Welcome to the latest entry of our Joint Working Journal! It’s a busy time for us all in West Glam and beyond as we move into the new financial year. This transition also signifies the start of spring and it’s fair to say we’re all eagerly anticipating brighter skies and warmer days ahead 🌞

This edition of our Journal focuses on the progress of Steering and Advisory Board 2 (SAB2), which met on 23^rd April. SAB2 covers two regional programmes of work – ‘Emotional Well-being and Mental Health’ and ‘Well-being and Learning Disability’.

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Emotional Well-being and Mental Health

SAB2 members received a presentation from programme lead Karen Stapleton on the proposed phased approach to the implementation of the regional Emotional and Mental Well-being Strategy.
The Strategy was developed last year with the aim of exploring a more preventative approach to service provision, emphasising earlier intervention, emotional well-being and stopping or reducing a deterioration in people’s mental health. A high-level implementation plan has been devised with input from a wide range of stakeholders and is split into the following key areas of work:

1. The development of a new joint commissioning model for third sector and not-for-profit organisations. This new model will aim to join-up commissioning and provision of services to support service design around the individual not the organisation, while at the same time providing sustainability to those community organisations.
2. The creation of a workstream around better access to services. Engagement undertaken during the Strategy’s development identified a need to simplify the system through an integrated, cross-sector partnership approach.

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Well-being and Learning Disability

The theme of ‘transport’ is the first priority for the regional Learning Disability Strategy and will be the topic of a forthcoming workshop co-designed with people with a Learning Disability. Transport providers operating within our region will meet with those with lived experience to discuss the challenges and benefits of current provision. We’ll update you on how this went in a future journal entry.

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New Programme of Work!

It was agreed during the SAB2 meeting that Dementia will now become a stand-alone programme within the West Glam governance. Dementia previously sat under a workstream under the wider Emotional Well-being and Mental Health programme, but given its broad reach and detailed remit the decision has now been taken to create a dedicated programme of work.

Representatives from a range of partner organisations attended a workshop on 12th April to steer this area of work, which will include the development of a new Regional Dementia Strategy.

Board members also got the chance to view a brand-new digital story highlighting the great work underway at Swansea’s ‘Dementia Hwb’, which has now extended across the region and is going from strength to strength – take a look! 👀👇

There’ll be more on the work of the Dementia Hwbs in the next edition of our newsletter – keep an eye out for that in May!

Thanks for reading – we’ll be back after the next SAB ☺