The My Life My Choice (MLMC), Community Mentoring Service recently hosted a two day visit from Civil Servants from Minister Kevin Brennan’s Office of the Third Age and Social Exclusion.  

The Minister is leading a piece of work on older people and rural exclusion which the Cabinet Office is doing. It was the rural aspect of the Community Mentoring project that was of particular interest.   The Civil Servants visited the project and connected initiatives, such as the MLMC Complex Care Teams, to see the good practice that is being achieved and to take that back with them to contribute to an updating of the national strategy on ageing, 'Opportunity Age', which they are leading with the Department of Work and Pensions and Department of Health.

  • The visit of four Civil Servants to the new Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health, from Minister Kevin Brennan s Office of the Third Age and Social Exclusion, pictured with Sue Younger-Ross, Manager of "My Life My Choice", left, and Sally Slade, third left, Director of Health & Social Care Delivery. The Policy Advisors for the Social Exclusion Task Force are: Jenny Leadley, second left; Tim Crosier, third right; Allison Smith, and Tom Stafford from DEFRA

On their first day they attended a focus group of older people from the Upstream project and Devon's Senior Council at the new Cullompton Centre for Health. After a healthy lunch provided by the Health Centre Café, Director of Health and Social Care Delivery Sally Slade chaired the next session, with presentations from Gary Patch, Cluster Manager from the area, Neil McNeill on the MLMC Footcare project, Community Mentoring Project Manager Sue Younger-Ross, Mentor Providers from Time for Life2 Sue Howell-Richardson and Simon Goodenough, and Mentors from the Sahara Black and Minority Ethnic Elders Project, Mahi,  Asif, Fakhira, Chiu, Musarat and Tony, led by Brenda Laker and Fiona Hutton. These illustrated some of the challenges and some of the solutions older people in rural areas have worked on with the mentors, and how this has changed their lives.  

Policy advisors meeting upstream staff

  • Policy Advisors for the Social Exclusion Task Force Jenny Leadey, left; and Allison Smith, second left, talking to Sally Slade, second right, Director of Health & Social Care Delivery, and Sheila Scurr, right, of Tiverton, and Hazel Bridge, of Crediton, both of the Upstream Group, during the visit of four Civil Servants to the new Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health, from Minister Kevin Brennan s Office of the Third Age and Social Exclusion.

Afterwards some of the Civil Servants visited a mentored group activity arranged by Upstream and others interviewed Assistant Director for Health and Social Care Delivery Jan Ingram. The rather complicated arrangements for the day at the Health Centre were efficiently and hospitably pulled together by Maggie Waltho and her team at the Centre. Later that evening, Executive Director David Johnstone discussed with the visitors the strategic context of ageing in a rural county.

Policy officers meet Senior Council members

  • Policy Advisor for the Social Exclusion Task Force Tim Crosier, left; and Tom Stafford, from DEFRA, talking to Barbara Starkiss, right, and Pam Partridge, both Senior Council members, during the visit of four Civil Servants to the new Culm Valley Integrated Centre for Health, from Minister Kevin Brennan s Office of the Third Age and Social Exclusion.

On their second day they met Jill Smith, Director of Health and Social Care for the Northern Devon Healthcare Trust. They then visited the Community Hospitals at Torrington and Bideford, where they were hosted by Nikki Kennelly, Cluster Manager and Assistant Director, and met with further members of the Senior Council, members of the Complex Care Team and voluntary sector representatives.
Councillor Humphrey Temperley shared his views as an elected member with them, and they met Community Hospital and Care Direct Plus staff.  A visit to the TorrAGE centre, where the voluntary sector team presented their work rounded off the picture.

Sue Younger-Ross, Project Manager for the Community Mentoring project said, “We were delighted that the Civil Servants from Minister Kevin Brennan's office came to visit us and we hope that they found it very interesting and worthwhile.  It was very rewarding to be able to show them the good work that the project is doing alongside the wider structure changes in health and social care, and how quite simply people’s lives have changed for the better. They also met a number of staff, voluntary sector representatives and local older people resident in rural areas who were able to share their views with them. We hope that this will contribute to the work of understanding the lives of older people in rural areas which the Cabinet Office is undertaking.”