Swansea
Leader Issue 98
July 2015 inside
Newspaper of the City and County of Swansea
your city: your paper
Air show The lowdown on our summer highlights plus
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City centre • BREAKFAST TIME: The council and schools across the city are pulling out all the stops to continue to provide breakfasts to city primary school youngsters every morning from September. More on page 9. Picture by Jason Rogers
PIONEERING residents are joining forces with the council to help make a difference in their communities for those who need a little extra help to make the most of their lives. Residents in three areas of the city have been working with the council to help appoint local area coordinators to support people in their neighbourhoods stay healthy, safe and happy. The initiative has already kickedoff with three co-ordinators appointed in Gorseinon and Loughor, Sketty and in St Thomas and Bonymaen, communities in the east of the city. The project is being funded and supported by the council’s prevention fund which encourages residents to work together to look after each other, build on personal and community strengths and
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Local pioneers all set to help make a difference LOCAL Area Coordination has delivered results in Australia where it began, and is having a positive impact elsewhere in the UK where it has been adopted. It’s currently being funded by Swansea Council’s Prevention Fund to support people to determine their vision for a good life. Swansea is quite a long way along the road with this process in comparison with other areas in Wales The Institute of Life Sciences at Swansea University will be examining how well the process is working here so that experience in one area of the city can help improve the service in another.
enthusiasms, nipping problems in the bud. Sketty resident Mandy Harvey, who helped get the scheme up and running in her community, is using her ideas and local knowledge to support her local co-ordinator Jon Franklin. She said: “We know that Local Area Coordination has worked in Australia and other parts of the UK. “We want to try it here so that residents become safer and healthier in the way that best suits them, and before people hit the kind of crisis
that needs intervention from Social Services or the health service. “We know we have great communities in Swansea. This work builds on that strength to make sure that everyone stays connected.” All three local area co-ordinators who also Dan Morris in St Thomas and Bonymaen and Gorseinon and Loughor’s Ronan Ruddy were appointed in a unique interview process which included questions from local residents on the interview panel. Part of the co-ordinator’s role is to
work with families, local community groups and others to promote selfsufficiency and local solutions to problems rather than turn to the council or health services as a first step. At the same time they can provide a bridge to formal services like health and social care if they are needed. Prevention is a key strand of Sustainable Swansea - Fit for the Future, the council’s effort to save at least £81m over the coming years. However, the programme is also about improving services by doing things differently. Experience of local area coordination in other parts of the UK and internationally has shown coordinators help vulnerable people like the frail, the disabled and those with mental health needs determine their own goals and plan their own futures with their friends and their communities so they have less need of social care.
Shaping-up for a prosperous future page 5
Keep it out Let’s aim to keep food out of black bags page 7
Feed the bins, not the birds in #tidySwansea page 11