development of their neighbourhoods. The association, which was established in 1984 by a group of women who wanted to meet the social and economic needs of the community, is committed to alleviate inequality, poverty and deprivation in Sandwell.
It is funded by the National Lottery Fund and Sandwell Borough Council, as well as other agencies, and it provides two local venues – Tipton Muslim Community Centre and Jubilee Park Centre. There are a range of activities and services available throughout the week, including a community café, stay and play sessions, Zumba, income support, money management, food banks and support groups.
We attended Jubilee Park Centre to meet with the centre manager to learn more about the centre and to speak to attendees about their experiences.
We learnt that the centre is at the heart of the local community when it comes to accessing support and services that help improve residents’ health, wellbeing and happiness. The centre is heavily supported by volunteers, and it is important that these volunteers are developed, that the centre remains open, and that other stakeholders within the community, fitness and health sector work together to share resources and help local residents.
When speaking to attendees, we heard from two women who have hearing impairments and require hearing aids. One said that she had to travel to Birmingham for her hearing aids, and the other shared that she had to take two buses to Brierley Hill to get her hearing aid checked. She said that this is too far to travel and that somewhere more local was needed for checks to be performed.
Another attendee, who was blind, shared her experiences of accessing health services. She requires a family member to be present at all her medical appointments and, when talking about GP access, she said that it can take up to an hour to get through to her practice over the phone.
We heard some positive experiences of treatment received at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley, and we also exchanged details with an attendee who works for Sandwell Council, promoting a six-week course that provides support for people with learning disabilities and autism.
Following this visit, we will be arranging a further meeting with BMA to have a more in-depth conversation with the centre manager and volunteers.
The European’s Welfare Association (EWA) supports people from across Europe whose first language is not English. They support people with a range of services, including welfare rights, accessing identification, resettlement, applications, registering with primary care services, English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses, and accessing food banks.
We went to speak to EWA about some of their insights from working with such a diverse group of people, and some of the feedback they have received around health and care services.
One area they touched upon was the use of interpreters at mental health appointments. They explained that when someone has an interpreter present at a mental health appointment that lasts 45 minutes, a lot of that time is spent interpreting, checking and understanding the conversation. This means that patients will only have around 20 minutes of communication with the therapist, which doesn’t provide enough time to get into deeper discussions. Patients have a different interpreter each week, which makes it hard for them to build a trusting relationship with them, and they often feel that some of the information is miscommunicated or overlooked, as interpreters aren’t medically trained or assessed in their medical understanding.
They also spoke to us about GP access, sharing that refugees and migrants find it difficult to get registered to GP practices in Sandwell as they rarely have all of the documents needed (a passport, immigration status and NHS number). This means that they usually require the support of an advocate.
One patient had recently had a mastectomy, but it took her three months to get registered with a GP due to not having the documents needed to finish the registration. EWA explained that she received no treatment or medical supervision for her breast cancer during this time. They also shared the issues they have experienced at one practice, where they often have to support people getting registered. They said that there’s confusion over the procedures, and although they have managed to get some patients registered, it has taken them around several months.
This was an insightful conversation into some of the barriers faced by the people EWA support. We have shared the feedback received about translators and mental health appointments to Community Connexions, a patient and public engagement programme in the Black Country, as a priority in addressing health inequalities.
Canal & River Trust has been supporting Bilston Urban Village (BUV) Medical Centre to set up a weekly walk where patients are invited to join them for an hour along the canal towpaths.
We met with the walk leader and care coordinator at BUV Medical Centre and Active Black Country’s community connector at one of their walks, which was hosted by Canal & River Trust. They introduced us to the walking group, who we spoke to about general health matters, BUV Medical Centre and the proposed new health and wellbeing facility.
Most people that we spoke to were in support of the new build for the health and wellbeing facility and are excited make the most of the state-of-the-art facilities. There was, however, some skepticism over the build and how long it is taking to progress. We were told that there were newsletters informing people of the build and a public event a year ago, but that nothing has happened since then. One walker who volunteered to host the public event at Burt Williams Leisure Centre, shared that the event was not attended and that there was very little interest.
Some of the attendees mentioned the car parking at BUV Medical Centre. They shared that the car park is often full and that they have to park at Morrisons, so they suggested that more car parking spaces at the centre would be welcomed.
We spoke to two attendees about the walks and what they have gained from them. One of the walkers was from Ghana, works in a hospital, and was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes a year ago. He is trying to be healthier and found out about the walks from a care coordinator at the centre – he now comes along every week on his lunch break. The other walker we spoke to was retired and lives on his own nearby. He said that coming to the walks is the only time he speaks to people face-to-face during the week, which has lifted his mood and gives him something to look forward to.
The feedback received from this conversation has been shared with the communications and involvement team for the Bilston new build and we are planning on attending another walk at the end of May.
Thursday 14 March was Social Prescribing Day and, to celebrate, Just Straight Talk and Pom-Poms 4 Loneliness ran an event at Jack Newell Court in Coseley, where they run two weekly groups on a Thursday – a coffee morning from 10am – 12pm and a Warm Welcome space from 12pm – 2.30pm.
The event was open to the 45 residents who live at Jack Newell Court and members of the wider community who wanted to come along, have some refreshments, find out about local clubs, and meet professionals who were there on the day to promote their services. We heard that having these events helps to increase resident and community awareness of what’s available locally to help support their health and wellbeing.
During the event, we spoke to the staff at Jack Newell Court, who shared that they work Monday to Friday, 9am – 5pm. They said that they need to have an onsite presence during these times, but due to limited staff, they don’t have as much presence as they would like. They would welcome more support to help with activities during and outside of their working hours.
At the moment, Just Straight Talk is the only organisation that delivers activities at Jack Newell Court, which was endorsed by a wellness coordinator at Dudley Council who supports eight schemes across Dudley. They shared that the biggest challenge they face is knowing what’s out there for residents to access and filling their time with positive activity. They believe that having more activities available across the week will help residents and the local community improve their health, wellbeing and happiness.
Following this conversation, we have put Dudley Council’s wellness coordinator in touch with the council’s community development worker to offer additional support for Jack Newell Court, and we will be keeping in touch with the wellness coordinator for future community conversations. We have also contacted Just Straight Talk to find out how we can help them with additional activities to support residents’ health and wellbeing.
Friends of Dartmouth Park is a group that supports making Dartmouth Park in West Bromwich a high-quality, accessible, safe, attractive and welcoming heritage park that contributes to the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the community. The group currently has over 200 members that are supporting with the park’s regeneration project.
Some of the park improvements the group have developed include a water play area, a new bandstand, “no-mow” areas to help support wildlife, and a sensory garden. They also support Black Country Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust with the running of their “Let’s Talk” walks to help improve mental health.
We went to speak to the treasurer of the group and some of the visitors to learn more about the park and to hear their experiences of health and care services.
During our visit, we spoke to a visitor who has moved back to England after living abroad for 40 years. She had positive feedback to share about the NHS but said that she found it hard to navigate. She wasn’t aware that she could access physiotherapists and social prescribers until her GP referred her, and she currently speaks to her social prescriber once a month. She shared that this has improved her health and introduced her to new information and services, but she would like the appointments to be more frequent. We were asked if different NHS roles could be advertised more widely, and we have passed that feedback on to our communications team.
We also spoke to another visitor who has learning needs and has been living in supported accommodation for 15 years. He explained that his support worker helps him with getting GP appointments, reading letters and making phone calls, and that he feels lucky to have this help and support. He spoke highly of the NHS, and he told us how much he liked the sensory garden in the park. This experience contrasted with another visitor we spoke to, who currently receives no help and struggles with technology. He felt that, due to his age, it is too late for him to learn and improve his skills.
The treasurer of the group shared that they need more volunteers to help with gardening across the park and has welcomed anyone who is interested to meet them on a Monday or Friday, 10am – 12pm at the wooden building.
Hub for Grub supports people with food parcels across Wolverhampton. The organisation is hosted by St Alban’s Church at Ashmore Park every Friday. Between 12pm and 2pm they cook a community meal using ingredients which would have otherwise gone to waste, and people are invited to pay what they can afford for it.
We visited St Alban’s Church during their coffee morning, where they had affordable second hand clothes and refreshments for local people, to talk to them about Hub for Grub.
They shared that, every week, Hub for Grub helps hundreds of people who can’t afford food. The local community welcomes them at the church, and they feed many local families with tinned and dried food, bread and locally grown vegetables.
They said that the cost-of-living crisis has led to more people struggling to pay their bills and buying less healthy foods because they can’t afford the same standard of living as they could a couple of years ago, adding that they often hear people making difficult choices on what they should be spending their money on.
We shared information about our next Wolverhampton People Panel, and we asked the church to share the details with any attendees who were interested in having a conversation around health and care.
April 2024
4 Community Trust is a community interest company that serves Dudley and Sandwell communities. It works to drive and bring positive change to Sandwell, providing four key services that form the foundation of their community support:
- Childcare – providing before and after school clubs, holiday clubs, and holiday activities and food (HAF) camps.
- Community support – providing Welcoming Spaces, J's Pantry and a community centre. Their programs aim to strengthen social bonds, promote inclusivity, and enhance the wellbeing of residents by providing various forms of assistance, resources and services. This includes educational initiatives, social services and health programs.
- Emotional wellbeing – providing Lego, music and art therapy to develop emotional wellbeing. These sessions aim to support the development of emotional vocabulary and emotional awareness in children, encouraging them to express their thoughts and feelings through a variety of different mediums and in a way that is comfortable to them.
- Special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) – providing SEND Short Breaks and care during the school term holidays. The Sandwell HAF programme invites all children and young people that live or go to school within the Sandwell Borough to join in with fun activities and learn new skills during the Easter, summer and winter holidays.
We attended their Hub in West Bromwich to speak to the group who manage and coordinate the hub, and to find out more about 4 Community Trust.
The group shared that the Hub was previously an unused building, which they took over in June 2021. It was reopened in October 2021 and is now a ‘Places of Welcome’ space that has several community activities taking place daily.
The Hub aims to provide a warm and safe place where people are welcomed and supported regardless of their current situation. We saw this first-hand during our visit, as South Staffs Water’s Community Engagement Team were present and available to provide advice and speak to the public about their concerns around paying bills, switching to a water meter and saving money.
4 Community Trust have asked us to keep in touch with them about any upcoming networking and funding opportunities that would benefit their work, and we have contacted them about our upcoming People Panels. They also asked for support in contacting healthcare professionals and other support agencies who could potentially support their Hub.
The Hope Project is a programme that runs from New Hope Baptist Church in Coseley. It was designed to positively impact the wellbeing of the local community, and it has five distinct programmes that work to support those in need in different ways.
We went to speak to the church about the project and the services they provide. We learnt that the church has a parish nurse employed part time to give blood pressure and health checks through Parish Nursing UK, and that The Hope Project has a domestic abuse support group.
The church explained that they are registered as a “Restored Beacon”, which means they provide a safe refuge for abuse survivors. The support group meets weekly on an evening, and people are invited through a coffee morning that isn’t actively promoted to protect the initial conversations and to provide discreet support for people experiencing domestic violence.
The group works through a programme that addresses misunderstood or misinterpreted scripture in the Bible, as they explained that scripture is often weaponised and used to keep wives in abusive relationships. The church recognises that one in four women experience domestic abuse and that this applies to church-goers too. They shared that there are currently six women on the programme, which is self-funded by the church.
They shared a couple of experiences with us, which explored how mental health can impact abusive behaviour and how therapy can help couples to overcome this, and how some places of worship encourage darker practices of abusive behaviour, which has led to women and families needing to be relocated for their safety.
We have arranged to attend a future coffee morning at the church in June.
We joined Aspiring Futures for their Feel Good Friday group at The Clarendon in Wolverhampton. The group meets once a week and was organised by one of Aspiring Futures’ therapists. We attended to speak to the group about their health and care experiences, which saw themes across primary care access, pharmacy services, transport, wellbeing, autism and hearing impairments.
Some of the key feedback we received on primary care access was around attendees struggling to get appointments, with one attendee waiting several weeks for an appointment to be assigned to an orthopaedic specialist after breaking his foot. We were also informed of the ‘task to the doctor’ tool by another attendee, which receptionists use to ask GPs a question or pass on a message. This means that appointments aren’t always required, which saves time for both the patient and the GP.
Several of the attendees shared that they have issues with pharmacy services, particularly around ordering prescriptions. They spoke of only being given half of their prescriptions, not being given replacements and feeling that their pharmacy is “overwhelmed” when they revisit to resolve the issues. One attendee shared that when they contacted their pharmacy’s manager following issues with an incorrect prescription, they received no response and ended up moving to a new pharmacy where they have had no problems.
Two carers who were in attendance also shared their experiences. One cares for her son, husband and mother and suffers with her own health, which she said gets pushed aside due to not having time to go to appointments or not having anyone to help. The other carer explained that she cares for her mother who is deaf and losing her sight. She shared her struggles with getting an interpreter to attend her appointments and said that the interpreters they have had haven’t always been easy to understand, which has left her mother distressed in the past. She said that she feels disappointed that not more nurses and GPs know how to communicate using British Sign Language.
We also learnt a lot about autism during this visit, as a number of the attendees have children who are autistic. They feel that autistic people should be seen as a priority to reduce the risk of long waits and meltdowns, which can cause anxiety and distress when they are ill.
All of the attendees that shared their experiences of hospital visits and treatment were given the details to the relevant Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) teams.
The Adult Voice and Choice Forum is a co-production forum that was created to identify areas for improvement within social care and to codesign solutions with lived-experience consultants. The forum was established six months ago and is led by two participation officers for the City of Wolverhampton Council. They meet once a month and have a consistent group of attendees that have a variety of health and care needs.
We were invited to attend to have a broad discussion around health and care, focusing on the NHS website, primary care access, mental health services and autism.
One attendee shared that they had some issues navigating their way through the NHS website when trying to create an online account. They said that information and advice should be clear and easy to follow. This attendee also shared their concerns over primary care access, as they read a report in the news about appointments needing to be made online. They said that they struggle to get an appointment over the phone and that they had to contact NHS 111 the last time they needed medical help.
When talking about mental health services, a couple of attendees mentioned Starfish Health and Wellbeing, a Community Interest Company that worked to support and improve wellbeing through counselling, psychological therapies and community-based support services in Wolverhampton. It is no longer available, and attendees expressed that there needs to be a replacement for this, and that more mental health and wellbeing support is needed in Wolverhampton.
During our visit, the forum also had a discussion on autism. One of the attendees shared that their neighbour’s daughter is autistic and goes to a mainstream school, but that she would like to meet and make friends with other autistic children. Another attendee shared his experience of completing an autism assessment, saying that it was delayed by a year due to him not understanding the paperwork. He got an ADHD diagnosis, but had to start the paperwork again for his autism assessment. A Healthwatch volunteer spoke about autism cafes and advised that Café Royale, Lupo Lounge and K Teas Cakes in Wolverhampton offer autism cafes. We also heard about Friendly Faces, a new start-up organisation that supports people with learning disabilities and autism, and we shared details of Autism West Midlands and Mencap to the group.
Following the conversation, we raised the feedback received on the NHS website with the digital team and escalated it to NHS England. A survey link has now been shared to gather further detail and insights. We also spoke to Public Health about Starfish Health and Wellbeing, who shared that the decision was made due to duplication of services and limited funding. This was explained to the forum.
Places of Welcome offer neighbourhoods a safe and warm place where people can go for a friendly conversation and free refreshments, if and when they need it. There are currently 16 places of welcome across Dudley, which run at varying times during the week.
Springs Church is part of the Place of Welcome network, and they meet on the first Sunday of the month at 10.30am and every other Sunday at 4.30pm. Their doors open half an hour before the service begins to provide free refreshments.
The church offers a number of other activities and groups across the week, including community prayer, a community café, crafts, a community grocery and uniform store, free debt advice, a counselling service, a 11-16 years youth group (every Friday during term time) and a stay and play session for children aged 0-3 and their guardians.
The community grocery store (open every Tuesday, 10am – 2pm and Thursday, 6pm – 8pm) provides an opportunity for local Gornal residents struggling financially to access good quality food at an affordable price. Members have access to grocery items twice a week, and it costs £5 to join for the year, with a £4 payment required for each 20-item shop. They aim to remove the stigma around using a food bank, and everyone who signs up to the membership also gets an interview so that they can offer access to holistic support to help members’ physical and mental wellbeing as well.
We visited the church during their community café (every Monday and Tuesday, 9.30am – 1.30pm), where they offer a range of free refreshments, as well as a selection of cakes for a small donation. We learnt that, while the church has a presence in the local community through their services and activities, they are keen to have more activities and workshops in place to help raise awareness of key health messages. The church is keen to start ‘Tuesday Treats’, a monthly information, advice and guidance session to help achieve this.
Since visiting the church, they have now arranged a Men’s Health Event which will be taking place on Thursday 17 October, 7pm – 10pm. This event will be for men to meet, socialise and hear about health information that’s relevant to them. There will be a barber and chiropodist in attendance, as well as an advanced nurse practitioner who will be performing blood pressure and diabetes checks.
Saltbrook Place is a 58-room scheme that offers accommodation to homeless people in Dudley. They take their referrals from Dudley Council and residents have a dedicated support worker who offers support during their stay.
The support workers arrange weekly meetings with residents to assess any specific needs or barriers that may need addressing, so that residents can be prepared when moving into independent accommodation, and they work with partners and external agencies to get the best outcomes they possibly can for their residents. The support workers can also signpost to other services, such as money and debt, health and wellbeing, voluntary and employment, and alcohol and substance services.
During our visit, we spoke to a life skills worker at Midland Heart about the importance of building their residents’ knowledge, skills, behaviour and confidence when it comes to independent living/lifestyle and looking after their physical and mental wellbeing.
She informed us that residents have a maximum of two years to live in their accommodation, and within this time they must work to improve their behaviours towards substance misuse and maintain the upkeep of their accommodation. Failure to comply with this can result in residents being evicted from their accommodation.
To support this, the life skills worker has created a timetable of events, workshops and activities to support the personal and professional development of their residents. This includes workshops on cost of living, smart shopping and encouraging use and access of communal facilities on the site, such as the laundry room, gym and sports courts. She shared that she would welcome support in finding other stakeholders that are able to deliver workshops and activities for their residents.
Following this conversation, our involvement team have contacted Active Black Country to discuss next steps in providing support, as well as the senior parks physical activity activator for Public Health. Midland Heart’s senior support officer has also been invited to join the Dudley Engagement Group, and to get involved with future communications on the Dudley People Panels.
“What it’s like to be me” sessions
During 2022, Healthwatch Dudley undertook some drop-in sessions at Saltbrook Place for six months during 2022, where the team, including one of our involvement specialists, signposted residents to services and listened to the barriers they have experienced when accessing health and social care. The team also worked with Midland Heart to establish a monthly breakfast club.
Below are some updates on the changes that have been made as a result of these sessions and conversations:
- Residents asked for clearer information to be shared - Saltbrook Place now posts information leaflets through each resident's door.
- Residents expressed concern over managing finances and asked for support – one-to-one sessions are now available for people who require help with budgeting.
- Residents said that more support was needed for mental health issues - Aspire4U are now supporting residents with their mental health. A sensory room has also been made available for residents to relax.
